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Title details for The King's Shadow by Edmund Richardson - Wait list

The King's Shadow

Obsession, Betrayal, and the Deadly Quest for the Lost City of Alexandria

by Edmund Richardson
Julian Elfer
Audiobook
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For centuries the city of Alexandria Beneath the Mountains was a meeting point of East and West. Then it vanished. In 1833 it was discovered in Afghanistan by the unlikeliest person imaginable: Charles Masson, deserter, pilgrim, doctor, archaeologist, spy, one of the most respected scholars in Asia, and the greatest of nineteenth-century travelers.
On the way into one of history's most extraordinary stories, he would take tea with kings, travel with holy men and become the master of a hundred disguises; he would see things no westerner had glimpsed before and few have glimpsed since. He would spy for the East India Company and be suspected of spying for Russia at the same time, for this was the era of the Great Game, when imperial powers confronted each other in these staggeringly beautiful lands. Masson discovered tens of thousands of pieces of Afghan history, including the 2,000-year-old Bimaran golden casket, which has upon it the earliest known face of the Buddha. He would be offered his own kingdom; he would change the world, and the world would destroy him.
This is a wild journey through nineteenth-century India and Afghanistan, with impeccably researched storytelling that shows us a world of espionage and dreamers, ne'er-do-wells and opportunists, extreme violence both personal and military, and boundless hope.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 12, 2022

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781666168839
      • File size: 239221 KB
      • Duration: 08:18:22

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from September 1, 2022

      This reads like a historical fiction novel by Michael Chabon, but it is actually the true story of the life of little-known explorer Charles Masson, a storyteller, archaeologist, and spy who stumbled upon impressive adventures and findings after deserting his military post with the British East India Company. Masson adopted a new identity and became fixated on finding the lost city of Alexandria Beneath the Mountains, one of the many cities that Alexander the Great founded on his quest to conquer the world. Richardson (classics and ancient history, Univ. of Durham; Classical Victorians: Scholars, Scoundrels and Generals in Pursuit of Antiquity) interweaves Masson's story of obsession, passionate curiosity, and dedication to discovery with Alexander's own story. Julian Elfer's beautiful narration takes listeners on the road with Masson and other explorers, who converged upon central Asia in the 1800s. Masson was one of the few who recognized and spoke out against imperialism and its consequences at a time when it was very unpopular to do so and paid the price for it by being relegated to historical footnotes. VERDICT A valuable addition any nonfiction collection.--Ammi Bui

      Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Julian Elfer's pleasant British-accented voice and smooth delivery lend themselves to easy absorption of the fascinating story. A British deserter in 1820s India wanders improbably to Afghanistan, obsessed with finding lost cities founded by Alexander the Great. Part of Elfer's talent is to shift his tone subtly to fit the text. Describing foolhardy absurdities early on, he conveys gentle mockery, but when the absurdities grow crueler as Britain invades Afghanistan and treats the locals with disastrous stupidity, his tone morphs seamlessly into something more serious and sympathetic. Richardson leaves out a lot of history that would help listeners unfamiliar with the period, but the engaging aspects of what he does tell, along with Elfer's storytelling skills, result in an interesting and worthwhile audiobook. W.M. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      February 7, 2022
      Durham University classics professor Richardson (Classical Victorians) recounts in this intriguing history 19th-century British explorer John Lewis’s campaign to uncover a lost city in Afghanistan. Sent to India as a soldier for the East India Company in 1821, Lewis walked away from his regiment and eventually settled in Afghanistan. Adopting the pseudonym Charles Masson, he explored the plains of Bagram, collecting thousands of ancient coins, and developing a theory of ancient history that portrayed Alexander the Great and the Greeks as seeking to learn from other cultures rather than destroy them, a view that was in direct conflict with ideas of British imperialism. Masson eventually ran afoul of the British government and the East India Company, and he was imprisoned in 1840 as a traitor and a spy. His hopes of proving that Bagram was the site of the lost city known as Alexandria beneath the Mountains began to fade, and in 1842 he returned to England destitute and ailing. Though Richardson occasionally veers into extraneous minutiae, he spins a colorful tale of adventure and intrigue. This well-researched account restores an explorer to his rightful place in history.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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