The Intriguing Life and Ignominious Death of Maurice Benyovszky

The Intriguing Life and Ignominious Death of Maurice Benyovszky PDF Author: Andrew Drummond
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351623664
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
Published in 1790, Maurice Benyovszky’s posthumous memoir was an instant sensation. A tale of exploration and adventure beginning with his daring escape from a Siberian prison and ending with his coronation as King of Madagascar, it was translated into several languages and adapted for the theatre and opera. This book explores the veracity of this memoir and, more broadly, the challenges faced by the explorers of the age and the brutality of colonisation. The self-styled Hungarian Baron Maurice Auguste Aladar Benyovszky, Counsellor to the Duke of Saxony and Colonel in the service of the Queen of Hungary, was in fact only confirmed to have been an officer in a regiment of the Polish Confederation of Bar. While he did escape from Russian captors and subsequently travel to Japan, Formosa, China and Madagascar, many of his exploits were wildly exaggerated or simply invented. Andrew Drummond reveals an alternative picture of events by looking at statements from Benyovszky’s travelling companions and sceptical officials as well as contemporary documents from the places he claimed to have visited, untangling the truth behind his stories and examining what these stories can nonetheless tell us about the era in which Benyovszky lived. Witty and engagingly written, this book is fascinating reading for anyone interested in eighteenth-century colonial history and the story of early European and Russian explorers.

The Intriguing Life and Ignominious Death of Maurice Benyovszky

The Intriguing Life and Ignominious Death of Maurice Benyovszky PDF Author: Andrew Drummond
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351623664
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Get Book Here

Book Description
Published in 1790, Maurice Benyovszky’s posthumous memoir was an instant sensation. A tale of exploration and adventure beginning with his daring escape from a Siberian prison and ending with his coronation as King of Madagascar, it was translated into several languages and adapted for the theatre and opera. This book explores the veracity of this memoir and, more broadly, the challenges faced by the explorers of the age and the brutality of colonisation. The self-styled Hungarian Baron Maurice Auguste Aladar Benyovszky, Counsellor to the Duke of Saxony and Colonel in the service of the Queen of Hungary, was in fact only confirmed to have been an officer in a regiment of the Polish Confederation of Bar. While he did escape from Russian captors and subsequently travel to Japan, Formosa, China and Madagascar, many of his exploits were wildly exaggerated or simply invented. Andrew Drummond reveals an alternative picture of events by looking at statements from Benyovszky’s travelling companions and sceptical officials as well as contemporary documents from the places he claimed to have visited, untangling the truth behind his stories and examining what these stories can nonetheless tell us about the era in which Benyovszky lived. Witty and engagingly written, this book is fascinating reading for anyone interested in eighteenth-century colonial history and the story of early European and Russian explorers.

The Russian Discovery of Japan, 1670–1800

The Russian Discovery of Japan, 1670–1800 PDF Author: David N. Wells
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136010009
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
During the period of the Tokugawa shogunate’s seclusion policy from about 1630 onwards there was very little European interaction with the Japanese except through the restricted Dutch presence at Nagasaki. During this period, however, Russians exploring Siberia and the Russian Far East came into contact with Japan, and further exploration and information collecting was encouraged by the Russian government, culminating in the first official Russian Embassy to Japan in 1792. This book examines the Russian discourse on Japan in the period, tracing the gradual accumulation of knowledge, and the development of Russian views, sometimes distorted, about Japan. The book includes key historical documents, some translated into English for the first time. The book is a prequel to the author’s previous book, Russian Views of Japan, 1792–1913: An Anthology of Early Travel Writing.

A Quite Impossible Proposal

A Quite Impossible Proposal PDF Author: Andrew Drummond
Publisher: Origin
ISBN: 1788852710
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
By the author of An Abridged History, “a detailed examination of an overlooked chapter in Scotland’s transport history” (The Scotsman). In the 1890s, the people of north-west Scotland grew tired of Government Commissions sent to consider a railway to Ullapool. Despite rock-solid arguments in favor of such a railway, neither government nor the big railway companies lifted a finger to build one. Against the recommendations of its own advisers, the Scottish Office dismissed the project as “a quite impossible proposal.” This book tells the whole sorry tale of the attempt to improve transportation in the north-west Highlands and the resulting government inquiries, set against the region’s economic and social problems and civil unrest in the crofting communities. Stories, facts and figures have been unearthed from the archives of government departments and railway companies, from local people’s letters and petitions, from contemporary newspapers and from the plans prepared for the hoped-for railways. Other unbuilt railways to the north-west coast are also described. But this story is not just about planned railways that were never built. It is about the frustrations of the people of the Highlands in the face of government incompetence, railway-company obstructionism, local rivalries and the struggle against the historical injustice of land ownership. “Delves deep into the archives to reveal an astonishing story of establishment incompetence and indifference—and some west coast skullduggery—contriving to thwart the energy and enthusiasm of locals keen to share in the benefits which railways had brought to other Highland communities.” —RailScot

Images of China in Polish and Serbian Travel Writings (1720-1949)

Images of China in Polish and Serbian Travel Writings (1720-1949) PDF Author: Tomasz Ewertowski
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004435441
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 426

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Book Description
In Images of China in Polish and Serbian Travel Writings (1720-1949), Tomasz Ewertowski examines how Polish and Serbian travelers described China, surveys various factors which influenced their style of writing, and illustrates the social, political and intellectual context that determined their different representations of the Middle Kingdom. The corpus includes a vast array of texts written by more than 80 authors who traveled to China from the 18th to the mid-20th century, including sources that have not been published. Besides making new facts and sources accessible, the research presented in this book introduces a comparative perspective and provides a thorough literary and cultural analysis of the aforesaid travelogues.

