''Pharaoh'' ( pl, Faraon) is the fourth and last major
novel by the Polish writer
Bolesław Prus
Aleksander Głowacki (20 August 1847 – 19 May 1912), better known by his pen name Bolesław Prus (), was a Polish novelist, a leading figure in the history of Polish literature and philosophy, as well as a distinctive voice in world li ...
(1847–1912). Composed over a year's time in 1894–95, serialized in 1895–96, and published in book form in 1897, it was the sole
historical novel by an author who had earlier disapproved of historical novels on the ground that they inevitably distort history.
''Pharaoh'' has been described by
Czesław Miłosz as a "novel on... mechanism
of
state power and, as such, ... probably unique in
world literature
World literature is used to refer to the total of the world's national literature and the circulation of works into the wider world beyond their country of origin. In the past, it primarily referred to the masterpieces of Western European lit ...
of the nineteenth century.... Prus,
nselecting the reign of '
Pharaoh
Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: '' pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the ...
Ramses XIII' in the eleventh century
BCE
Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...
, sought a perspective that was detached from... pressures of
opicalityand censorship. Through his analysis of the dynamics of an
ancient Egyptian society, he... suggest
an archetype of the struggle for power that goes on within any state."
''Pharaoh'' is set in the Egypt of 1087–85 BCE as that country experiences internal stresses and external threats that will culminate in the fall of its
Twentieth Dynasty
The Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XX, alternatively 20th Dynasty or Dynasty 20) is the third and last dynasty of the Ancient Egyptian New Kingdom period, lasting from 1189 BC to 1077 BC. The 19th and 20th Dynasties furthermore togeth ...
and
New Kingdom. The young protagonist Ramses learns that those who would challenge
the powers that be are vulnerable to co-option,
seduction
Seduction has multiple meanings. Platonically, it can mean "to persuade to disobedience or disloyalty", or "to lead astray, usually by persuasion or false promises".
Strategies of seduction include conversation and sexual scripts, paralingual ...
, subornation,
defamation, intimidation and
assassination. Perhaps the chief lesson, belatedly absorbed by Ramses as pharaoh, is the importance, to power, of
knowledge
Knowledge can be defined as Descriptive knowledge, awareness of facts or as Procedural knowledge, practical skills, and may also refer to Knowledge by acquaintance, familiarity with objects or situations. Knowledge of facts, also called pro ...
.
Prus' vision of the fall of an ancient civilization derives some of its power from the author's keen awareness of the final demise of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi- confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Poland and Lithuania ru ...
in 1795, a century before the completion of the novel.
Preparatory to writing ''Pharaoh'', Prus immersed himself in ancient Egyptian history, geography, customs, religion, art and writings. In the course of telling his story of power, personality, and the fates of nations, he produced a compelling literary depiction of life at every level of ancient Egyptian society. Further, he offers a vision of mankind as rich as
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
's, ranging from the
sublime to the quotidian, from the
tragic
Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy i ...
to the
comic.
[Zygmunt Szweykowski, ''Twórczość Bolesława Prusa'', pp. 345–47.] The book is written in limpid prose and is imbued with
poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
, leavened with
humor, graced with moments of transcendent beauty.
''Pharaoh'' has been translated into twenty-three languages and adapted as a 1966 Polish
feature film
A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...
. It is also known to have been
Joseph Stalin's favorite book.
Publication
''Pharaoh'' comprises a compact, substantial introduction; sixty-seven chapters; and an evocative
epilogue
An epilogue or epilog (from Greek ἐπίλογος ''epílogos'', "conclusion" from ἐπί ''epi'', "in addition" and λόγος ''logos'', "word") is a piece of writing at the end of a work of literature, usually used to bring closure to the w ...
(the latter omitted at the book's original publication, and restored in the 1950s). Like Prus' previous novels, ''Pharaoh'' debuted (1895–96) in newspaper
serialization—in the
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
''Tygodnik Ilustrowany'' (Illustrated Weekly). It was dedicated "To my wife, Oktawia Głowacka, ''
née'' Trembińska, as a small token of esteem and affection."
Unlike the author's earlier novels, ''Pharaoh'' had first been composed in its entirety, rather than being written in chapters from issue to issue. This may account for its often being described as Prus' "best-composed novel"—indeed, "one of the best-composed Polish novels."
The original 1897 book edition and some subsequent ones divided the novel into three volumes. Later editions have presented it in two volumes or in a single one. Except in wartime, the book has never been out of print in Poland.
A 2014 edition of ''Faraon'', in Poland, is furnished by
Andrzej Niwiński, professor of Egyptian archaeology at the
University of Warsaw
The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields o ...
, with extensive annotations. Though Prus was not a historian and, apart from ''Pharaoh'', wrote no other historical novel, it is regarded as superior to any other novel on ancient Egypt. From available sources, Prus drew information and authentic ancient texts and worked them, as vital elements, into his masterpiece. Regardless of occasional anachronisms, anatopisms, and errors in description of some realia, the novel has well stood the test of time. In spite of translations into many languages, however, it still remains little known in the wider world.
''Pharaoh'' has been published in a 2020 English translation by
Christopher Kasparek, as an
Amazon Kindle e-book
An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alt ...
, which supersedes an incomplete and incompetent version by
Jeremiah Curtin published in 1902 as well as Kasparek's own earlier
hardcover translations of 1991 and 2001.
