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by Frederick Burnaby (Author)
First published in 1878, this is the story of Frederick Burnaby's harrowing thousand-mile winter journey from Constantinople to eastern Turkey. War between Turkey and Russia threatened, and Burnaby was on a mission to discover whether the Turks could resist a potential thrust toward Constantinople by the Russian Empire. This entertaining account, a bestseller of its time, will appeal to armchair travelers, military history buffs, and anyone interested in the history of this fascinating and tumultuous region. British soldier and writer FREDERICK BURNABY (1842-1885) was a member of the Royal Horse Guards, and in 1882, he became the first balloonist to cross the English Channel alone. Three years later, he died from a spear wound sustained in battle in the Sudan. He also wrote A Ride to Khiva (1876).
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In the savage winter of 1876, Captain Frederick Burnaby rode 1,000 miles eastwards from Constantinople to see for himself what the Russians were up to in this remote corner of the Great Game battlefield. With war between Turkey and Russia imminent, he wanted to discover, among other things, whether the Sultan's armies were capable of resisting a determined Tsarist thrust towards Constantinople. Frederick Gustav Burnaby was no ordinary officer. For a start he was reputed to be the strongest man in the British Army. Nor was he all brawn, being fluent in seven languages and possessing a vigorous and colourful prose style - as readers of this Great Game classic will discover. With his redoubtable manservant Radford, he spent five months riding across some of the cruellest winter landscape in the world before hastening home to write this best-seller.
