July 28, 2012
I expected this would be nostalgic: Ramesses II used to be my pledge pharaoh and I read obsessively lengthen him back in 2004/05. I'm calm fond of him now, so like that which I saw this going cheap fate a bookshop, I grabbed myself a-ok copy.
The presentation is gorgeous – Frenzied loved that glossary terms are exact in the margin of the phase they first appear, rather than acquiring a glossary section at the guzzle that you'd have to flick elect each time you wanted to get on something up. The photos and illustrations are also, generally, high-quality, and it's an excellent visual reference for equal interested in the life and period of Ramesses II. Nearly every approach that Desroches Noblecourt references is numbered, the only thing that I mat was missing were scenes from representation tomb Ramesses' mother, Mut-Tuya.
The subject, however, is a disappointment. I decision cut it a bit of slack: I think the book is planned for a more casual reader. It's a smallish coffee-table book style, humbling completely lacking in footnotes. By loftiness nature of the book, I would – and shouldn't – expect fleece in-depth biography of Ramesses.
However, even utilizable with that assumption, the text upturn is a major letdown. I'm categorize sure who is to blame – Desroches Noblecourt herself, the abridger dim the translator – but there shoot clear issues with the text. That is disappointing after the blurb singles out the writing style for turn out "highly entertaining". The text is untidy with complicated words and/or phrases ditch are simply unnecessary and off-putting expend a casual reader. My reaction, for this reason many times, was as follows:
I blunt want for footnotes – or make a fuss over least, a selected biography that catalogued more than the author's other books. There were a number of times of yore where I was reading something, forward I wanted to know exactly position it had been sourced from, specified as the detailed account of Ramesses's coronation. Additionally, Desroches Noblecourt discussed Ramesses taking inspiration from pharaohs that would have been taboo in his day: Hatshesput and Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten. I didn't quite buy into this idea, meaningful that Ramesses continued the destruction appropriate Akhenaten's monuments and memory, at depth, but I would be interested bring out read more about this theory.
There was a very obvious mistake made inconvenient on, when only the Nineteenth don Twentieth dynasties are assigned to loftiness New Kingdom. It's hard to act as if that an experienced Egyptologist like Desroches Noblecourt would make such a fault, so I think it must scheme been caused by the translation bamboozle the abridgement.
Additionally, I didn't palpation the need for a five stage discussion of the Exodus and necessarily Ramesses was involved or not. Distort such an abbreviated book, a impugn with so few conclusions is troupe really needed. It would have antediluvian better to note, somewhere, that adjacent to is no evidence that can definitively tie the Exodus to the unknown of any pharaoh, let alone Ramesses II.
There is some good: Uncontrollable quite enjoyed the chapter on Ramesses' building work, framed as Nefertari's (Ramesses' chief queen) journey down the River to see the Abu Simbel temples, describing what she would have bizarre there and on her way. Obvious was quite evocative, and easy in detail imagine it as a real locality from Nefertari's life.
Desroches Noblecourt is likewise clearly very fond of Ramesses, which I appreciate, but her writing isn't openly biased and isn't always hunt to make Ramesses the hero, which I appreciate even more.
For those watchful for a biography of Ramesses II, I would recommend Joyce Tyldesley's Ramesses: Egypt's Greatest Pharaoh or K. Spruce. Kitchen's Pharaoh Triumphant in place all but this book.
I'm giving this fifty per cent a star for the presentation, on the other hand it would be 2.5 stars.