Burning Sands

Arthur Edward Pearse Brome WeigallProject Gutenberg · United StatesMar 2023

3.4

Word count: 566K words
Chapters: 57

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. Burning Sands by Arthur E. P. Brome Weigall. Author: Weigall, Arthur E. P. Brome (Arthur Edward Pearse Brome), 1880-1934. Language: English. Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature. Release Date: Jan 15, 2011

Editor's review

Burning Sands comes from the hand of Arthur Weigall, an Egyptologist and writer, and belongs to the public-domain body of English literature. The author's professional research background gives the desert and exotic settings in his work a fairly solid geographical and archaeological texture, and the narrative often interweaves travel, adventure, and the fates of characters, giving it the flavor of an old-style adventure novel. The Project Gutenberg edition makes it easy to access for free and to search in full text, making it a suitable sample for understanding the flavor of early twentieth-century English popular literature. The book's strength lies in atmosphere and local color rather than complex psychological characterization or modern narrative technique; readers who enter with a relaxed appetite for the exotic will have a better experience. It is advisable to read the opening chapters first to judge whether the style suits your taste, then decide whether to read it through or selectively; maintaining a critical awareness of the colonial-era background or Orientalist narrative can reveal more layers.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy old-style adventure and exotic-themed English novels
Readers interested in popular literature written by an author with an Egyptology background
Learners who want free public-domain English novels to practice reading volume
Students studying the style of early twentieth-century English popular literature

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer contemporary literary narrative techniques and psychological depth
Readers who need a Chinese translation or bilingual edition
Readers sensitive to stereotypes in colonial-era exotic writing

Reading tips

Read the first two chapters first to get a feel for the style and pace, then decide whether to read it through or selectively.
While reading, pay attention to how the author describes the desert and local people, and make brief notes on narrative perspective.
If there are many unfamiliar English words, read through paragraphs first to grasp the main idea rather than looking up every word.
After finishing, compare it with common tropes in adventure novels of the same period to see how this book is similar and different.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What kind of novel is this book?

It belongs to early twentieth-century English popular literature in the adventure and exotic-themed genre, with a narrative interweaving desert travel and the fates of characters; it is not a serious archaeological work.

Is the author an archaeologist?

Arthur Weigall was an Egyptologist who worked in archaeology and related heritage work. His research background gives the book's regional descriptions some grounded knowledge, but the book itself is a literary creation.

What English level is needed to read it?

It is a public-domain English novel with somewhat old-fashioned sentence patterns, but it is generally readable. A vocabulary of around CET-4 level is enough to attempt reading it through; when encountering unfamiliar words, you can skip them first and grasp the plot.

Comments

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About the author

Arthur Edward Pearse Brome Weigall Author · British · 1880–1934

Arthur Edward Pearse Brome Weigall (1880–1934) was a British Egyptologist, writer and journalist, born on the island of Jersey and died in London. He served as Inspector-General of Antiquities for Upper Egypt under the Egyptian government, overseeing the numbering and preservation of Theban tombs and taking part in excavations in the Valley of the Kings—fieldwork that deeply shaped his writing. His representative works include The Treasury of Ancient Egypt, The Life and Times of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt and Burning Sands, which centre on ancient Egyptian history, archaeological observation and biography, combining scholarly grounding with readability for general readers. Three of his works are held in this collection, commonly classified under inspirational growth; public information is limited, and further details of his life and a complete bibliography remain to be verified.