Plot
''Pharaoh'' begins with one of the more memorable openings in a novel — an opening written in the style of an ancient
chronicle:
''Pharaoh'' combines features of several
literary genre
A literary genre is a category of literature. Genres may be determined by literary technique, tone, content, or length (especially for fiction). They generally move from more abstract, encompassing classes, which are then further sub-divided in ...
s: the historical novel, the
political novel, the ''
Bildungsroman
In literary criticism, a ''Bildungsroman'' (, plural ''Bildungsromane'', ) is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood (coming of age), in which character change is import ...
'', the
utopian novel, the
sensation novel. It also comprises a number of interbraided strands — including the
plot line, Egypt's cycle of
season
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...
s, the country's
geography
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, an ...
and
monument
A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, hist ...
s, and ancient Egyptian practices (e.g.
mummification
A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay furt ...
ritual
A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized ...
s and techniques) — each of which rises to prominence at appropriate moments.
Much as in an ancient
Greek tragedy
Greek tragedy is a form of theatre from Ancient Greece and Greek inhabited Anatolia. It reached its most significant form in Athens in the 5th century BC, the works of which are sometimes called Attic tragedy.
Greek tragedy is widely believed t ...
, the fate of the novel's
protagonist, the future "
Ramses XIII," is known from the beginning. Prus closes his
introduction with the statement that the narrative "relates to the eleventh century before
Christ
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
, when the
Twentieth Dynasty
The Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XX, alternatively 20th Dynasty or Dynasty 20) is the third and last dynasty of the Ancient Egyptian New Kingdom period, lasting from 1189 BC to 1077 BC. The 19th and 20th Dynasties furthermore togeth ...
fell and when, after the demise of the Son of the Sun the eternally living Ramses XIII, the throne was seized by, and the
uraeus
The Uraeus (), or Ouraeus (Ancient Greek: , ; Egyptian: ', "rearing cobra"), ''(plural: Uraei)'' is the stylized, upright form of an Egyptian cobra, used as a symbol of sovereignty, royalty, deity and divine authority in ancient Egypt.
Sym ...
came to adorn the brow of, the eternally living Son of the Sun Sem-amen-
Herhor,
High Priest of
Amon
Amon may refer to:
Mythology
* Amun, an Ancient Egyptian deity, also known as Amon and Amon-Ra
* Aamon, a Goetic demon
People Momonym
* Amon of Judah ( 664– 640 BC), king of Judah
Given name
* Amon G. Carter (1879–1955), American pu ...
." What the novel will subsequently reveal is the elements that lead to this
denouement
Dramatic structure (also known as dramaturgical structure) is the structure of a dramatic work such as a book, play, or film. There are different kinds of dramatic structures worldwide which have been hypothesized by critics, writers and schola ...
—the
character traits of the principals, the
social
Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not.
Etymology
The word "social" derives from ...
forces in play.
Ancient Egypt at the end of its
New Kingdom period is experiencing adversities. The deserts are eroding Egypt's
arable land
Arable land (from the la, arabilis, "able to be ploughed") is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops.''Oxford English Dictionary'', "arable, ''adj''. and ''n.''" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Alternatively, for th ...
. The country's population has declined from eight to six million. Foreign peoples are entering Egypt in ever-growing numbers, undermining its unity. The chasm between the
peasant
A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasant ...
s and
craftsmen on one hand, and the
ruling classes on the other, is growing, exacerbated by the ruling elites' fondness for luxury and idleness. The country is becoming ever more deeply indebted to
Phoenicia
Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...
n merchants, as
imported goods destroy native
industries.
The Egyptian
priesthood, backbone of the
bureaucracy and virtual monopolists of knowledge, have grown immensely wealthy at the expense of the pharaoh and the country. At the same time, Egypt is facing prospective peril at the hands of rising powers to the north —
Assyria
Assyria ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the ...
and
Persia
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
.
The 22-year-old Egyptian
crown prince
A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title is crown princess, which may refer either to an heiress apparent or, especially in earlier times, to the wi ...
and
viceroy
A viceroy () is an official who reigns over a polity in the name of and as the representative of the monarch of the territory. The term derives from the Latin prefix ''vice-'', meaning "in the place of" and the French word ''roy'', meaning " ...
Ramses, having made a careful study of his country and of the challenges that it faces, evolves a strategy that he hopes will arrest the decline of his own
political power and of Egypt's internal viability and international standing. Ramses plans to win over or subordinate the priesthood, especially the
High Priest of
Amon
Amon may refer to:
Mythology
* Amun, an Ancient Egyptian deity, also known as Amon and Amon-Ra
* Aamon, a Goetic demon
People Momonym
* Amon of Judah ( 664– 640 BC), king of Judah
Given name
* Amon G. Carter (1879–1955), American pu ...
,
Herhor; obtain for the country's use the
treasures that lie stored in the
Labyrinth
In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (, ) was an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by t ...
; and, emulating
Ramses the Great's military exploits, wage war on
Assyria
Assyria ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the ...
.
Ramses proves himself a brilliant
military commander
The commanding officer (CO) or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latitud ...
in a victorious lightning war against the invading
Libya
Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...
ns. On succeeding to the throne, he encounters the adamant opposition of the priestly
hierarchy to his planned
reforms
Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement ...
. The Egyptian populace is instinctively drawn to Ramses, but he must still win over or crush the priesthood and their adherents.
In the course of the political intrigue, Ramses' private life becomes hostage to the conflicting interests of the Phoenicians and the Egyptian high priests.
Ramses' ultimate downfall is caused by his underestimation of his opponents and by his impatience with priestly
obscurantism
In philosophy, the terms obscurantism and obscurationism describe the anti-intellectual practices of deliberately presenting information in an abstruse and imprecise manner that limits further inquiry and understanding of a subject. There are two ...
