Until I read this book I had no idea that Burton and Speke have a following as keen, if not as numerous, as that of Holmes and Watson. The author of The Sad Story of Burton, Speke, and the Nile brings his skills as an emeritus professor of English to a "close reading" of the relevant texts, winding up with a "Concluding Unscientific Postscript" looking at the overlap of literary criticism and historiography. I think both Team Burton and Team Speke will find much that is original and thought-provoking here; it certainly renewed my interest in the primary texts.