Egypt

Loti, Pierre, 1850-1923Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.3

Word count: 314K words
Chapters: 32

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.Egypt (La Mort de Philae) by Pierre LotiAuthor: Loti, Pierre, 1850-1923,Language: English, Class: DT: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Africa, Release Date: Apr 13, 2006

Editor's review

This is the English translation of French writer Pierre Loti's Egyptian travelogue Egypt (La Mort de Philae), released free by Project Gutenberg. With a novelist's sensitivity, Loti records the banks of the Nile, temple ruins, and local life, his prose steeped in exotic imagining and fin-de-siècle melancholy. Its value lies not in systematic knowledge of Egyptian history but in presenting the typical late-19th-century European gaze on Egypt: sighs over an ancient civilization and a complex attitude toward colonial modernity. Readers can enjoy the essayistic descriptions of scenes and also treat the book as a text for reflecting on the "Orientalist" perspective. Suitable as further reading for those interested in travel literature and cross-cultural writing, or to read alongside Egyptian histories, to sense the distance between literary imagination and historical fact.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy 19th-century European travel literature and prose essays
Literature enthusiasts studying cross-cultural writing and Orientalist perspectives
Readers planning to read Egyptian history who want supplementary impressionistic material

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking a systematic understanding of ancient Egyptian history and archaeology
Readers of travel guides who prefer objective reportage and solid data
Readers with little patience for lyrical, sentimental prose

Reading tips

Read one chapter first to get a feel for Loti's descriptive style, then decide whether to read the whole book
Read alongside a general history of Egypt, distinguishing literary imagination from historical fact
Note recurring images such as temples, the river, and death, and trace the author's emotional thread
After reading, write a short review reflecting on how the narrator's European perspective shapes what is seen and felt

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

Is this book a work of ancient Egyptian history?

No. It is a travel-literary work by Pierre Loti, recording his observations and impressions in Egypt in an essayistic style. It focuses on subjective experience and literary description rather than systematically covering ancient Egyptian history, chronology, or archaeological discoveries.

What are the features of the Project Gutenberg edition?

Project Gutenberg provides free electronic texts; this edition is an English public-domain e-book. It is convenient for searching and excerpting on a computer or e-reader, but it lacks the introduction and notes of a modern translation, so readers must supply background knowledge themselves.

Can I read it if my English isn't strong?

The book is entirely in English, and Loti's prose has long sentences and considerable rhetoric, so it demands a certain level of English reading ability. If your English is limited, you can first read a Chinese translation to grasp the content, then read selected passages against the English original.

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About the author

Loti, Pierre, 1850-1923 Author

Pierre Loti (Loti, Pierre, 1850-1923) was a French writer known for works that blend autobiography with exotic settings. His writing often draws on seafaring and travel, with a delicate, elegiac tone and a gift for evoking life in distant ports, islands, and foreign cities. The library holds thirty-seven of his works, spanning novels, travel accounts, and reminiscences, including An Iceland Fisherman (also listed as Islannin kalastajat), Madame Chrysanthème, Fantôme d'Orient, Au Maroc, Vers Ispahan, Le livre de la pitié et de la mort, and The Story of a Child. These works show him moving freely between fiction and travel writing, usually observing foreign places and human fates in the first person, with vivid visual detail. Public information about the details of his life is limited, so this note avoids speculation.