Homo Sum — Volume 01

Georg Moritz EbersProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 99K words
Chapters: 10

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.Homo Sum — Volume 01 by Georg EbersAuthor: Ebers, Georg, 1837-1898,Language: English, Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures, Release Date: Apr 1, 2004

Editor's review

This is the first of five volumes of Homo Sum by the German writer Georg Ebers, released by Project Gutenberg as an English electronic edition. Ebers was a nineteenth-century German scholar of ancient Egyptian studies and a novelist; his works often take ancient Egypt as their setting, combining archaeological knowledge with narrative. As the opening of the whole work, this volume lays out the historical setting and introduces the main characters and conflicts, and is suited to readers interested in the ancient Mediterranean world, the early Christian era, or German historical fiction. Note that the Project Gutenberg edition is a public-domain electronic text without a modern introduction or notes, so readers must supply their own background knowledge. As the first volume of a series, it should not be judged on its own; it is best read continuously with the volumes that follow.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in historical fiction set in ancient Egypt and the early Christian era
Students of nineteenth-century German literature and the tradition of the historical novel
Readers accustomed to public-domain English e-books who can supply their own background
Literature lovers who wish to encounter Ebers's narrative in the original English

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking modern annotations, introductions, and scholarly translations
Casual readers who prefer fast-paced plots and lack patience
Readers unaccustomed to nineteenth-century long-form narrative style and public-domain English texts

Reading tips

Learn first about Ebers's era and the ancient Egyptian background before entering the text, to reduce obstacles to understanding.
Treat this volume as the opening of a series and continue directly to the following volumes, avoiding reading it out of context.
Note character relationships and period terms as you read, to make it easier to follow the later volumes.
Use the plain-text layout provided by Project Gutenberg and read in sections by chapter.

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 complete work or part of a series?

Homo Sum is divided into five volumes, and this entry is the first of them. It is not a standalone complete story but the opening portion of the whole work; the characters and plot continue to develop in the later volumes, so reading in volume order is recommended.

Does the Project Gutenberg edition have notes and an introduction?

Project Gutenberg provides public-domain electronic texts that generally do not include modern editorial notes, scholarly introductions, or translation notes. Readers who need background explanation should consult separate reference materials on Ebers and on ancient Egypt and the early Christian era.

What background is needed to read this English original?

The text is nineteenth-century English narrative, with long sentences and detailed description. A moderate or higher level of English reading ability and a basic understanding of ancient Mediterranean history will make it easier to enter. If you only want a summary of the story, you may consult relevant background material first and then read the original.

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About the author

Georg Moritz Ebers Author · German · 1837–1898

Georg Ebers (1837–1898) was a German Egyptologist and novelist. Born in Berlin in 1837, he served as a professor at the University of Leipzig. His major contribution to Egyptology was the discovery, editing, and publication of the famous Ebers Papyrus, which provided valuable material for the study of ancient medical texts. At the same time, he devoted himself to spreading Egyptological knowledge through literature, writing historical novels such as An Egyptian Princess and Uarda. These works weave the social life and historical settings of ancient Egypt into their narratives, making specialized scholarship more accessible to general readers. His works number 172 in the library's collection, including the serialized volumes of An Egyptian Princess and Cleopatra, which shows how widely his historical novels circulated. Overall, Ebers combined scholarly rigor with a novelist's gift for popular expression, occupying a distinctive place in the popularization of Egyptology in the nineteenth century.