. Along with the chaff of the priests'
myths and
ritual
A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized ...
s, he has inadvertently discarded a crucial piece of
scientific knowledge
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
.
Ramses is succeeded to the throne by his arch-enemy
Herhor, who paradoxically ends up raising treasure from the
Labyrinth
In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (, ) was an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by t ...
to finance the very
social reform
A reform movement or reformism is a type of social movement that aims to bring a social or also a political system closer to the community's ideal. A reform movement is distinguished from more radical social movements such as revolutionary move ...
s that had been planned by Ramses, and whose implementation Herhor and his allies had blocked. But it is too late to arrest the decline of the Egyptian polity and to avert the eventual fall of the Egyptian civilization.
The novel closes with a poetic epilogue that reflects Prus' own path through life.
[Christopher Kasparek, "Prus' ''Pharaoh'' and Curtin's Translation", p. 128.] The priest Pentuer, who had declined to betray the priesthood and aid Ramses' campaign to reform the Egyptian polity, mourns Ramses, who like the teenage Prus had risked all to save his country. As Pentuer and his
mentor
Mentorship is the influence, guidance, or direction given by a mentor. A mentor is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person. In an organizational setting, a mentor influences the personal and p ...
, the sage priest Menes, listen to the song of a
mendicant priest, Pentuer says:
Characters
Prus took characters' names where he found them, sometimes
anachronistically or
anatopistically. At other times (as with ''Nitager'', commander of the army that guards the gates of Egypt from attack by Asiatic peoples, in chapter 1 ''et seq.''; and as with the priest ''Samentu'', in chapter 55 ''et seq.'') he apparently invented them. The origins of the names of some prominent characters may be of interest:
* Ramses, the novel's
protagonist: the name of two pharaohs of the
19th Dynasty and nine pharaohs of the
20th Dynasty
The Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XX, alternatively 20th Dynasty or Dynasty 20) is the third and last dynasty of the Ancient Egyptian New Kingdom period, lasting from 1189 BC to 1077 BC. The 19th and 20th Dynasties furthermore toget ...
.
* Nikotris, Ramses' mother: semi-historic
Sixth Dynasty
The Sixth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty VI), along with the Third, Fourth and Fifth Dynasty, constitutes the Old Kingdom of Dynastic Egypt.
Pharaohs
Known pharaohs of the Sixth Dynasty are listed in the table below. Manetho acc ...
female pharaoh
Nitocris; or the identically named daughter,
Nitocris, of the
Twenty-sixth Dynasty king
Psamtik I
Wahibre Psamtik I ( Ancient Egyptian: ) was the first pharaoh of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt, the Saite period, ruling from the city of Sais in the Nile delta between 664–610 BC. He was installed by Ashurbanipal of the Neo-Assyrian Empir ...
.
* Amenhotep,
high priest and Ramses' maternal grandfather: name of a number of ancient Egyptians, including four
18th Dynasty pharaohs and the
High Priest of Amon under Pharaohs
Ramses IX to
Ramses XI (the High Priest played a key role in the civil war that ended Egypt's
20th Dynasty
The Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XX, alternatively 20th Dynasty or Dynasty 20) is the third and last dynasty of the Ancient Egyptian New Kingdom period, lasting from 1189 BC to 1077 BC. The 19th and 20th Dynasties furthermore toget ...
and, with it, the
New Kingdom).
* Herhor,
High Priest of
Amon
Amon may refer to:
Mythology
* Amun, an Ancient Egyptian deity, also known as Amon and Amon-Ra
* Aamon, a Goetic demon
People Momonym
* Amon of Judah ( 664– 640 BC), king of Judah
Given name
* Amon G. Carter (1879–1955), American pu ...
and Ramses' principal
antagonist: historic high priest
Herihor
Herihor was an Egyptian army officer and High Priest of Amun at Thebes (1080 BC to 1074 BC) during the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses XI.
Chronological and genealogical position
Traditionally his career was placed before that of the High Priest of ...
.
* Pentuer,
scribe to Herhor: historic scribe Pentewere (Pentaur); or perhaps
Pentawer
Pentawer (also Pentawere and Pentaweret) was an ancient Egyptian prince of the 20th Dynasty, a son of Pharaoh Ramesses III and his secondary wife, Tiye (20th dynasty), Tiye., p.193 He was involved in the so-called "harem conspiracy", a plot to kil ...
, a son of Pharaoh
Ramses III
Usermaatre Meryamun Ramesses III (also written Ramses and Rameses) was the second Pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty in Ancient Egypt. He is thought to have reigned from 26 March 1186 to 15 April 1155 BC and is considered to be the last great mona ...
.
* Thutmose, Ramses' cousin: a fairly common name, also the
name of four pharaohs of the
18th Dynasty.
*
Sarah, Ramses'
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...
ish
mistress;
Taphath, Sarah's relative and servant;
Gideon, Sarah's father: names drawn from those of
Biblical personalities.
* Patrokles, a
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
mercenary
A mercenary, sometimes also known as a soldier of fortune or hired gun, is a private individual, particularly a soldier, that joins a military conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any ...
general:
Patroclus, in Homer's ''
Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the '' Odys ...
''.
* Ennana, a junior military officer: Egyptian scribe-pupil's name, attached to an ancient text (cited in ''Pharaoh'', chapter 4: Ennana's "plaint on the sore lot of a junior officer").
*
Dagon
Dagon ( he, דָּגוֹן, ''Dāgōn'') or Dagan ( sux, 2= dda-gan, ; phn, 𐤃𐤂𐤍, Dāgān) was a god worshipped in ancient Syria across the middle of the Euphrates, with primary temples located in Tuttul and Terqa, though many attes ...
