Amelia Peabody series
Elizabeth Peters | |
Country | United States |
---|---|
Language | English |
Genre | Historical mystery, Thriller, Satire, Comedy |
Publisher | Morrow/HarperCollins (current) |
Published | 1975–2010, 2017 |
Media type | Print (hardback and paperback), audiobook |
No. of books | 20S (List of books) |
The Amelia Peabody series is a series of twenty
Plot
Amelia Peabody is introduced in the series' first novel, Crocodile on the Sandbank as a confirmed spinster, suffragist, and scholar, living in England in 1884. She inherits a fortune from her father and leaves England to see the world, with the side benefit of escaping various suitors and family members who were neither aware that she would be the sole beneficiary of her father's estate nor that he had amassed a small fortune over the course of his lifetime.
In Rome, Amelia meets Evelyn Barton-Forbes, a young Englishwoman of social standing who has run off with (and subsequently been abandoned by) her Italian lover, and the two make their way to Egypt. There they meet the Emerson brothers, Egyptologist Radcliffe and his philologist brother Walter. Over the course of the first book the couples pair up: Amelia marries Radcliffe (referred to throughout the series by his last name "Emerson"), and Evelyn marries Walter.
Following the birth of their son
Peabody and Emerson return to Egypt at least once without Ramses (The Curse of the Pharaohs) in 1892 before deciding to bring him along on their annual digs (The Mummy Case), beginning in the 1894-95 season. Amelia's desire to explore pyramids is countered by Emerson's refusal to be diplomatic with the Egyptian Service d'Antiquites, resulting in the loss of their firman (permit) to excavate at one of the major pyramid fields, and instead being awarded Mazghuna, a minor pyramid field southwest of Cairo.
While the Emersons are excavating at Mazghuna, they encounter an enigmatic criminal mastermind who runs an illicit underground antiquities trade, stealing artifacts from tombs, which puts him at odds with the Emersons. Amelia initially calls him "The Master Criminal," although his nom de guerre is eventually revealed to be
The Emerson family expands again during the 1897-1898 season while on an archaeological expedition to
Another key character is introduced in the 1899-1900 season (The Hippopotamus Pool), that of David Todros, the son of Abdullah's estranged daughter and her Christian husband. David is living in a state of semi-slavery, working for a forger of antiquities. A key character in that novel, he is later taken in by Evelyn and Walter Emerson as a ward. David later marries Evelyn and Walter's daughter Amelia (known as Lia to avoid confusion with her aunt).
The introduction of Nefret initiates a running story arc of sexual tension between her and Ramses. This becomes an important part of the plot in a subset of four books beginning with
The tension between Ramses and Nefret is finally resolved in
Additional characters in the series include members of the large Egyptian family who support the Emersons in their digs. The head of the family is Abdullah ibn al-Wahhab, Emerson's reis or foreman, who supervises their archaeological digs. Abdullah has several children, among them his youngest son, Selim, who, originally assigned as a bodyguard of sorts for Ramses (The Mummy Case), eventually replaces his father as reis (dig supervisor). Abdullah's daughter-in-law, Khadijah, her cooking, and her green healing poultice (which is effective, although its exact contents are never quite determined) are frequently mentioned. After Abdullah's death (The Ape Who Guards the Balance) the character appears to Amelia in dreams as a spiritual guide (although it is left ambiguous whether his appearance is a manifestation of Amelia's own subconsciousness or supernatural in nature).
Chronologically, the latest book in the series (Tomb of the Golden Bird)) takes place in 1922-23, around the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb.
Narrative style
The earlier books in the series—prior to
Beginning with
Historical figures and setting
The series is set primarily in
The books span a thirty-nine-year period from 1884 to 1923, which coincides with the period of the British administration of Egypt after the Anglo-Egyptian War. In earlier novels, Sir Evelyn Baring, Lord Cromer, the British consul general to Cairo and de facto ruler of the country at the time, makes occasional cameo appearances. The uneasy relationship between the Egyptians and their European administrators is a running theme throughout the series, especially with regards to foreign oversight of the Egyptian Service d'Antiquities and its allowance of foreign organizations to export artifacts out of Egypt to Europe and the United States rather than keeping them in Egypt.
The series incorporates a number of prominent historical figures from the field of Egyptology as characters, including
The series incorporates contemporary geo-political events in Egypt and the Middle East into the background as well as directly into the plot. The
The character of Ramses, thought to be a conscientious objector, is revealed to be working with British intelligence during the First World War, playing a key role in thwarting the Raid on the Suez Canal by Ottoman forces and providing intelligence to the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in their campaigns. As she grows into adulthood, the character of Nefret Forth Emerson is trained as a doctor, working among the poor, championing education and rights for Egyptian women, and eventually establishing a hospital in Cairo's red light district that primarily employs females.
