Table of Contents

Part 1 The beginnings: the yellow peril; Napoleonic nightmare; rehearsal for the great game; the Russian boy; all roads lead to India; the first of the Russian players; death on the Oxus; the barometer falls. Part 2 The middle years: "the Great Game"; enter "Bokhara" Burnes; the greatest fortress in the world; the mysterious Vitkevich; hero of Herat; the kingmakers; the race for Khiva; the freeing of the slaves; night of the long knives; catastrophe; massacre in the passes; the last hours of Connolly and Stoddart; half-time. Part 3 The climatic years: the great Russian advance begins; lion of Tashkent; spies along the silk road; the feel of cold steel across his throat; "a physician from the North"; Captain Burnaby's ride to Bala Hissar; the last strand of the Turcomans; to the brink of war; the railway race to the East; where three empires meet; flashpoint in the High Pamirs; the race for Chitral; the beginning of the end; end-game.

Reviews

Chronicles the imperial struggle for power in Central Asia between Victorian England and Czarist Russia. (May)