The Victorian Sex Explorer
Gallery guide
A five-minute guide to the Victorian explorer, translator, and orientalist, Sir Richard Francis Burton.
Sir Richard Francis Burton, 1821–1890 (1/5)
By the age of 20 Richard Burton was fluent in four languages.
Etching by Leopold Flamens, after a painting by Sir Frederick Leighton
Sir Richard Francis Burton, 1821–1890 (1/5)
Richard Burton's family travelled between France, Italy and England throughout his childhood. He was expelled from Trinity College, Oxford in 1842 (in revenge, he is reported to have trampled the college's flower beds with his horse and carriage when he was leaving the city) and spent the next seven years as an officer of the British Army in India. There he studied 11 more languages and developed his capacity for disguise. These talents qualified Burton to explore not only territories but also the cultures and sexual practices of the people who inhabited them.
Sir Richard Francis Burton, 1821–1890 (1/5)
Richard Burton's family travelled between France, Italy and England throughout his childhood. He was expelled from Trinity College, Oxford in 1842 (in revenge, he is reported to have trampled the college's flower beds with his horse and carriage when he was leaving the city) and spent the next seven years as an officer of the British Army in India. There he studied 11 more languages and developed his capacity for disguise. These talents qualified Burton to explore not only territories but also the cultures and sexual practices of the people who inhabited them.
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