A Ride to Khiva [Paperback]

Frederick Burnaby (Author), Peter Hopkirk (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 28, 2002

In the winter of 1875, a young British officer set out across central Asia on an unofficial mission to investigate the latest secret Russian moves in the Great Game. His goal was the mysterious caravan city of Khiva, closed to all European travelers by the Russians following their seizure of it two years earlier. His aim was to discover whether, as many British strategists feared, this remote and dangerous oasis was about to be used as a springboard for an invasion of India.

Captain Frederick Burnaby was already something of a legend. For a start he was reputed to be the strongest man in the British Army, standing six-foot-four and weighting over 200 pounds. He also spoke no fewer than seven languages, including Russian and Turkish, and possessed a most vigorous and colorful prose style.

Unknown to his superiors, who would have forbidden the venture, he rode for over a thousand miles across steppe and desert, struggling through blizzards and snowdrifts, to reach forbidden Khiva. Burnaby was ordered home by an alarmed government and there he immediately sat down and wrote this best-selling account of his adventures.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Frederick Gustavus Burnaby was a soldier, traveller, writer, and pioneer balloonist. He was reputed to be the strongest man in the British Army, and spoke no fewer than seven languages. In 1875, on a one-man Great Game mission, he rode to Khiva in Central Asia, and the following year set out from Constantinople for eastern Turkey. In 1885 he was speared to death while campaigning in the Sudan, where he is buried somewhere in the desert.

Product Details

• Paperback: 414 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (November 28, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192803670
• ISBN-13: 978-0192803672
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 4.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,645,616 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A travel and adventure classic., April 28, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: A Ride to Khiva (Paperback)

South central Asia, the focus of the worlds attention in 2003, received an earlier share of it in the 1870s. For centuries travelers tales and the mention of such exotic names as Samarcand, Tashkent and Bokhara had aroused interest and fired imaginations. To all this was added rumor in 1875 that British interests in India were threatened by Russian expansionism. In particular, it was believed that Russian forces were massing in the recently occupied city of Khiva, nowadays in Uzbekistan, in preparation for an invasion of India.

A situation like this fitted perfectly the kind of investigative reporting adventures that Frederick Burnaby craved. In 1876, this 33-year-old captain in the British army took leave of absence, and set out for Khiva. The journey involved a ride of over one thousand miles in well below freezing conditions across steppes and wastelands.

On his return, Burnaby wrote A Ride to Khiva and it instantly became a best seller. A well-educated man, proficient in many languages, and a keen observer of all he encountered, his account still ranks as one of the great adventure classics of literature.

I am grateful to the neighbor who lent me this book, and can report that reading it has provided many hours of fascination. Burnaby died ten years after writing this book, supposedly during a massacre in the Sudan. Keen Internet browsers might find reference to a recent revelation that throws doubt upon the truth of the official account of his death.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Truth is stranger than fiction, January 13, 2000

By 

James M. Hare (Western South Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Ride to Khiva: Travels and Adventures in Central Asia (Paperback)

Burnaby, a classic hero/adventurer type, was the 19th Century's Indiana Jones. His book, a popular sensation when first published in the mid 1800s, chronicles his exciting, dangerous, and sometimes humorous horseback and sleigh/carriage ride from southern Russia to Khiva, in what was then an independant khanate in Central Asia, in the middle of winter. If you like exciting, true adventure travel tales, you owe it to yourself to see this book. A standard by which all subsequent narratives should be measured

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Great book, terrible edition (General Books LLC 2009), January 10, 2010

By 

Jonathan Hopkins - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Ride to Khiva; Travels and Adventures in Central Asia (Paperback)

This is an excellent story as related by other reviewers. However, I recommend against buying the General Books LLC (August 5, 2009) edition of Burnaby's classic. The production value is extremely low. There are numerous typos on each page which makes reading difficult to enjoy. This is also not a page-for-page reprint, so page breaks occur mid-page. This also makes reading this book much less enjoyable. Please do read Burnaby's "A Ride to Khiva", but to not waste your money on the General Books LLC edition.