I wanted to like this book, but the historical retelling felt odd at times. There have been books written about 'real' characters from history from their POV and taking creative liberties, and I thought this one would be it. It ended up a weird mix of narration, narrative, historical facts, scattered all over the place. Could've worked great on screen, but in book form, it was too much, and too many people mentioned, to keep track of and follow easily.

The tale of Charles Masson, brought to life in exemplary fashion.

Charles Masson, a pioneer of archaeology, was the first western archaeologist to visit the ancient cities of Harappa and Mohenjo Daro. He found some of our museums' most revered treasures. He discovered never-before-seen traces of Alexander the great, and yet he was a mystery and a hero of mythological proportions.

Edmund Richardson's book, Alexandria, tells the world the real story of Charles Masson - that of James Lewis, a Londoner in the Bengal artillery. He had faked his own death in 1827, been recruited as a mercenary, and then became the first westerner to uncover the secrets of Afghanistan's archeological history. It is a tale that, without much prompting, evokes images of a roguish British Indiana Jones.

This book is an epic biography, written by someone with a clear passion for telling Masson's extraordinary story. We may never know how much of what Richardson posits is true, but it certainly is a compelling, engaging, and somewhat tragic tale.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury for this ARC

Professor Edmund Richardson has penned an exceptionally well researched book. Alexandria is a fascinating look and expoloration of the adventures of Charles Masson

Professor Edmund Richardson has written a compelling and approachable account of now mostly forgotten British adventurer and self-taught archeologist Charles Masson aka James Lewis (1800–1853). In this first published biography of the man, Richardson tells us how Masson chased the dream of uncovering Alexander the Great's legacy in Afghanistan and Pakistan and how his finds at Bagram and other sites can still be admired in Afghan and Pakistani museum collections especially in the British Museum's. Masson's finds often went against the grain of the racist interpretations and accounts of the region's cultural heritage and this goes somewhat to explain how his story and contributions have been long neglected.

Richardson evidently feels that Masson's story and contribution deserve to be told though and he does a good job of it, while also shedding light on the utter ignorance, incompetence and maliciousness of early British colonial governance and strategy leading to the first Anglo-Afghan war and the Indian first war of independence. Unfortunately not much has changed and one can't help closing the book and being left with a lingering bitter taste.

Readers of William Dalrymple's books will find themselves in familiar territory with a recognisable cast of characters and this reading will offer an added layer to an understanding of that context and of particularly Afghani culture and history.


Many thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing and NetGalley for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The title of this excellent book is misleading, as it’s really about adventurer, traveller and explorer Charles Masson rather than Alexandria, and not even the Alexandria we usually think of, the one in Egypt, but rather the lost city of Alexander the Great in Afghanistan. However that quibble apart this is history as dare-devil romp, albeit one firmly grounded in fact. At times the author lets his imagination go into overdrive and speculates about what people are thinking and feeling, but overall this is a fascinating tale of exploration and derring-do backed up by extensive and meticulous research and knowledge of the subject.

Amazing and very readable adventurous tale. Some historical books can be very dry but this is far from it. Very well written and gripping from start to finish. Really enjoyed it.

Alexandria is a fascinating look and exploration of the adventures of Charles Masson. Absolutely Brilliant!

Edmund Richardson’s ‘Alexandria: The Quest for the Lost City’ was a fascinating read. Following Masson’s journey has been incredibly interesting – from the insights into political and cultural life on 1830s in especially Afghanistan in relation to Britain to simple act of storytelling and being a storyteller, ‘Alexandria’ had it all. It was a vivid and detailed account, and I had enjoyed it very much. It took me a while to read through the whole book, but I think it’s one of these books you need to think through, stop at moments, gather your thoughts and only then continue. Definitely a worth read.

The Alexandria of the title is the city that was “discovered” in the 1830s in Afghanistan, by Charles Masson. Masson was a deserter turned pilgrim turned spy turned many other things who roamed parts of Asia that very few Westerners had visited at the time. I read this before the current situation in Afghanistan deteriorated so far (although by this point it’s more of a complete collapse) and it was already somwhat poignant when talking about Bamiyan Buddhas, but I can only imagine that it will be heart-breaking at this point. It is a fascinating story and impeccably researched but sometimes a little dense. And with so many name changes it’s sometimes hard to keep track of what’s going on with whom. A new area of history for me – in geographical terms, but not in terms of the East India Company and its machinations.

‘Alexandria’ is a masterpiece and everyone should get themselves a copy.

The prose is downright lyrical. Despite being a non-fiction book, it reads like glorious fiction. From the very first line, I was hooked. I would forget that the book wasn’t just a made-up story and struggled to put the book down.

‘Alexandria: The Lost City’ tells the downright insane true story of Charles Masson. If you want to read a book that combines archeology, spies, war, traitors, and princes - then this is the one for you! This is the most interesting non-fiction book I’ve ever read and one I know I’ll return to.

