Stephen Minta weaves a modern journey in the footsteps of Byron into an evocation of byron's romantic nature and in the process, creates a useful and idiosyncratic view of the poet. Much as he did in his previous book, "Aguirre", Minta quietly traces his subject's antique journey through the echoes of his own modern one. While not simply a travel book nor yet a biography of Byron, this history is an inventive and skillfull combination of the two, and a useful addition to the already strining bookshelves of admirers of the romantics.

This is many books in one and packed with information but easily digestible - a fascinating combination of Greek history, biography of Byron, and description of the author's own travels through Northern Greece, the Ionian Islands, and Albania. It's helpful in explaining the complexities of the Greek struggle for independence (or ethnic cleansing or civil war) when they spent half their time fighting each other and where neither side was blameless. Byron's character was almost equally complex and interesting. In addition you get for your money an excellent guide to parts of Greece and some insight into the complex and interesting character of Stephen Minto.

While contemporary British society is tautosemus with conservatism and the British state carries the tradition of an imperialist empire, many a British scholar shall honour his country by giving it its fair place as a lamplighter of humanity. Many an English scholar shall be a freethinker and a truth-seeker and a creator and admirer of true beauty. Such was Byron and such, it appears is Stephen Minta. Though not perfectly factually accurate as he might attempt and desire to be, Stephen Minta achieves with precision an intuition into the nature of Byron that most his predecessors have failed to see or altogether denied. Geniuses like Byron do not conform to the average human standard of behaviour, and are so often misinterpreted and misrepresented. Scholars have denied their understanding to Byron's fascination not with the dead classical Greece but with the surviving Greek spirit. It is notable that the current compilation of Byron's "complete" works does not include few final poems that he did write in Greece and that offer closure to the Giaour, Childe Harold and the Isles of Greece. And beyond his intellectual inheritance to Britain and the world, Byron, the lover of freedom and nations, has most amazingly affected the life of Greece and was finally politically successful even despite himself, even beyond his grave and century. The interpretation of Byron presented in this book by Stephen Minta is chasing away shadows of bogusness and don-quixotism that have been tainting Byron's portrayal. A true pleasure to read and a work for which the times are ripe.

A disapiontment.

Promoted as a "bizarre" tale, full of "intrigue" and yadda yadda yadda, this is instead a rather dull story of a group of men trudging around, lost, in the jungle. Many of the "details" in the book are pure conjecture by the author.

For once in my life I would have to advise renting the video rather than reading the book.

MINTA POSITIONS HIS BOOK AS HALF-TRAVELOGUE, HALF-HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE VOYAGE OF DON LOPE DE AGUIRRE, THE BLOODTHIRSTY CONQUSTADOR BEST KNOWN THROUGH WERNER HERZOG'S ASTONISHING FILM. THE NARRATIVE WEAVES BACK AND FROTH FROM MINTA'S ACCOUNT OF HIS OWN TRAVELS THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA, SEEKING TO TRACE AGUIRRE'S DESPERATE JOURNEY UP THE AMAZON, AND A HISTORICAL RECREATION (MOSTLY FROM SECONDARY SOURCES) OF THAT JOURNEY ITSELF. THE COMBINATION BEGUILES. AGUIRRE, THE MAN, REMAINS MYSTERIOUS YET MYTHICALLY ENGAGING -- THE APOSTLE OF FREEDOM FOR THE NEW WORLD WHO DISAVOWED THE KING OF SPAIN AS HE SET HIS OWN FLAG IN UNCHARTED LANDS, YET A BLOODY KILLER, RUTHLESS BEYOND IMAGINATION. MINTA DOESN'T QUITE KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH THE SUBJECT OF HIS BOOK EXCEPT TO ADMIT, AS ANY GOOD HISTORIAN SHOULD, THAT THE REAL AGUIRRE LIES BEYOND DOCUMENTATION, THE DUST OF HISTORY. AT THE SAME TIME, HE TACITLY REFUSES TO MYTHOLOGIZE HIM, AS DOES HERZOG IN HIS FILM. THEE'S A HIPPIE-TRAVELOGUE FLAVOR TO MINTA'S OWN ACCOUNT WHICH RECALLS, IN MY VIEW UNFAVORABLY, "MUSIC IN EVERY ROOM" AND SIMILAR WANDEVOGELEN ACCOUNTS. AND THERE'S ALSO SOME HESITATION IN GRAPPLING DIRECTLY WITH A HISTORY WHICH CANNOT, BY NOW, BE FILTERED FROM LEGEN. AS IT IS, THE BOOK GAINS BY OVERTONES: WE PLAY MINTA GAINST THEHERZOG FILM, WE PLAY HIS OWN TRAVELS, AGAINST AGUIRRE'S, AND THERE IS - FOR ADDED IRONY -- THE LONG, SAD HISTORY OF LATIN AMERICA, A LAND WHERE SLAVES HAVE ALWAYS REMAINED SLAVES AND WHEERE BOLDNESS SUCH AS AGUIRRE'S WILL ALWAYS REMAIN THE STUFF OF LEGEND -- AND ALWAYS CONTINUE TO BEGUILE US.