Search for the Nile's Source

The Ruined Reputation of John Petherick, Nineteenth-Century Welsh Explorer

Author(s) John Humphries

Language: English

Genre(s): Biography

  • September 2013 · 224 pages ·216x138mm

  • · Paperback - 9780708326732
  • · eBook - pdf - 9780708326787
  • · eBook - epub - 9781783161041

This experimental volume of literary criticism offers various interpretations of the work of the poet Menna Elfyn, and gives an outline of our relationship with literature and our reading habits. It is an attempt to provide a fresh interpretation of the work by experimenting for the first time in Welsh with the epistolary method of criticism, through a series of fictional letters. This is also the first extended study of Menna Elfyn's poetry: addressed to the poet's work in particular, but also looking at contemporary issues such as interpretation, performance and the marketing of literature in contemporary Wales. Academic practices are vigorously challenged by walking the line between 'fact' and 'fiction' to create a multi-vocal and readable criticism reflecting the complex and multifaceted nature of the reading process.

Chapter 1: From Merthyr to the Pyramids. Chapter 2: Egypt and the search for coal. Chapter 3: The Missing Years. Chapter 4: Khartoum, Ivory and Slaves. Chapter 5: Exploration and Trade. Chapter 6: The Promise. Chapter 7: The Journey. Chapter 8: The Race. Chapter 9: The Succour Dodge. Chapter 10: A Very Public Quarrel. Chapter 11: Unfinished Business. Conclusion

Author(s): John Humphries

John Humphries, a former newspaper editor and foreign correspondent, draws upon previously unavailable documents and sources to shed new light on moments in history ranging from the Chartist Uprising, the Mexican Revolution, Hitler's 'spies', and Freedom Fighters of the 20th century. This is his fifth work of non-fiction.

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