I’ve been recommending this to everyone for months! There really is something for everyone. It’s a great way to start delving into non-fiction, without jumping straight into a data-laden, dense piece. I could write an essay on this book, but don’t want to spoil the story for you. Do yourself a favour and get a copy!

A story about a storyteller. A fascinating story but, in my opinion, not the best written one. Edmund Richardson definitely would have had the skill to weave it well if he had only relied more on himself. I find it tedious when every other sentence is a quote from this or that letter, and is this passage from an essay or a song? Masson's journey is fascinating and he was done magnificently wrong by the East India Company but I found this a hard slog nonetheless. I wanted to like it, I could have loved it despite it not being my area of interest particularly much but the problem is that some things can be *too* well researched, a book should not be half quotes.

No doubt brilliant if you want a history book, but it was not for me, I'm still very glad I read it though.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this and learn about Masson.

The unbelievable story of penniless Charles Masson (private James Lewis, deserter of the East India Company) and his unending drive to locate Alexander the Great's city Alexandria Beneath the Mountain reads like nothing I have read before. An 1800s adventure story of such great scope it feels like it must be a tall tale... except for the fact it is so well researched.

Alexandria is an amazing story of resilience and perseverance for a man to live such a life of ups and downs only to see the brilliant sights of Afghanistan no Western man had ever seen before. Afghanistan in the 1830s sounds a miraculous place – a glorious far cry from the Afghanistan we all know so well from the evening news.

Masson is a character and one that I grew to like thanks to Edmund Richardson's well written book. I admit I knew nothing of Charles Masson prior to reading this book and feel glad I stumbled upon this book and the great discoveries held within its pages. It is a magical journey rich with history and culture not previously understood.

An exceptional, well researched book. However, it does not achieve 5 stars because of the first couple of chapters that took some time getting in to. I would buy a physical copy were it not so expensive.

Alexandria by Edmund Richardson is one of those rare histories that turns out to be a page turning mystery.

Alexandria is the story of Charles Masson; a chancer, an adventurer, a self taught archaeologist, a spy and ultimately a victim of class prejudice. It’s also a history of 19th century India and Afghanistan and the power and influence of the East India Company.

I expected this book to be about Alexandria in Egypt but it turns out that throughout his conquests of Asia and the Middle East, Alexander founded cities which were named after him including one at Bagram in Afghanistan. Masson’s search for the relics of this Alexandria in a hostile Afghan landscape is threaded into the history of the kingdom and the machinations of the British.

History or mystery, this is a great tale well told.

Took me a while to get going with this book after about 3 attempts I got going with this historical adventure across Egypt, Afghanistan and India. Ventured around a man who deserted and found himself without any purpose or direction so embarked on building a life for himself, well more of a thrilling adventure than a mundane existence. Really enjoyed the story and plot, the cultures and travels are so well explained. The author has done his research extremely well and it leaves you thinking, you just couldn’t make this up. Excellent read, thank you #NetGalley for the copy to review.

“This is the story of how James Lewis became Charles Masson. It’s a pretty good story. There’s only one problem: like many other stories about Charles Masson, it may not entirely be true.”
This quote from the book really sums it up!
This is an astonishing story that starts in 1827 in India when Private James Lewis, a young soldier, walks out of his barracks towards a new life. He has no plan, no money and no idea of what lies before him, he just knows that his bid to escape his childhood poverty by enlisting in the Army had not worked. Despite being acknowledged as bright & “promising”, he finds that he is just as poor as before (whilst the officers were ostentatiously showing off their wealth) and he wants more from life.
He gives himself a new name: Charles Masson, and with an interest in history gleaned from various books he read over the years, he embarks on a quest to discover one of the lost cities of Alexandria, originally built by Alexander the Great. Masson travels through India, Persia, Afghanistan and the surrounding areas getting involved in all sorts of situations from spying to helping exiled kings reclaim their thrones. Along the way, he finds evidence of a number of settlements along the “Silk Road” trading route, was probably the first European to see the ruins of the Bronze Age settlement at Harappa and also discovered the Buddhas at Bamiyan (sadly destroyed by the Taliban in 2001).
Eventually being funded & sort of employed by the British East India Company, Masson surveyed over 100 sites and uncovered thousands of coins, caskets, jewels and other artefacts of which over 9000 objects ended up in the British Museum – this was long before it was understood that such items shouldn’t really be removed from their country of origin – and his work significantly contributed to the development of knowledge about the history of this area. It is a story that would be deemed “far fetched” or “improbable” if it were written as a novel, but the book has clear evidence of intense academic research and the author separates fact from fiction as much as possible (after all very little about Charles Masson is “true”) .
The unlikely story of Charles Masson is summed up in this quote from the book: “Masson had walked into Afghanistan as a wandering storyteller, but he walked out of it one of the most respected scholars in Asia”

Disclosure: I received an advance reader copy of this book free via NetGalley. Whilst thanks go to the publisher for the opportunity to read it, all opinions are my own.