Play Among Books

Play Among Books PDF Author: Miro Roman
Publisher: Birkhäuser
ISBN: 3035624054
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 528

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Book Description
How does coding change the way we think about architecture? This question opens up an important research perspective. In this book, Miro Roman and his AI Alice_ch3n81 develop a playful scenario in which they propose coding as the new literacy of information. They convey knowledge in the form of a project model that links the fields of architecture and information through two interwoven narrative strands in an “infinite flow” of real books. Focusing on the intersection of information technology and architectural formulation, the authors create an evolving intellectual reflection on digital architecture and computer science.

Poland in a Colonial World Order

Poland in a Colonial World Order PDF Author: Piotr Puchalski
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 100047996X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
Poland in a Colonial World Order is a study of the interwar Polish state and empire building project in a changing world of empires, nation-states, dominions, protectorates, mandates, and colonies. Drawing from a wide range of sources spanning two continents and five countries, Piotr Puchalski examines how Polish elites looked to expansion in South America and Africa as a solution to both real problems, such as industrial backwardness, and perceived issues, such as the supposed overrepresentation of Jews in "liberal professions." He charts how, in partnership with other European powers and international institutions such as the League of Nations, Polish leaders made attempts to channel emigration to South America, to establish direct trade with Africa, to expedite national minorities to far-away places, and to tap into colonial resources around the globe. Puchalski demonstrates the intersection between such national policies and larger processes taking place at the time, including the internationalist turn of colonialism and the global fascination with technocratic solutions. Carefully researched, the volume is key reading for scholars and advanced students of twentieth-century European history.

Bugsy Siegel

Bugsy Siegel PDF Author: Michael Shnayerson
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300226195
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
The story of the notorious Jewish gangster who ascended from impoverished beginnings to the glittering Las Vegas strip "[A] brisk-reading chronicle of Siegel’s life and crimes."—Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal "Fast-paced and absorbing. . . . With a keen eye for the amusing, and humanizing detail, [Shnayerson] enlivens the traditional rise-and-fall narrative."—Jenna Weissman Joselit, New York Times Book Review In a brief life that led to a violent end, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel (1906–1947) rose from desperate poverty to ill‑gotten riches, from an early‑twentieth‑century family of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants on the Lower East Side to a kingdom of his own making in Las Vegas. In this captivating portrait, author Michael Shnayerson sets out not to absolve Bugsy Siegel but rather to understand him in all his complexity. Through the 1920s, 1930s, and most of the 1940s, Bugsy Siegel and his longtime partner in crime Meyer Lansky engaged in innumerable acts of violence. As World War II came to an end, Siegel saw the potential for a huge, elegant casino resort in the sands of Las Vegas. Jewish gangsters built nearly all of the Vegas casinos that followed. Then, one by one, they disappeared. Siegel’s story laces through a larger, generational story of eastern European Jewish immigrants in the early‑ to mid‑twentieth century.

MEMOIRS AND TRAVELS.

MEMOIRS AND TRAVELS. PDF Author: Maurycy August Beniowski
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 504

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Book Description


The Cambridge History of Travel Writing

The Cambridge History of Travel Writing PDF Author: Nandini Das
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110861681X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Bringing together original contributions from scholars across the world, this volume traces the history of travel writing from antiquity to the Internet age. It examines travel texts of several national or linguistic traditions, introducing readers to the global contexts of the genre. From wilderness to the urban, from Nigeria to the polar regions, from mountains to rivers and the desert, this book explores some of the key places and physical features represented in travel writing. Chapters also consider the employment in travel writing of the diary, the letter, visual images, maps and poetry, as well as the relationship of travel writing to fiction, science, translation and tourism. Gender-based and ecocritical approaches are among those surveyed. Together, the thirty-seven chapters here underline the richness and complexity of this genre.

Novgorod the Great

Novgorod the Great PDF Author: Andrew Drummond
Publisher: Independently Published
ISBN: 9781070763989
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description
Novgorod the Great - City of a Thousand Saints, August 1833. A young widow and a prosperous merchant encounter each other by chance in an inn kept by a man whose antipathy to all guests is matched only by his violent loathing of poets. But during a night spent in each other's company, filled with dawning hope, revelation, unfortunate accidents and pickled eggs, several remarkable stories unfold. The story of John Cochrane, pedestrian traveller extraordinaire, and deceased husband of the young widow Ksenia; of his infamous father, who spent his life defrauding governments and upsetting Napoleon; of Ksenia Loginova's perilous 6,000 mile journey across Siberia and the unwelcome attentions of a troubadour; of the merchant Horatio who reflects on love, slavery and arithmetic. Among other matters discussed at length in the small hours of the night are carnivorous Bolivian elephants, the questionable motives of travellers, and the impatience of Chernobog, Master of the Infernal Darkness...