Henry Martyn (1781-1812), Scholar and Missionary to India and Persia a Biography

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Pages:164
ISBN:0-7734-8181-8
978-0-7734-8181-7
Price:$139.95 + shipping
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Reviews

"There have been other books about that brilliant linguist, scholar and missionary to India and Persia in the early nineteenth century, the saintly and heroic Henry Martyn. This one. . . is the first to present the facts of his short and astonishing life in as objective a manner as possible. The author is himself a fine Classical scholar. Drawing on Henry's own journals and letters as well as biographies and diaries written mainly by Henry's contemporaries, John Martyn has written an appreciative, but not uncritical, account. There is no religious exhortation or sentimentality. Readers are left to make their own judgments about Henry's achievements. It is an enthralling story." – Dr. Evan Burge

"There will be fewer, if any readers who do not find their understanding broadened, and their sympathy deepened, by reading the story of Henry Martyn. This is no conventional missionary biography, and Henry Martyn was not a conventional missionary or a conventional man. Yet through the story of this remarkable man we gain an insight into what it was like to be brought up in Cornwall in a religiously Anglican environment at the end of the 18th century, ‘tinged with Methodism' – a source of suspicion of those thus afflicted. Similarly, following the course of Henry Martyn's life, the author gives us fresh insight into University life at Cambridge at the turn of the century. . . . The book never fails to be of interest, and at times is extremely moving. It is written in a disarmingly simple narrative style, with sympathy and insight, by Henry Martyn's kinsman, John R. C. Martyn, Associate Professor of Classical Studies in the University of Melbourne." – Davis McCaughey, ex-Governor of Victoria

Table of Contents

Table of Contents: Preface; Family and early life in Cornwall; First years at Cambridge University; Tutor at St. John's College, Cambridge; Ordination and curacy in London; Love affair with Lydia Grenfell; Sea voyage to India; Calcutta and Aldeen; Dinapore and Biblical Translations; Army chaplain at Cawnpore; Voyage to Shiraz; Illness and final journeys; Portrait of Mary Sherwood; View of Shiraz; Maps, Notes

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