, a
Phoenicia
Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...
n merchant: a Phoenician and Philistine god of agriculture and the earth; the national god of the
Philistines.
*
Tamar, Dagon's wife (chapters 8, 13):
Biblical wife of
Er, then of his brother
Onan
Onan ''Aunan'' was a figure detailed in the Book of Genesis chapter 38, as the second son of Judah and Shuah, and the brother of Er and Shelah. After being commanded by Judah to procreate with the late Er's wife Tamar, he instead "spilled his s ...
; she subsequently had children by their father
Judah,
eponymous
An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''.
Usage of the word
The term ''epon ...
ancestor of the Judeans and
Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
.
* Dutmose, a peasant (chapter 11): historic
scribe Dhutmose, in the reign of Pharaoh
Ramses XI.
*
Menes
Menes (fl. c. 3200–3000 BC; ; egy, mnj, probably pronounced *; grc, Μήνης) was a pharaoh of the Early Dynastic Period of ancient Egypt credited by classical tradition with having united Upper and Lower Egypt and as the founder of the ...
(three distinct individuals: the first pharaoh; Sarah's
physician
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
; a savant and Pentuer's
mentor
Mentorship is the influence, guidance, or direction given by a mentor. A mentor is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person. In an organizational setting, a mentor influences the personal and p ...
): Menes, the first Egyptian pharaoh.
* Asarhadon, a ''
Phoenicia
Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...
n'' innkeeper: a variant of "
Esarhaddon
Esarhaddon, also spelled Essarhaddon, Assarhaddon and Ashurhaddon ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , also , meaning " Ashur has given me a brother"; Biblical Hebrew: ''ʾĒsar-Ḥaddōn'') was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from the death of hi ...
", an ''
Assyria
Assyria ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the ...
n'' king.
*
Berossus
Berossus () or Berosus (; grc, Βηρωσσος, Bērōssos; possibly derived from akk, , romanized: , "Bel is his shepherd") was a Hellenistic-era Babylonian writer, a priest of Bel Marduk and astronomer who wrote in the Koine Greek language ...
, a
Chaldean priest: Berossus, a
Babylonian historian and
astrologer who flourished about 300
BCE
Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...
.
*
Phut
Phut or Put ( he, ''Pūṭ''; Septuagint Greek ''Phoud'') is the third son of Ham (one of the sons of Noah), in the biblical Table of Nations (Genesis ; cf. 1 Chronicles ). The name Put (or Phut) is used in the Bible for Ancient Libya, but a fe ...
(another name used by Berossus): Phut, a descendant of
Noah named in
Genesis.
*
Cush, a guest at Asarhadon's inn: Cush, a descendant of
Noah named in
Genesis.
*
Mephres, an elderly Egyptian high priest and the most implacable foe of the protagonist, Ramses: an
18th-Dynasty pharaoh, evidently identical with
Thutmose I
Thutmose I (sometimes read as Thutmosis or Tuthmosis I, Thothmes in older history works in Latinized Greek; Ancient Egyptian: '' ḏḥwtj- ms'', ''Tʼaḥawtī-mīsaw'', , meaning "Thoth is born") was the third pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of E ...
.
*
Mentesuphis, a priest aide to Herhor: name given by
Manetho to Pharaoh
Nemtyemsaf II of the 6th Dynasty.
* Hiram, a Phoenician prince:
Hiram I
Hiram I ( Phoenician: 𐤇𐤓𐤌 ''Ḥirōm'' "my brother is exalted"; Hebrew: ''Ḥīrām'', Modern Arabic: حيرام, also called ''Hirom'' or ''Huram'')
was the Phoenician king of Tyre according to the Hebrew Bible. His regnal years have b ...
, king of
Tyre, in
Phoenicia
Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...
.
* Kama, a Phoenician priestess who becomes Ramses' mistress: ''
Kama'', a word in
Hindu
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
scriptures, associated variously with sensuality, longing and sexuality.
* Lykon, a young
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
, Ramses'
look-alike and nemesis:
Lykaon, in the ''
Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the '' Odys ...
''.
*
Sargon, an
Assyria
Assyria ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the ...
n
envoy
Envoy or Envoys may refer to:
Diplomacy
* Diplomacy, in general
* Envoy (title)
* Special envoy, a type of diplomatic rank
Brands
*Airspeed Envoy, a 1930s British light transport aircraft
*Envoy (automobile), an automobile brand used to sell Br ...
: name of two Assyrian kings. Additionally, the earlier
Sargon of Akkad was the first ruler of the
Semitic-speaking Akkadian Empire
The Akkadian Empire () was the first ancient empire of Mesopotamia after the long-lived civilization of Sumer. It was centered in the city of Akkad () and its surrounding region. The empire united Akkadian and Sumerian speakers under one ...
, known for his conquests of the
Sumerian
city-state
A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world since the dawn of history, including cities such as ...
s in the 24th to 23rd centuries BCE; he was the founder of one of history's first empires.
* Seti, Ramses' infant son by Sarah: name of several
ancient Egyptians, including two Pharaohs.
*
Osochor
Aakheperre Setepenre Osorkon the Elder was the fifth king of the 21st Dynasty of Ancient Egypt and was the first Pharaoh of Meshwesh (Ancient Libyan) origin. He is also sometimes known as Osochor, following Manetho's ''Aegyptiaca''.
Biography
...