Character inspirations
Most of the archaeological achievements attributed to the Emerson-Peabodys were, in reality, accomplished by many of the archaeologists who pass through the novels as supporting characters. For example, the excavations that Emerson and Walter are undertaking at
Amelia herself was partly inspired by Amelia Edwards,[2] a Victorian novelist, travel writer, and Egyptologist, whose best-selling 1873 book, A Thousand Miles up the Nile[3] is similar in both tone and content to Amelia Emerson's narration. The character was also semi-autobiographical: pressures on Amelia to marry and abandon her Egyptological career in the first book were based on Peters's own experience in academia.
In other instances, fictional accomplishments are ascribed to Amelia and Emerson. For example, the tomb of the 17th Dynasty Queen
Publication history
The first book in the series,
The first eighteen books in the series were written in chronological order, with the exception of
In the same talk, Peters stated that installments written after that point would "fill in the gaps" in the series' chronology, as there were gaps of several years between some volumes. The next (and last) book to be published, A River in the Sky (the 19th book in publication order) was retroactively inserted into the series chronology as the 12th book.
Peters had plotted and written part of the twentieth novel in the series, The Painted Queen, at the time of her death in 2013. The manuscript was completed by Peters's friend, mystery writer Joan Hess, with assistance from Egyptologist Salma Ikram,[8] and was published in July 2017. It is set in the 1912-13 season, making it the fourteenth of the series in chronological order, and deals with the fallout of Nefret's precipitous marriage in The Falcon at the Portal.
The series has been published in English in the United States and the United Kingdom. A varying number of volumes have been translated into other languages, including French,[9] German,[10] Greek,[11] and Japanese.[12]
Series
Book no. | Title | Date of publication (publication order) |
Setting | Archaeological Season (chronological order) |
peak position on The New York Times bestseller list |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
01 | Crocodile on the Sandbank | 1975 | Amarna | 1884–85 | - |
02 | The Curse of the Pharaohs | 1981 | Valley of the Kings | 1892–93 | - |
03 | The Mummy Case | 1985 | Mazghuna | 1894–95 | - |
04 | Lion in the Valley | 1986 | Dashur |
1895–96 | - |
05 | The Deeds of the Disturber | 1988 | London and Kent | 1896 | - |
06 | The Last Camel Died at Noon | 1991 | The Lost Oasis (Nubia) | 1897–98 | - |
07 | The Snake, the Crocodile, and the Dog | 1992 | Luxor and Amarna | 1898–99 | - |
08 | The Hippopotamus Pool | 1996 | Dra' Abu el-Naga' | 1899–1900 | - |
09 | Seeing a Large Cat | 1997 | Valley of the Kings | 1903–04 | - |
10 | The Ape Who Guards the Balance | 1998 | Valley of the Kings | 1906–07 | - |
11 | Guardian of the Horizon | 2004 | The Lost Oasis | 1907–08 | 10 |
12 | A River in the Sky | 2010 | Palestine | 1910 | 05 |
13 | The Falcon at the Portal | 1999 | Zawyet el'Aryan |
1911–12 | - |
14 | The Painted Queen (completed by Joan Hess) | 2017 | Cairo and Amarna | 1912–13 | 07 |
15 | He Shall Thunder in the Sky | 2000 | Giza Necropolis |
1914–15 | 13 |
16 | Lord of the Silent | 2001 | Giza Necropolis and Luxor |
1915–16 | 10 |
17 | The Golden One | 2002 | Gaza and Deir el-Medina | 1916–17 | 08 |
18 | Children of the Storm | 2003 | Valley of the Kings | 1919–20 | 11 |
19 | The Serpent on the Crown | 2005 | Valley of the Kings | 1921–22 | 10 |
20 | Tomb of the Golden Bird | 2006 | Valley of the Kings | 1922–23 | 07 |
Other locations
See also
- List of characters in the Amelia Peabody series
References
- ^ Elizabeth Peters, The laughter of dead kings, (New York: Harper, 2008, pp. 315-321).
- ^ a b See Peters' "travel journal", documenting a 2000 "Amelia Peabody" tour to Egypt, published with The Golden One.
- ^ A Thousand Miles up the Nile, public domain title, with a recent printing available at Norton Creek Press (see "The official website of Elizabeth Peters aka Barbara Michaels aka Barbara Mertz". Archived from the original on 2008-10-02. Retrieved 2008-12-04. Newsletter #50, p. 3)
- ^ Peters, Elizabeth (April 1994). "Series Characters: Love 'em or Leave 'em". The Writer. 107 (4): 9.
- ^ Archipelago, World. "HarperCollins US".
- ^ "Welcome to Little, Brown Book Group". 13 March 2019.
- ^ "Elizabeth Peters - CyberLC". Library of Congress.
- ^ "MPM Books - Adding Colors to Your Life".
- ISBN 2253090670.
- ISBN 978-3548284958.
- ISBN 978-9605363253.
- ISBN 978-4562046683.
Sources
- Maps and timelines of the Emersons' travels at the official Amelia Peabody website; previously available at AmeliaPeabody.com, and archived at the Internet Archive. August 2015 "Maps" and Timeline
- The Peabody-Emerson Excavations 1884-1923, including a map of sites along the Nile River