'Not all lost cities are real, but this one was…' The extraordinary story of Alexander the Great's lost city, and a quest to unravel one of the most captivating mysteries in ancient history
Edmund Richardson is Associate Professor of Classics at Durham University. Before coming to Durham, he studied for his PhD in Classics at Cambridge, then crossed the Atlantic for a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton. In 2016, he was named one of the BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinkers. Richardson is fascinated by characters on the edge of most histories. He tells tales that seem a little too strange to be true. But in their truth, they change the way you see the world.
Charles Masson is the quixotic and wildly colourful subject of this
exceptional biography ... This is a jewel of a book. It rescues
Masson from history's cutting-room floor and brings him richly,
ripely to life ... Brave, dedicated, endlessly curious, Masson
deserves his rediscovery
*Sunday Times*
Only now, with this superb biography, is Masson’s tale told in full
for the first time. The result, evocatively written, impeccably
researched and minutely footnoted, but with the pace and deftly
woven plot complexity of a John le Carré novel, is a small
masterpiece. It solves most of the mysteries of Masson’s story and
deserves all the acclaim it will undoubtedly win ... utterly
brilliant
*Guardian*
Masson was one of the most extraordinary of many extraordinary
Europeans roaming between Persia and India in the 19th century ...
A brilliant and evocative biography, written with consummate
scholarship, great style and wit. Through the study of one man,
Richardson illuminates an entire world
*Daily Telegraph*
Masson’s story is brilliantly retold by Edmund Richardson ... A
lucid, thrilling and poetic narrative that does justice to the
subject.
*Literary Review*
Rarely has a work of non-fiction so brilliantly wrong-footed its
readers as Edmund Richardson’s Alexandria: The Quest for the Lost
City, which expertly subverts expectations, interweaving narrative,
history and biography throughout ... A remarkable achievement, and
that rare thing, a book guaranteed to change your perspective on
the world
*Tablet*
Immensely enjoyable ... a highly entertaining representation of the
world of 19th-century India and Afghanistan, and of the daredevil
antics of an adventurer hooked on the past, looking to survive,
prosper and make his mark in a world of shifting sands and
shadows
*BBC History Magazine*
One of the great stories of archaeology, exploration and espionage
told in full for the first time – and brought to life with passion,
style, scholarship, empathy and anger ... full, extraordinary,
heart-breaking ... Edmund Richardson is a new star whose
painstaking research and evocative prose has resulted in an utterly
brilliant biography. It deserves all the prizes and acclaim it will
undoubtedly win.
*William Dalrymple*
Richardson is a natural teller of such exuberant stories and the
book is full of colourful characters
*Spectator*
Impressive. In a string of spirited encounters classicist Edmund
Richardson tails the vagabond antiquarian who called himself
Charles Masson to 1830s Afghanistan ... Masson has at last found
the intrepid biographer he has so long deserved.
*John Keay*
Nineteenth-century archaeologist James Lewis (alias Charles
Masson), who sought traces of Alexander the Great in Afghanistan,
was clearly an excellent storyteller, and in Edmund Richardson he
has found the perfect biographer. Richardson, too, is a great
storyteller, able to bring history vividly and excitingly to life
whilst carefully researching and recording his sources ... A very
entertaining book
*Newtown Review of Books*
[A] rare combination of serious scholarship and thoroughly
entertaining reading ... One of those larger-than-life characters
(a famous archaeologist in his day) condemned to become a footnote
by dint of imperialist design, he has now found a biography worthy
of his achievements. Richardson is not only informed, passionate
and witty, he incorporates astute intellectual leaps
*Spectrum*
The lost city of Alexandria Beneath the Mountains, once a meeting
point of east and west, was discovered in Afghanistan in 1832 by
Charles Masson and his story is as fascinating and intriguing as
his discovery
*Choice Magazine, Hardback Book of the Month*
Richardson’s accessible story of what happened to the lost city of
Alexandria and Alexander the Great will bathe you in rapture. He is
as natural a storyteller as his subject
*Australian Women's Weekly*
This book is a most enjoyable read, with its learning worn lightly.
It is a valuable contribution to the literature of cultural
history, and a must have for those fascinated by the succession of
strange and larger than life characters who peopled British
India.
*Asian Affairs*
A real-life tale of derring-do and colonial ambitions in 1830s
Afghanistan
*New Zealand Listener, Best Books of 2021*
Flashman meets Indiana Jones in this rollicking biography of
Charles Masson
*Daily Telegraph*
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