, a priest thought (chapter 40) to have sold Egyptian priestly secrets to the Phoenicians: a
Meshwesh king who ruled Egypt in the late
21st Dynasty
The Twenty-first Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XXI, alternatively 21st Dynasty or Dynasty 21) is usually classified as the first Dynasty of the Ancient Egyptian Third Intermediate Period, lasting from 1077 BC to 943 BC.
History
After the r ...
.
* Musawasa, a
Libya
Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...
n prince: the
Meshwesh, a Libyan tribe.
* Tehenna, Musawasa's son: "
Tehenu", a generic Egyptian term for "Libyan."
* Dion, a Greek architect: Dion, a historic name that appears in a number of contexts.
* Hebron, Ramses' last mistress:
Hebron
Hebron ( ar, الخليل or ; he, חֶבְרוֹן ) is a Palestinian. city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judaean Mountains, it lies above sea level. The second-largest city in the West Bank (after Eas ...
, the largest city in the present-day
West Bank
The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
.
Themes
''Pharaoh'' belongs to a Polish literary tradition of
political fiction
Political fiction employs narrative to comment on political events, systems and theories. Works of political fiction, such as political novels, often "directly criticize an existing society or present an alternative, even fantast ...
whose roots reach back to the 16th century and
Jan Kochanowski
Jan Kochanowski (; 1530 – 22 August 1584) was a Polish Renaissance poet who established poetic patterns that would become integral to the Polish literary language. He is commonly regarded as the greatest Polish poet before Adam Mickiewicz.
...
's play, ''The Dismissal of the Greek Envoys'' (1578), and also includes
Ignacy Krasicki
Ignacy Błażej Franciszek Krasicki (3 February 173514 March 1801), from 1766 Prince-Bishop of Warmia (in German, ''Ermland'') and from 1795 Archbishop of Gniezno (thus, Primate of Poland), was Poland's leading Enlightenment poet"Ignacy Krasic ...
's ''
Fables and Parables'' (1779) and
Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz
Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz ( , ; 6 February 1758 – 21 May 1841) was a Polish poet, playwright and statesman. He was a leading advocate for the Constitution of 3 May 1791.
Early life
Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz was born 6 February 1758 in Skoki, nea ...
's ''The Return of the Deputy'' (1790). ''Pharaohs story covers a two-year period, ending in 1085
BCE
Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...
with the demise of the Egyptian
Twentieth Dynasty
The Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XX, alternatively 20th Dynasty or Dynasty 20) is the third and last dynasty of the Ancient Egyptian New Kingdom period, lasting from 1189 BC to 1077 BC. The 19th and 20th Dynasties furthermore togeth ...
and
New Kingdom.
Polish
Nobel laureate Czesław Miłosz has written of ''Pharaoh'':
The perspective of which Miłosz writes, enables Prus, while formulating an ostensibly objective vision of historic Egypt, simultaneously to create a satire on man and society, much as
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dubl ...
in Britain had done the previous century.
But ''Pharaoh'' is ''par excellence'' a political novel. Its young protagonist, Prince Ramses (who is 22 years old at the novel's opening), learns that those who would oppose the priesthood are vulnerable to cooptation,
seduction
Seduction has multiple meanings. Platonically, it can mean "to persuade to disobedience or disloyalty", or "to lead astray, usually by persuasion or false promises".
Strategies of seduction include conversation and sexual scripts, paralingual ...
, subornation,
defamation, intimidation or
assassination. Perhaps the chief lesson, belatedly absorbed by Ramses as pharaoh, is the importance, to power, of knowledge — of
science
Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...
.
As a political novel, ''Pharaoh'' became a favorite of
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
's; similarities have been pointed out between it and
Sergei Eisenstein
Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (russian: Сергей Михайлович Эйзенштейн, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ ɪjzʲɪnˈʂtʲejn, 2=Sergey Mikhaylovich Eyzenshteyn; 11 February 1948) was a Soviet film director, scree ...
's film ''
Ivan the Terrible'', produced under Stalin's tutelage. The novel's English
translator
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...
has recounted wondering, well in advance of the event, whether
President John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until assassination of Joh ...
would meet with a fate like that of the book's protagonist.
''Pharaoh'' is, in a sense, an extended study of the
metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wi ...
of
society
A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Soci ...
-as-
organism
In biology, an organism () is any living system that functions as an individual entity. All organisms are composed of cells (cell theory). Organisms are classified by taxonomy into groups such as multicellular animals, plants, and ...
that Prus had adopted from English philosopher and sociologist
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English philosopher, psychologist, biologist, anthropologist, and sociologist famous for his hypothesis of social Darwinism. Spencer originated the expression " survival of the fi ...
, and that Prus makes explicit in the introduction to the novel: "the Egyptian nation in its times of greatness formed, as it were, a single person, in which the priesthood was the mind, the pharaoh was the will, the people the body, and obedience the cement." All of society's
organ systems must work together harmoniously, if society is to survive and prosper.
''Pharaoh'' is a study of factors that affect the rise and fall of
civilization
A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system).
...
s.
Inspirations
''Pharaoh'' is unique in Prus' ''oeuvre'' as a ''historical'' novel. A
Positivist by philosophical persuasion, Prus had long argued that historical novels must inevitably distort historic reality. He had, however, eventually come over to the view of the French Positivist critic
Hippolyte Taine that the arts, including literature, may act as a second means alongside the sciences to study reality, including broad historic reality.
Prus, in the interest of making certain points, intentionally introduced some
anachronisms and
anatopisms into the novel.
The book's depiction of the demise of
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
's
New Kingdom three thousand years earlier, reflects the
demise
Demise is an Anglo-Norman legal term (from French ''démettre'', from Latin ''dimittere'', to send away) for the transfer of an estate, especially by lease. It has an operative effect in a lease, implying a covenant "for quiet enjoyment."
