THE WILDER SHORES OF LOVE
By
In the grander manner of biography, these four profiles of 19th century all-for-love females have a flair and a definite swish of flouncing -- and sometimes floundering -- petticoats. Unrelated, emotional, ""unintellectual"", Aimee Dubucq de Rivery, Isabelle Eberhardt, Jane Digby, Isabel Arundell, all found their answer to their searchings in the ""radiant periphery"" of the Oriental East. Their stories are rich in personality and incident. Isabel Arundell knew years of waiting before she married the Orientalist, Richard Burton, knew longer years of a passionate and possessive love. The Honorable Jane Digby was a Lady, a Baroness and a Countess before she became the wife of the Sheik Abdul Medjuel El Mezrab and found the romance and adventure she had always sought. Aimee Dubucq de Rivery was captured by the Corsairs when she was returning to her home in Martinique and was given as a present to the Sultan of Turkey by the Dey of Algiers. Her life in the harem, her position as Sultana and the career of her son make hers an unusual story. Isabelle Eberhardt was a Russian who turned Arab, wore men's clothes and created a bizarre legend with her headstrong behavior.