In Review

21 November 2008 23:43 BST

Dr Livingstone, I presume? Missionaries, journalists, explorers and Empire by Clare Pettitt

Published by Profile Books, out May 21st, hardback, 231 pages, £15.99.

In a nutshell

Historical, accurate, thorough, lucid, illuminating.

What's it all about?

Dr Livingstone, I presume? was the phrase that would immortalise the iconic meeting between David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley in Ujiji in 1871. The latter was an ambitious young journalist sent to find the former, a missionary turned explorer who became obsessed with finding the source of the Nile. The meeting had an unfathomable impact on the Victorian consciousness, both political and cultural. The phrase itself perhaps best exemplifies the legendary status of the encounter, as the words haunted Stanley for the rest of his life, and far beyond.

However, much of the folklore surrounding Livingstone was myth. In many ways, he was the first global celebrity. His discovery by Stanley in the heart of the "dark continent" was the first big news story to break on both sides of the Atlantic simultaneously, thanks to the technological advance of the Atlantic cable laid in 1866. In this book, Pettitt turns an objective, analytical eye on the context of the infamous encounter. She explores the manner in which the media exploited the meeting to further perpetuate the myths of Anglo-American relations, the slave trade and imperialism. Pettitt's purpose in her book is to dispel the myth of Livingstone and expose the truth behind the man.

Who's it by?

Clare Pettitt is an expert on Victorian Literature and she currently teaches the subject at King's College London. She previously taught at the University of Leeds and Newnham College Cambridge. She has published works on literary originality, the Crystal Palace, the novels of Dickens and Gaskell and is currently working on a book about Anglo-American encounters in Rome.

As an example

"The Victorian encounter with Africa still underpins some of the most fundamental of the ways in which we figure ourselves in what we now like to call the 'developed' world. The meeting of these two Anglo-Saxon men in 'darkest Africa' has become so iconic because of its intersection with a particular political moment and with a particular moment in media history."

"But the point is…that an immensely complicated African history has been collapsed into so simple an image."

Likelihood of becoming a Hollywood blockbuster

Unlikely. Pettitt registers the previous efforts to capture the gripping narrative of Livingstone in film. Her purpose in this novel is to analyse and expose the flaws in these previous attempts rather than to present a potential plot herself.

What the others say

"Drawing on films, children's books, games, songs, cartoons, and TV shows, this book reveals the many ways our culture has remembered Stanley's phrase, while tracking the birth of an Anglo-American Christian imperialism that still sets the world agenda today." – Harvard University Press.

"It is a fascinating story of conflict and paradox taking us into the extraordinary history of British engagement with Africa...and shows both the darkest side of imperialism and the popular myth-making of the music hall jokes, the cartoons etc." – History Bookshop.

So is it any good?

The story of David Livingstone is one that most children in Britain become acquainted with at some stage. Perhaps it is one of the last remnants of the glories of Empire that we still think it is politically correct to keep alive. In many people’s minds, Livingstone represents the civilised, courageous English gentleman of a bygone era.

Pettitt successfully and convincingly shatters this representation. She spends a significant portion of the book drawing our attention to just how phenomenal the encounter really was. The various depictions of the event that were documented all over the world are exposed at considerable length and we are given a real sense of how Livingstone was looked upon with saint-like reverence. But Pettitt also highlights the many shortcomings of the myth. She alerts us to the fact that Livingstone was actually Scottish, not English and that he was born in squalor. She ponders the fact that he was a failure as a missionary, not achieving a single true convert. She exposes how his unshakeable determination often made him a cruel and wreckless husband and father.

This reversal of myth is of course meant to be a parallel for the nature of modern media and the novel is as much an exposition of the journalist’s ability to misrepresent the truth as it is an examination of the encounter between Stanley and Livingstone.

All this is an interesting and enlightening experience, but Dr Livingstone, I presume? is certainly not an easy read. Because Pettitt's aim is to present the reader with various accounts of the incident and then shatter them, she draws heavily on historical quotations, illustrations and documents. Although this may be necessary for her purpose, it makes the book read more like a history textbook than a novel and at times, it seems nothing more than a series of historical sources stuck together by Pettitt’s interspersing narrative. Pettitt's novel is extremely well-researched and skilfully assembled, but it’s just too complex to be accessible to all but the most die-hard fans of Victorian history.

6.5/10

Natasha Hegde