The ...
of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi- confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Poland and Lithuania ru ...
in 1795, exactly a century before ''Pharaohs completion.
A preliminary sketch for Prus' only historical novel was his first historical
short story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...
, "
A Legend of Old Egypt." This remarkable story shows clear parallels with the subsequent novel in
setting,
theme and
denouement
Dramatic structure (also known as dramaturgical structure) is the structure of a dramatic work such as a book, play, or film. There are different kinds of dramatic structures worldwide which have been hypothesized by critics, writers and schola ...
. "A Legend of Old Egypt", in its turn, had taken inspiration from contemporaneous events: the fatal 1887-88 illnesses of Germany's warlike
Kaiser Wilhelm I
William I or Wilhelm I (german: Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig; 22 March 1797 – 9 March 1888) was King of Prussia from 2 January 1861 and German Emperor from 18 January 1871 until his death in 1888. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he was the f ...
and of his reform-minded son and successor,
Friedrich III. The latter emperor ''would'', then unbeknown to Prus, survive his ninety-year-old predecessor, but only by ninety-nine days.
In 1893 Prus' old friend
Julian Ochorowicz
Julian Leopold Ochorowicz (Polish pronunciation: ; outside Poland also known as Julien Ochorowitz; Radzymin, 23 February 1850 – 1 May 1917, Warsaw) was a Polish philosopher, psychologist, inventor (precursor of radio and television), poet, p ...
, having returned to
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
from Paris, delivered several public lectures on ancient Egyptian knowledge. Ochorowicz (whom Prus had portrayed in ''
The Doll'' as the scientist "Julian Ochocki," obsessed with inventing a powered flying machine, a decade and a half before the
Wright brothers’ 1903 flight) may have inspired Prus to write his historical novel about ancient Egypt. Ochorowicz made available to Prus books on the subject that he had brought from Paris.
In preparation for composing ''Pharaoh'', Prus made a painstaking study of
Egyptological sources, including works by
John William Draper,
Ignacy Żagiell,
Georg Ebers and
Gaston Maspero. Prus actually incorporated ancient texts into his novel like
tessera
A tessera (plural: tesserae, diminutive ''tessella'') is an individual tile, usually formed in the shape of a square, used in creating a mosaic. It is also known as an abaciscus or abaculus.
Historical tesserae
The oldest known tesserae ...
e into a
mosaic
A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...
; drawn from one such text was a major character, Ennana.
''Pharaoh'' also alludes to biblical
Old Testament accounts of
Moses (chapter 7), the
plagues of Egypt
The Plagues of Egypt, in the account of the book of Exodus, are ten disasters inflicted on Biblical Egypt by the God of Israel in order to convince the Pharaoh to emancipate the enslaved Israelites, each of them confronting Pharaoh and one of hi ...
(chapter 64), and
Judith and
Holofernes
In the deuterocanonical Book of Judith, Holofernes ( grc, Ὀλοφέρνης; he, הולופרנס) was an invading Assyrian general known for having been beheaded by Judith, a Hebrew widow who entered his camp and beheaded him while he was ...
(chapter 7); and to Troy, which had recently been excavated by Heinrich Schliemann.
For certain of the novel's prominent features, Prus, the conscientious journalist and scholar, seems to have insisted on having two sources, one of them based on personal or at least contemporary experience. One such dually-determined feature relates to Egyptian beliefs about an afterlife. In 1893, the year before beginning his novel, Prus the skeptic had started taking an intense interest in Spiritualism (religious movement), Spiritualism, attending Warsaw séances which featured the Italian medium (spirituality), medium, Eusapia Palladino#Warsaw, Eusapia Palladino—the same medium whose Paris séances, a dozen years later, would be attended by Eusapia Palladino#Paris, Pierre and Marie Curie. Palladino had been brought to
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
from a St. Petersburg mediumistic tour by Prus' friend Julian Ochorowicz, Ochorowicz.
Modern Spiritualism had been initiated in 1848 in Hydeville, New York, by the Fox sisters, Katie and Margaret, aged 11 and 15, and had survived even their 1888 confession that forty years earlier they had caused the "spirits'" telegraph-like tapping sounds by snapping their toe joints. Spiritualist "mediums" in America and Europe claimed to communicate through tapping sounds with spirits of the dead, eliciting their secrets and conjuring up voices, music, noises and other antics, and occasionally working "miracles" such as levitation (paranormal), levitation.
Spiritualism inspired several of ''Pharaohs most striking scenes, especially (chapter 20) the secret meeting at the Temple of Seth in Memphis between three Egyptian priests—Herhor, Mefres, Pentuer—and the
Chaldean magus-priest Berossus; and (chapter 26) the protagonist Ramses' night-time exploration at the Temple of Hathor in Pi-Bast, when unseen hands touch his head and back.
Another dually determined feature of the novel is the "Suez Canal" that the Phoenician Prince Hiram proposes digging. The modern Suez Canal had been completed by Ferdinand de Lesseps in 1869, a quarter-century before Prus commenced writing ''Pharaoh''. But, as Prus was aware when writing chapter one, the Suez Canal had had a predecessor in a canal that had connected the Nile River with the Red Sea — during Egypt's Middle Kingdom of Egypt, Middle Kingdom, centuries before the period of the novel.
A third dually determined feature of ''Pharaoh'' is the historical Egyptian
Labyrinth
In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (, ) was an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by t ...
