REVIEW: The Collector of Worlds by Iliya Troyanov

TITLE: The Collector of Worlds
AUTHOR: Iliya Troyanov
TRANSLATOR: William Hobson
PUBLISHER: Faber & Faber (August 2008)
ISBN: 978 0 571 23946 7 PRICE: A$32.95 (Hardback) 454 pages

Reviewed by Ann Skea (ann@skea.com).
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Richard Francis Burton was as explorer, translator, writer, soldier,
orientalist, ethnologist, linguist, poet, hypnotist, fencer and diplomat. So
says Wikipedia. And if the success of a novel based on the life of an historic
personage is that it makes you want to know more about that person, then, in my
case, The Collector of Worlds, clearly succeeded. Hence the quotation from
Wikipedia.

Iliya Troyanov prefaces The Collector of Worlds with a note that, in following
some of the events of Burton's life, he has not hesitated to depart from or
elaborate on the gaps in the historical record. Nevertheless, if the Wikipedia
entry does not similarly embroider the facts, much of Troyanov's book does give
a fairly close account of Burton's adventures in India, Arabia and Africa.
Burton may not have been coached in the sexual needs of women by a temple
courtesan called Kundalini, but he was certainly guided on his African
expedition to Lake Tanganyika by an African called Sidi Mubarak Bombay. There
is also good historical evidence that he did disguise himself as Mirza
Abdullah, a Muslim merchant, to spy for General Napier in the Indian Sindh,
and, later, as the Persian dervish and doctor, Sheikh Abdullah, in order to
visit Mecca and perform the Hajj. Burton was clearly fascinated by cultures
other than his own, to the extent that he adopted their customs and dress in
order to learn more about them. As an expert linguist, he spoke many languages
fluently enough to pass as a native, explaining his strange accent by posing as
a traveller or a visitor from a distant part of the country. It is also
believed that in order to pass as a Muslim and participate in the Hajj without
being detected, he had himself circumcised.

Burton was clearly an amazing man whose life contained so much unusual,
dangerous, fascinating and often bizarre adventure that Troyanov had plenty of
material for this novel. But it is not just Burton's life we learn about.

In India, where Burton was a young Captain in the army of the East India
Company, we hear from his servant, Ramji Naukaram; and from the Indian scribe
to whom Naukaram tells his story, and who happily invents his own deviations
and elaborations on the historical record.

In Egypt and Arabia, there are other people, other voices and other stories,
all linked with Burton but all presenting him from a different angle. And in
Africa, there is Sidi Mubarak Bombay, a man who has lived three lives and who
now, comfortable and garrulous in his dotage, delights in recounting his many
adventures to his family and friends. Bombay is a wonderful character in his
own right. His accounts of his capture by slave traders when he was a child,
his life in slavery, and his eventual life as a free man and a guide to Burton
and Speke's African expeditions, are amazing and often horrifying tales.

Collector of Worlds is an ambitious book. It is well written, well translated
from the original German by William Hobson, full of interesting characters and
events, and full of information about Burton and the sort of world (or worlds)
in which he lived. I found the account of Burton's experiences on the Hajj
absorbing reading, and I liked the varied ways in which Troyanov captures
Burton's unusual, clever, irascible and fiercely independent character. Burton
truly lived as the passage from his own translation of the Arabian Kasidah of
Hajji Abdu El-Yezdi commands: "Do what thy manhood bids thee do, / from none
but self expect applause; / he noblest lives and noblest dies / who makes and
keeps his self-made laws."; and Troyanov uses this quotation as a preface to
his book.

Troyanov's novel covers three complex and eventful periods of Burton's life, in
three totally different countries. He also weaves together the stories and
voices of many different characters. Overall he does this extraordinarily well
but inevitably, perhaps, there are problems. My first quibble is with the
frequent use of untranslated foreign-language words and phrases. There is a
glossary at the back of the book but it was not comprehensive enough for me.
One untranslated phrase, for example continued to irritate me. It appeared at
the beginning of every chapter devoted to the Indian scribe. Is it an
invocation to certain gods? A traditional Indian letter heading? What?

Inevitably, too, there were times when my interest in characters other than
Burton flagged. Some were minor characters, of no particular interest in
themselves but offering a different view of Burton. But even poor old Sidi
Mubarak Bombay frustrated me when his amiable digressions and chat got in the
way of his account of his involvement in Burton's and Speke's journey, and of
their progress and, as was more usual, disasters.

Nonetheless, Troyanov is an excellent story-teller and he very effectively
brings Burton to life and demonstrates that there was much more to the man and
his life than is generally known. I, for one, will now go and read more about
Burton, and especially, more of his own extensive writing.

Burton's works are freely available on-line as part of Project Gutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/b#a898
Also at Gavan Tredoux's site: http://burtoniana.org/

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Copyright © Ann Skea 2008