#Alexandria #NetGalley

Meticulously researched and written with spirit, Alexandria is a fascinating addition to the vast body of literature inspired by lost cities, desert adventurers and, of course, Alexander the Great.

Writing the story of Charles Masson is no easy task: as Richardson is quick to point out, the man himself was a fabrication. Born James Lewis in 1800, the Londoner who would later become Charles Masson started his career as a soldier with the East India Company, only to desert in 1827. What followed was almost a decade and a half of travels throughout India, Afghanistan and modern-day Pakistan, and enough adventures to fill a book more than twice the length of Richardson’s. From respected soldier to penniless traveller, who adopted a pseudonym to escape the East India Company’s clutches, Masson would go on to become at various points a spy, a political and military advisor, an archaeologist and impassioned writer, the first European to visit the ruins of Harappa, and the instigator of a spectacular effort to uncover the lost city of Alexandria Beneath the Mountains, believed located to the north of Kabul at Bagram. He was also, tragically, a pawn in the Great Game, a role which saw him unfairly imprisoned and his life’s work purloined. Masson was finally dispatched back to England, where he died in 1853.

[. . .]

Richardson, who clearly empathises deeply with his subject, paints Masson as quite different to the scheming colonial officers with whom he became entangled; he was a man who understood and respected the communities he lived among, and who refused to draw a line between East and West. His excavations were conducted with care, while the collections of ancient coins, scripts and figures he amassed and studied in depth demonstrated that the then-perceived differences between Western ‘civilisation’ and Eastern ‘barbarianism’ did not, in fact, exist. In short, Masson seems to have been a man far ahead of his time, yet in the ruthless race to seize land and resources, his criticism of Brtish invasions and iron-fisted colonial rule fell on deaf ears.

That said, Masson was himself a product of the colonial system – and indeed his work contributed to the removal of priceless artefacts from the lands to which they belonged. [. . .] If Masson can in many respects be seen as a controversial figure, many of the other characters who appear in Alexandria are utterly nightmarish. At the same time, Richardson has a good eye for colourful exploits, picking out individual heroics or absurdities to make what may once have been a heap of fairly dry source material spring to life on the page. Many of the scenes he describes are shockingly unforgettable, but even the more routine descriptions of Kabul’s bazaar or the great plains of the Punjab are imbued with the kind of atmosphere often reserved for travel writing. Though he has evidently waded through a phenomenal amount of research, Richardson seems also to have let his creativity exert a considerable influence over the writing process.

[. . .]

And after all, storytelling is very much at the heart of Alexandria, beginning with Charles Masson, a storyteller through and through, and going right back across layers of history to the myriad legends woven around the life of Alexander the Great. In this respect, Richardson has mirrored his subject perfectly, imbuing his book with the against-all-odds spirit in which Masson seems to have lived. Though it does at times read like a bit of a boys’ romp – the stereotypical golden age of exploration come to life on the page – it also delves deeper, asking questions about what has been irreparably lost in the name of ‘research’ and ‘progress’. As a scholar and writer, Richardson has much to offer – and Masson, I can’t help but feel, would approve of his work.

[Review abridged; full text available on my blog.]

A very well written book. I couldn't stop turning the pages, because what a ride it was.
Alexandria has been studied for so many years, but this book took the prize.
It was amazing to learn more about the culture

A wonderful tale of derring do and intrepid exploring, sadly also of British determination to force "uncivilised" countries to follow our way of life.
The author pieces together the story of Charles Masson and his multiple personas with a real storyteller's gift and makes a complex historical period enjoyable to read.
Thank you to netgalley and Bloomsbury publishing for an advance copy of this book

Alexandria: The Quest for the Lost City takes the reader on a journey through 19th century India and Afghanistan, following Charles Masson, a man with an obsession with Alexander the Great. Masson spent much of his life searching for one of Alexander's lost cities, and in 1833 actually discovered some evidence of it.

This book is engaging and interesting right from the very beginning. The first chapter is told more like a story and is really descriptive. It gets the feeling of time and place across really well, and I was instantly curious about Masson, and Afghanistan, and the adventurous life he lived.

This book has clearly been extensively researched, with Richardson separating fact from fiction, an epic task when dealing with a man who was not entirely honest about his own life and background. The book has plenty of diary and letter quotes, with perspectives from many of the people around Masson. It really is a fascinating story.

I had been expecting more about archeology and the city itself. This book is more about Masson's own life story and the politics of 19th century Afghanistan. It was not a topic I had read about before, but this book has made me want to learn more.