, which had been described in the fifth century BCE in Book II of ''The Histories of Herodotus''. The Herodotus, Father of History had visited Egypt's entirely stone-built administrative center, pronounced it more impressive than the pyramids, declared it "beyond my power to describe"—then proceeded to give a striking description that Prus incorporated into his novel. The Labyrinth had, however, been made palpably real for Prus by an 1878 visit that he had paid to the famous ancient labyrinthine Wieliczka Salt Mine, salt mine at Wieliczka, near Kraków in southern Poland. According to the foremost Prus scholar, Zygmunt Szweykowski, "The power of the Labyrinth scenes stems, among other things, from the fact that they echo Prus' own experiences when visiting Wieliczka."
Writing over four decades before the construction of the United States' Fort Knox United States Bullion Depository, Depository, Prus pictures Egypt's Labyrinth as a perhaps flood-able Egyptian Fort Knox, a repository of gold bullion and of artistic and historic treasures. It was, he writes (chapter 56), "the greatest treasury in Egypt. [H]ere... was preserved the treasure of the Egyptian kingdom, accumulated over centuries, of which it is difficult today to have any conception."
Finally, a fourth dually determined feature was inspired by a solar eclipse that Prus had witnessed at Mława, a hundred kilometers north-northwest of
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
, on 19 August 1887, the day before his fortieth birthday. Prus probably also was aware of Christopher Columbus#Fourth voyage (1502–1504), Christopher Columbus' manipulative use of a lunar eclipse, ''lunar'' eclipse on 29 February 1504, while marooned for a year on Jamaica, to extort provisions from the Arawak peoples, Arawak natives. March 1504 lunar eclipse, The latter incident strikingly resembles the exploitation of a solar eclipse, ''solar'' eclipse by Ramses' chief adversary, Herhor, high priest of Amon, in a culminating scene of the novel. (Similar use of Columbus' lunar eclipse had in 1889 been made by Mark Twain in ''Historically significant lunar eclipses#1 March 1504, A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court''.)
Yet another plot element involves the Greek, Lykon, in chapters 63 and 66 and ''passim''—hypnosis and post-hypnotic suggestion.
It is unclear whether Prus, in using the plot device of the
look-alike (Berossus' double; Lykon as double to Ramses), was inspired by earlier novelists who had employed it, including Alexandre Dumas (''The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later#Part Three: The Man in the Iron Mask (Chapters 181–269), The Man in the Iron Mask'', 1850), Charles Dickens (''A Tale of Two Cities'', 1859) and Mark Twain (''The Prince and the Pauper'', 1882).
Prus, a disciple of Positivism, Positivist philosophy, took a strong interest in the history of science. He was aware of Eratosthenes' remarkably accurate calculation of the Earth#Size and shape, earth's circumference, and the invention of a steam engine by Heron of Alexandria, centuries after the period of his novel, in Alexandrian Egypt. In chapter 60, he fictitiously credits these achievements to the priest Menes, one of three individuals of the identical name who are mentioned or depicted in ''Pharaoh'':
[Christopher Kasparek, "Prus' ''Pharaoh'' and Curtin's Translation", p. 129.] Prus was not always fastidious about characters' names.
Accuracy
Examples of
anachronism and
anatopism, mentioned above, bear out that a punctilious historical accuracy was never an object with Prus in writing ''Pharaoh.'' "That's not the point", Prus' compatriot Joseph Conrad told a relative. Prus had long emphasized in his "Weekly Chronicles" articles that historical novels cannot but distort historic reality. He used ancient Egypt as a canvas on which to depict his deeply considered perspectives on man, civilization and politics.
Nevertheless, ''Pharaoh'' ''is'' remarkably accurate, even from the standpoint of present-day Egyptology. The novel does a notable job of recreating a primal ancient civilization, complete with the geography, climate, plants, animals, ethnicities, countryside, agriculture, cities, trades, commerce, social stratification, politics, ancient Egyptian religion, religion and Ancient warfare#By culture, warfare. Prus succeeds remarkably in transporting readers back to the Egypt of thirty-one centuries ago.
The Mummy#Ancient Egypt, embalming and funeral scenes; the noble court, court etiquette, protocol; the waking and feeding of the gods; the religious beliefs, ceremonies and processions; the concept behind the design of Pharaoh Zoser's Step Pyramid#Ancient Egypt, Step Pyramid at Saqqara; the descriptions of travels and of locales visited on the Nile River, Nile and in the Western Desert (North Africa), desert; Egypt's exploitation of Nubia as a source of gold — all draw upon scholarly documentation. The personalities and behaviors of the characters are keenly observed and deftly drawn, often with the aid of apt Egyptian texts.
Popularity
''Pharaoh'', as a "political novel", has remained perennially topical ever since it was written. The book's enduring popularity, however, has as much to do with a critical yet sympathetic view of human nature and the human condition. Prus offers a vision of mankind as rich as
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
's, ranging from the
sublime to the quotidian, from the tragic to the
comic.
The book is written in limpid prose, imbued with poetry, leavened with humor, graced with moments of transcendent beauty.
Joseph Conrad, during his 1914 visit to Poland just as World War I was breaking out, "delighted in his beloved Prus" and read ''Pharaoh'' and everything else by the ten-years-older, recently deceased author that he could get his hands on. He pronounced his fellow victim of Poland's January Uprising, 1863 Uprising "better than Charles Dickens, Dickens"—Dickens being a favorite author of Conrad's.
The novel has been translated into twenty-two languages: Armenian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Estonian, French, Georgian, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Romanian, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Ukrainian.
''Pharaoh'' has been published in a 2020 English translation by
Christopher Kasparek, as an
Amazon Kindle e-book
An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alt ...
