Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0393301664, Paperback)

"Starting in a hollowed log of wood--some thousand miles up a river with infinitesimal prospect of returning, I ask myself `Why?' and the only echo is `damned fool!...the Devil drives.'"

So wrote Richard Francis Burton, while preparing for an exploration of the lower Congo in 1863. Tormented by the question of "why?", his answer "the devil drives" applies not only to his explorations, but to the whole of his turbulent life. The nature of his demon, the source of his restlessness, has baffled many biographers.

Drawing from Burton's own published works and from the few manuscripts that managed to escape destruction by Lady Burton, Fawn Brodie explains the "why?" and in doing so creates a fascinating portrait.