A Ride to Khiva: Travels and Adventures in Central Asia - Softcover

Burnaby, Frederick

  • 3.95 out of 5 stars
    273 ratings by Goodreads
 
9781589762275: A Ride to Khiva: Travels and Adventures in Central Asia

Synopsis

Frederick Gustavus Burnaby--soldier, traveler, writer, and pioneer balloonist--set out on an unofficial mission in 1875 to investigate the motives behind Russia's exclusion of foreigners from Central Asia. This is a great story of hardship and humor.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From the Back Cover

In the winter of 1875, a young British officer set out across Central Asia on a strictly 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 travellers 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. Unknown to his superiors, who would have forbidden the venture, Captain Frederick Gustavus Burnaby rode for over a thousand miles across steppe and desert, struggling through blizzards and snowdrifts, to reach forbidden Khiva. Ordered home by an alarmed government, Burnaby immediately sat down and wrote this best-selling account of his adventures, which was to become a Great Game classic, the first of two he was to publish.

About the Author


About the Authors:
Author of On Horseback Through Asia Minor, and founder of the Vanity Fair journal, Frederick Burnaby did a great deal of active service in the British army and was killed in action in 1885. Peter Hopkirk is a highly acclaimed travel writer and best-selling author of The Great Game.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title