The Wilder Shores Of Love

This one took me a while to get through, mostly because I didn't take it away on a recent trip, but also it wasn't the most engaging read for me.
Other five star reviews, which motivated me to seek this book out, raved about it (despite its odd title which makes it sound like some sort of work of romance), but despite enjoying it enough to persist, it wasn't a winner for me.

This book charts the biographies of four women who ‘belonged to the West but dared to turn to the East for adventure and love.' Each biography gets progressively shorter - such that Isabel Burton's (Isabel Arundell) is just under half the book, and sabelle Eberhardt's is 37 pages.

Isabel Burton's story, as one might expect is more Richard Burton's story, and his wife as his biggest fan is pretty much the theme of her life. She publicised his early exploration, writing and translating, then followed him around the world in his diplomatic roles, where she was often left to pack, ship and follow. 1831-1896

Jane Digby's story is her succession of husbands, before she married Sheikh Abdul Medjuel El Mezrab is Syria. He was twenty years her junior, but she remained married to him for thirty years. She lived part of the year in Bedouin tents, the other in the city of Homs. 1807 - 1881.

Aimee Dubucq de Rivery, her story foretold by a fortune teller, was the daughter of wealthy French plantation owner in Martinique, was abducted by Barbary pirates, and handed over to the Ottoman sultan, where she rose to become Sultana and mother to the heir of the throne. 1768-1817.

And finally Isabelle Eberhardt, from a Russian background, but educated in Switzerland, she travelled to Algeria, which became her spiritual home. She had published stories under a male pseudonym, and also dressed as a man to allow her to travel in the desert. She was fluent in Arabic, dabbled in Sufi mysticism, and converted to Islam. She was drowned in a flash flood in Algeria, at age 27. 1877-1904.

To end, a quote from which the book earned its title, referring to Jane Rigby: P136

“Her whole life was spent riding at breakneck speed along the wilder shores of love.”