Produced by David Widger
CONTENTS:
Uarda
An Egyptian Princess
The Sisters
Joshua
Cleopatra
The Emperor
Homo Sum
Serapis
Arachne
The Bride Of The Nile
A Thorny Path
In The Fire Of The Forge
Margery
Barbara Blomberg
A Word Only A Word
The Burgomaster's Wife
In The Blue Pike
A Question
The Elixir
The Greylock
The Nuts
The Story Of My Life (Autobiograpy)
Translated from the German by Clara Bell
Thou knowest well from what this book arose.
When suffering seized and held me in its clasp
Thy fostering hand released me from its grasp,
And from amid the thorns there bloomed a rose.
Air, dew, and sunshine were bestowed by Thee,
And Thine it is; without these lines from me.
In the winter of 1873 I spent some weeks in one of the tombs of theNecropolis of Thebes in order to study the monuments of that solemn cityof the dead; and during my long rides in the silent desert the germ wasdeveloped whence this book has since grown. The leisure of mind and bodyrequired to write it was given me through a long but not disabling illness.
In the first instance I intended to elucidate this story—like my"Egyptian Princess"—with numerous and extensive notes placed at the end;but I was led to give up this plan from finding that it would lead me tothe repetition of much that I had written in the notes to that earlierwork.
The numerous notes to the former novel had a threefold purpose. In thefirst place they served to explain the text; in the second they were aguarantee of the care with which I had striven to depict thearchaeological details in all their individuality from the records of themonuments and of Classic Authors; and thirdly I hoped to supply thereader who desired further knowledge of the period with some guide to hisstudies.
In the present work I shall venture to content myself with the simplestatement that I have introduced nothing as proper to Egypt and to theperiod of Rameses that cannot be proved by some authority; the numerousmonuments which have descended to us from the time of the Rameses, infact enable the enquirer to understand much of the aspect and arrangementof Egyptian life, and to follow it step try step through the details ofreligious, public, and private life, even of particular individuals. Thesame remark cannot be made in regard to their mental life, and here manyan anachronism will slip in, many things will appear modern, and show thecoloring of the Christian mode of thought.
Every part of this book is intelligible without the aid of notes; but,for the reader who seeks for further enlightenment, I have added somefoot-notes, and have not neglected to mention such works as afford moredetailed information on the subjects mentioned in the narrative.
The reader who wishes to follow the mind of the author in this workshould not trouble himself with the notes as he reads, but merely at thebeginning of each chapter read over the notes which belong to theforegoing one. Every glance at the foot-notes must necessarily disturband injure the development of the ta