Bøger af Mary Kingsley

A Deadly Masquerade Blythe Marden's life is dull and proper. As a lady's companion, she doesn't expect anything different, though inside she longs for more. Then fate takes her into London on a hanging day. She doesn't mean to glance toward the condemned man, but she is drawn to him by a force she can't explain. Suddenly the crowd erupts in turmoil. The man has escaped. But Blythe does not. She is about to be drawn into an unexpected adventure. A Love Unmasked Simon Woodley, unjustly convicted, has felt the noose around his neck. Nothing in his years as an actor has prepared him for such a role. Nor did he intend to force Blythe to join his dash to freedom, but in her he finds an unexpected ally - and lover. Now they are thrust into a drama of mystery, danger and treachery, and only love has the power to end a deadly charade.

They call him the Raven, the most feared pirate to sail the Atlantic, his black cloak swirling about him like the dark mystery that hides his identity. In the days preceding the War of 1812, his pirate ship swoops down on English frigates in tropical seas, and he takes what he wishes. But he meets his match in Miss Rebecca Talbot of Washington. Taken captive while accompanying her beautiful sister on a voyage to London, Rebecca makes a daring bargain. In return for her sister's safety, she will become the Raven's mistress. What happens next stuns them both. Their time together is a revelation, a storm bound by flesh and spirit neither can control. But the day comes when Rebecca and her sister are rescued, and they must say goodbye. Back on land, Rebecca tries to get on with her life, until she hears a shocking bit of news: the Raven is dead. But life still holds surprises for Rebecca, in the person of an unexpectedly attractive man, with secrets of his own. With events building toward war, she have the chance of a future, if she has the courage to grasp it. If she can forget finding love...in a pirate's arms.

Mary Kingsley (1862-1900) is one of the best known Victorian women travellers, whose solo adventures in West Africa made her a celebrity in England. This, her second book, published in 1899, was an instant best-seller. She travelled extensively, engaging in trade both to fund her trip and to get to know the African people, rather than merely observing as an outsider. Some of her views were considered controversial - she opposed the attempts by missionaries to impose European culture on native people, and defended polygamy and even slavery. She opposed direct colonial rule, and wanted Africans to have more self-determination. Her observations and interests are wide-ranging, and she showed an acute and sympathetic understanding of West African culture and society. For more information on this author, see http://orlando.cambridge.org/public/svPeople?person_id=kingma

Mary Kingsley (1862-1900) is one of the best-known Victorian women travellers, whose solo adventures in West Africa made her a celebrity in England. This, her first book, published in 1897, was an instant best-seller. She travelled extensively, engaging in trade both to fund her trip and to get to know the African people, rather than merely observing as an outsider. She brought back quantities of natural specimens, three of which were named after her. On her return to England she was asked to give numerous lectures. Some of her views were considered controversial - she opposed the attempts by missionaries to impose European culture on native people, and defended polygamy and even slavery. Her observations and interests are wide-ranging, and she showed an acute and sympathetic understanding of West African culture and society. For more information on this author, see http://orlando.cambridge.org/public/svPeople?person_id=kingma

Contains important eye-witness accounts by English traders who had many years experience in the Delta area.

A remarkable account by a pioneering woman explorer who was described by Rudyard Kipling as 'the bravest woman of all my knowledge'.Until 1893, Mary Kingsley lived the typical life of a single Victorian woman, tending to sick relatives and keeping house for her brother. However, on the death of her parents, she undertook an extraordinary decision: with no prior knowledge of the region, she set out alone to West Africa to pursue her anthropological interests and collect botanical specimens. Her subsequent book, published in 1897, is a testament to understatement and humour - few explorers made less of the hardships and dangers experienced while travelling (including unaccompanied treks through dangerous jungles and encounters with deadly animals). Travels in West Africa would challenge (as well as reinforce) contemporary Victorian prejudices about Africa, and also made invaluable contributions to the fields of botany and anthropology. Above all, however, it has stood the test of time as a gripping, classic travel narrative by a woman whose sense of adventure and fascination with Africa transformed her whole life. This Penguin edition includes a fascinating introduction by Dr Toby Green examining Victorian attitudes to Africa, along with explanatory notes by Lynnette Turner.Mary Kingsley was born in north London in 1862, the daughter of the traveller, writer and physician George Kingsley and his former housekeeper, Mary Bailey. Her education was scant: while her younger brother Charley was sent away to school, she stayed at home. In 1886 the family moved to Cambridge, where Kingsley remained until 1892, caring for her bedridden mother. Following the deaths of her parents, Kingsley embarked on a voyage to West Africa in August 1893, with the object of studying native religion and law and collecting zoological specimens. In December 1894, she undertook a second trip to the region, during which she became the first woman to climb West Africa's highest mountain, Mount Cameroon. On returning home eleven months later, she wrote Travels in West Africa, which was published in 1897 and was followed by West African Studies in 1899. Kingsley made one final trip to Africa, enlisting as a volunteer nurse in South Africa during the Boer War. She had only been there for two months when she developed typhoid fever and died, on 3rd June 1900, before being buried at sea in accordance with her wishes.Lynnette Turner is Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Edge Hill University. Toby Green is Lecturer in Lusophone African History and Culture at Kings College London. His book The Rise of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in Western Africa appeared in 2011.