David Livingstone by Horne C. Sylvester - Book Report/Review Example

 Livingstone was born on March 19th, 1813at the village of Blantyre in Lank shire. His family was poverty-stricken and earned little that could provide privileges to Livingston. He was an ambitious young man who loved to study at his young age, and amazingly on his 9th birthday, he had already won himself a prize, the New Testament. By the time he was 10 years old, Livingstone found himself a job at the cotton-spinning factory, where he worked for almost ten years. During this time, he combined his studies with the work at the factory.

He was determined to study medicine and theology (Sylvester 65). He later managed to secure a place at Glasgow University. His father struggled to secure the money for his education, but somehow always managed to come up with it at the very last and crucial time (Sylvester 76). David's breakthrough came in his second semester at Glasgow, when he was chosen as a missionary in the London society; this was due to his humbleness and sympathy with the foundation of the society. Livingstone later qualified as a Licentiate of physician and physics.

His prayers were finally answered, when he was ordained and sent to South Africa for the mission he had always anticipated. He went there with one goal in his mind, to reach the heart of the slave trade, Chitambo. It was a city in South Africa. His expedition would see him walk through the jungles of Africa, where he and his colleagues struggled for food and means of transportation. At one instance, he was attacked by a lion, while they were in the quest for their food (Sylvester 86). They continued with the journey and this proved tough for Livingstone as he sometimes developed problems with his health.

He was not to be perturbed by that and only had one goal in his mind. Stop the slavery trade, and spread Christianity. Livingstone returned to his family, on one occasion, and after a year, embarked again to South Africa. He carried a boat for transportation, but it soon sunk in the rivers of Africa. One week to their destination, Livingstone started bleeding internally, and it got worse but seemed better as he moved one. After 5 days, he burst an artery that gushed out blood from his body (Sylvester 103).

His death was imminent, 3 days after they reached Chitambo, they secured a place to stay and relax. This was the final destination of Livingstone. And on May 4th, 1873, he died at the most crucial time of his quest, the beginning of his mission. His life and epic will perpetually be remembered.Analysis and evaluation The author wrote the book to tell us about the of Livingstone, and his goals in life, “starts a journey to South Africa to end the e-trade, and to spread Christianity.” The author did not manage to sway the readers that Livingstone succeeds in his quest, as he died only three days after he reached his final destination, in the village where slavery was famous at the time.

The author clearly did not achieve his function of writing this book, as the mission of relinquishing slavery was not fulfilled by David Livingstone. I can say the writing of the book was not that quiet successful, as it leaves the readers with a lot of questions in their minds, as to whether slavery was eventually vanquished, and if Christianity was spread. The author demonstrates his weak point, by not clearly revealing the cause of Livingstone’s artery bursting, and why he had been bleeding within, or whether he was suffering from any unremitting illness that could have caused his health to depreciate that badly.

Conclusion , in general, the response to the book is that it is interesting to read, as one is encouraged by the hard work of a young man, who was well focused and ambitious. I personally found the book to be interesting, as it kept me wondering what step Livingstone was going to take next and whether they would finally have managed to end slavery in South Africa. All in all, the book in my own opinion is above average, and I would recommend it to any books enthusiast out there looking for something to inspire him in life.