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A review by kellswitch
Egyptomania: Our Three Thousand Year Obsession with the Land of the Pharaohs by Bob Brier
5.0
I really enjoyed this book, this was the first time I had read anything about how the fascination with Egypt has influenced and effected so many different cultures going all the way back to antiquity and is still ongoing today.
The author covers the worlds fascination with Egypt starting all the way back in ancient Greece to today and all the fun and serious ways people have chosen to show their love for this culture.
I found the cultural aspects of Egytomania to be the most entertaining, from the music sheets and perfume bottles to modern movies, from the exquisite and high end to the tacky, the creativity and...flexibility in reflecting ancient Egypt is incredible.
However there was also a much more serious and political side to this that I had not realized, the military actions of Napoleon and Wellington, the political manoeuvrings in gaining obelisks the physical challenges in gaining and moving the obelisks were a surprise to me, I had no idea New York even had an actual Egyptian obelisk!
The section on the moving of the three different obelisks got to be a bit slow and hard to get through, I understand wanting to include all the details since moving them is quite the engineering feat in and of itself, but reading about three in a row felt very repetitive in the end. This is my only quibble with the book, and even then it was a fascinating read, just slow.
When visuals are so important to the point of a book I really appreciate the inclusion of color plates as well as black and white images and this book does a very good job with this. The quality of the images is high and appropriate to the text and really enhance the experience.
This is a fun book and a very educational book and I am looking forward to reading more by this author on Egypt.
The author covers the worlds fascination with Egypt starting all the way back in ancient Greece to today and all the fun and serious ways people have chosen to show their love for this culture.
I found the cultural aspects of Egytomania to be the most entertaining, from the music sheets and perfume bottles to modern movies, from the exquisite and high end to the tacky, the creativity and...flexibility in reflecting ancient Egypt is incredible.
However there was also a much more serious and political side to this that I had not realized, the military actions of Napoleon and Wellington, the political manoeuvrings in gaining obelisks the physical challenges in gaining and moving the obelisks were a surprise to me, I had no idea New York even had an actual Egyptian obelisk!
The section on the moving of the three different obelisks got to be a bit slow and hard to get through, I understand wanting to include all the details since moving them is quite the engineering feat in and of itself, but reading about three in a row felt very repetitive in the end. This is my only quibble with the book, and even then it was a fascinating read, just slow.
When visuals are so important to the point of a book I really appreciate the inclusion of color plates as well as black and white images and this book does a very good job with this. The quality of the images is high and appropriate to the text and really enhance the experience.
This is a fun book and a very educational book and I am looking forward to reading more by this author on Egypt.