Amelia Peabody's Egypt: A Compendium
Fans of Peters's bestselling series featuring Amelia Peabody Emerson and her family (Crocodile on the Sandbank, etc.) will welcome this companion volume, which entertainingly blurs fact and fiction. In her role as "editor" of Mrs. Emerson's journals, Peters provides a preface, while other contributors supply articles on the historical and cultural background of Egyptology. (Typical is "`Lesser Breeds without the Law': An Insightful Diatribe on the Victorian Attitude Towards Other Cultures & Peoples," by Barbara Mertz, the real name of the pseudonymous Peters, who has a Ph.D. in the subject.) One section, "The People of the Journals," straightfacedly presents period photographs of the members of the extended Emerson clan. Filled with black-and-white illustrations of people and places (credit for the design goes to Egyptophile Dennis Forbes), this attractive book both informs and enchants. The jacket art of three Victorian ladies inspecting a temple fits the tone of the text perfectly.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.