, which supersedes an incomplete and incompetent version by
Jeremiah Curtin published in 1902
[Christopher Kasparek, "Prus' ''Pharaoh'' and Curtin's Translation", pp. 127–35.] as well as Kasparek's own earlier
hardcover translations of 1991 and 2001.
Film
In 1966 ''Pharaoh'' was adapted as a Polish
feature film
A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...
directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz. In 1967 the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film.
See also
*"
A Legend of Old Egypt"
*"Mold of the Earth"
*Assassinations in fiction#Novels, Assassinations in fiction
*Egypt in the European imagination#19th century, Egypt in the European imagination
*Political fiction#Classics, Political fiction
*Politics in fiction#Written works, Politics in fiction
*Utopian and dystopian fiction#Utopian fiction, Utopian and dystopian fiction
*
Bildungsroman
In literary criticism, a ''Bildungsroman'' (, plural ''Bildungsromane'', ) is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood (coming of age), in which character change is import ...
*Solar eclipses in fiction#Novels, Solar eclipses in fiction
*Spiritualism in fiction#Written works, Spiritualism in fiction
*
Labyrinth
In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (, ) was an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by t ...
*Wieliczka Salt Mine#Mine for touring, Wieliczka Salt Mine
*Look-alike#Literature, Look-alike
*Hypnosis in fiction#Written works, Hypnosis in fiction
*Anatopism#Examples, Anatopism
*Anachronism#Art and literature, Anachronism
*Kazimierz Bein
*
Jeremiah Curtin
*Pharaoh (film), ''Pharaoh'' (the film)
Notes
References
*
Czesław Miłosz, ''The History of Polish Literature'', New York, Macmillan, 1969.
*
*
*
Christopher Kasparek, "Prus' ''Pharaoh'': Primer on Power", ''The Polish Review'', vol. XL, no. 3, 1995, pp. 331–34.
*
Christopher Kasparek, "Prus' ''Pharaoh'' and the Wieliczka Salt Mine", ''The Polish Review'', vol. XLII, no. 3, 1997, pp. 349–55.
*
Christopher Kasparek, "Prus' ''Pharaoh'' and the Solar Eclipse", ''The Polish Review'', vol. XLII, no. 4, 1997, pp. 471–78.
*
Christopher Kasparek, "A Futurological Note: Prus on H.G. Wells and the Year 2000," ''The Polish Review'', vol. XLVIII, no. 1, 2003, pp. 89–100.
* Zygmunt Szweykowski, ''Twórczość Bolesława Prusa'' (The Creative Writing of Bolesław Prus), 2nd edition, Warsaw, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1972.
* Zygmunt Szweykowski, ''Nie tylko o Prusie: szkice'' (Not Only about Prus: Sketches), Poznań, Wydawnictwo Poznańskie, 1967.
* Krystyna Tokarzówna and Stanisław Fita, ''Bolesław Prus, 1847-1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości'' (Bolesław Prus, 1847-1912: a Calendar of [His] Life and Work), edited by Zygmunt Szweykowski, Warsaw, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1969.
* Edward Pieścikowski, ''Bolesław Prus'', 2nd ed., Warsaw, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1985.
* Stanisław Fita, ed., ''Wspomnienia o Bolesławie Prusie'' (Reminiscences about Bolesław Prus), Warsaw, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1962.
* Zdzisław Najder, ''Joseph Conrad: a Life'', translated by Halina Najder, Rochester, Camden House, 2007, .
* Zdzisław Najder, ''Conrad under Familial Eyes'', Cambridge University Press, 1984, .
* Teresa Tyszkiewicz, ''Bolesław Prus'', Warsaw, Państwowe Zakłady Wydawnictw Szkolnych, 1971.
* Jan Zygmunt Jakubowski, ed., ''Literatura polska od średniowiecza do pozytywizmu'' (Polish Literature from the Middle Ages to Positivism), Warsaw, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1979.
* James Henry Breasted, ''A History of Egypt from the Earliest Times to the Persian Conquest'', New York, Bantam Books, 1967.
* Adolf Erman, ed., ''The Ancient Egyptians: a Sourcebook of Their Writings'', translated [from the German] by Aylward M. Blackman, introduction to the Torchbook edition by William Kelly Simpson, New York, Harper & Row, 1966.
* Herodotus, ''The Histories'', translated and with an introduction by Aubrey de Sélincourt, Harmondsworth, England, Penguin Books, 1965.
* Samuel Eliot Morison, ''Christopher Columbus, Mariner'', Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1955.
*
Bolesław Prus
Aleksander Głowacki (20 August 1847 – 19 May 1912), better known by his pen name Bolesław Prus (), was a Polish novelist, a leading figure in the history of Polish literature and philosophy, as well as a distinctive voice in world li ...
, ''Pharaoh'', translated from the Polish, with foreword and notes, by
Christopher Kasparek,
Amazon Kindle e-book
An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alt ...
, 2020, ASIN:BO8MDN6CZV.
External links
''The Pharaoh and the Priest: an Historical Novel of Ancient Egypt'' ''from the Original Polish of Alexander Glovatski, by Jeremiah Curtin, JEREMIAH CURTIN, Translator of "With Fire and Sword," "The Deluge," "Quo Vadis," etc., with Illustrations from Photographs''. (An incomplete and incompetent translation, by Jeremiah Curtin, of Prus' novel ''Pharaoh'', published by Little, Brown in 1902.)
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Polish novels
1895 Polish novels
Novels by Bolesław Prus
Political novels
Novels first published in serial form
Polish historical novels
Novels set in ancient Egypt
Polish novels adapted into films
Works originally published in Polish newspapers