Supporting historical characters include the old Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his conniving favorite wife Tiy, the wife of Akhenaten Nefertiti, the listless young Tutankhamun (King Tut) who succeeded as Pharaoh after Akhenaten's downfall, and the two common-born successors who were, according to this author, integral parts of the rise and fall of the Amarna heresy of Akhenaten, the priest and later Pharaoh Ay, and the warrior-general and then finally Pharaoh Horemheb. The original story dates to a time long before that of Akhenaten: texts are known from as early as the 12th dynasty. The main character of the novel is named after that of an ancient Egyptian text commonly known as The Story of Sinuhe. Apart from incidents in Egypt, the novel charts Sinuhe's travels in then-Egyptian dominated Syria (Levant), Mitanni, Babylon, Minoan Crete, and among the Hittites. The hero of the novel is not Akhenaten, however, but the fictional character Sinuhe, the royal physician, who tells the story in exile after Akhenaten's fall and death. It is set in a fascinating period of Egyptian history, mostly during the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten of the 18th Dynasty, whom some have claimed to be the first monotheistic ruler in the world. The Egyptian is the first, and the most successful, of Waltari's great historical novels.
It was first published in Finnish in 1945, and in an abridged English translation by Naomi Walford in 1949. Excerpt: The Egyptian (Sinuhe egyptilainen, Sinuhe the Egyptian) is a historical novel by Mika Waltari. Chapters: The Egyptian, the Secret of the Kingdom, the Adventurer, the Roman, the Wanderer, the Etruscan, the Dark Angel. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge.
0 kommentar(er)
