The Egyptian
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"During my life I have seen, known, and lost too much to be the prey of vain dread; and, as for the hope of immortality, I am as weary of that as I am of gods and kings. For my own sake only I write this; and herein I differ from all other writers, past and to come."
—Sinuhe
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The Egyptian (or Sinuhe the Egyptian) is a historical novel by Mika Waltari first published in Finnish in 1945. It details the life-story of an Egyptian doctor named Sinuhe, and his interactions with others during the turbulent reign of Akhenaton during the 18th dynasty.
The story is told via the Framing Device of Sinuhe writing down his memoirs; as this clever device allows for plenty of room for doubts as to his reliability, the novel is an impressive example of combining both Shown Their Work and Science Marches On: Much of what Waltari writes was considered the best historical knowledge of his day, although much has also been reevaluated by modern historians. The main character of the book is named for the protagonist of a story called The Story of Sinuhe who overhears a secret and has to leave Egypt. The parallels to the protagonist of the novel is noted by characters inside the story.
Sinuhe's story begins when he is found floating down the Nile in a reed boat; he grows up to become a doctor and in the process meets and befriends the Pharaoh, Akhenaton, as well as the general, Horemheb. After losing all his possessions to a woman he escapes into exile, where he spends his time spying and learning in various foreign lands. In Babylon he meets and sets free a woman named Minea destined for human sacrifice on Crete; after her death Sinuhe returns to Egypt and becomes embroiled in the conflict between the Pharaoh Akhenaton with his new god Aton and the old church of Ammon. Eventually Sinuhe poisons his friend the Pharaoh, and Horemheb becomes the true ruler of Egypt, although first under a succession of puppet-rulers. Finally Sinuhe confronts Horemheb over his various misdeeds and is sent into exile, where he writes down his life's story.
Sadly, the only English language version available of the novel is an abridged version, which cuts the original 900+ page novel down to 500+ pages. The complete novel has been translated unabridged to several other languages though.
The novel was made into a 1954 20th Century Fox film starring Edmund Purdom as Sinuhe, Michael Wilding as Akenaton, Bella Darvi as Nefer, and Victor Mature (Demetrius and the Gladiators) as Horemheb; Peter Ustinov does his usual scene-stealing as Kapteh. It is hard to believe that this rather ponderous movie was directed by Michael Curtiz, the director of Captain Blood, The Adventures of Robin Hood, and Casablanca. Nevertheless, it has a memorable score by Bernard Herrmann and Alfred Newman. Marilyn Monroe apparently auditioned for the role of Nefer. The movie has some substantial differences from the novel.
- Ancient Egypt: Duh
- Anti-Hero: Sinuhe, at best.
- Beware the Honest Ones: Akhenaton.
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"The Pharaoh claims to live of the truth, not realizing that the truth is a knife in the hands of a small child." |
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- Cartwright Curse: Sinuhe, again.
- Charm Person: It is noted that Akhenaton can make people see the world the way he does. Horemheb notes that if it were possible just to bring everyone in the world to the Pharaoh so that he could talk to them the world might be changed. In a Crowning Moment of Funny we later hear that he'd actually made calculations for trying to achieve this.
- The Confidant: Kaptah is rather this for Sinuhe than a slave.
- Corrupt Church: The church of Ammon.
- Saintly Church: The church of Aton. A deconstruction in that the novel asks the question of which one is worse.
- Crapsack World: The Aesop of the story ends on the somewhat existentialist note that you really can't change anything but your own attitude, that people are corrupt and weak, and that the only person who really wished everyone well is completely incapable of grasping this fact, which just ends up making things worse.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance AND Values Resonance: Waltari has a lot of fun with this.
- Devoted to You: Horemheb to princess Baketamon.
- Doorstopper: The book has over 900 pages and it is ofter published in two volumes.
- Downer Ending: At the conclusion, all of Sinuhe's actions end up crushing his dreams, leaving him in bitter exile.
- Femme Fatale: Nefer.
- Framing Device
- Grey and Grey Morality
- Happiness in Slavery: Kaptah is often nostalgic for the days when he was Sinuhe's slave, although he notes that in part this was because being a slave he could move around without being noticed, and that Sinuhe usually left him to his own devices anyway.
- He-Man Woman Hater: Horemheb.
- Heroic BSOD: Sinuhe has a really bad one, when Minea dies. It hit him so hard, that he actually sank into an alcoholic, self-harming, nearly suicidal depression for several months, before Kaptah gives him some Epiphany Therapy
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Overall I was deeply bored to Kaptah during these days, because he served me food constantly even if I wasn't hungry and all I would have wanted was wine. You see, I had a constant thirst, a thrist that only wine could ease * I tried to explain this all to Kaptah, but he didn't listen me at all, and ordered me to rest and keep my eyes closed so I could relax. However, I was completely calm in my mind and cold blooded like a dead fish in a barrel of oil * That's why I didn't want to close my eyes at all and I tried to take my cane so I could hit Kaptah, but my hand was so weak, that he only wrenched the cane out of my hand * He also hid my exellent knife - the one that I had got as a gift from the Hethic dockhand - so I couldn't find it when I would've gladly seen the blood flowing from my veins. |
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- Historical Fiction
- Inspirationally Disadvantaged: Kaptah was worth less on the slave market for being half-blind, but turns out to be extremely useful.
- Ironic Nursery Tune: Or rather Ironic Nursery Fairytale. During their "dating" Nefer tells Sinuhe a story of a man who sacrifices everything to his loved one, including killing his wife and children and as a punishment he gets thrown into a red hot, steaming oven. Later on, Sinuhe gives Nefer everything he has when trying to win her love. This also includes his family's house and later his parent's tomb when they die in the streets as beggars. And the red hot, steaming oven is his own guilt when he realizes what he has done
- Karma Houdini: Two people end up making it in the book: One is a rapist, the other a ruthless "Greed Is Good" kind of capitalist. Everyone else is either dead or in exile.
- Knights Templar and Utopia Justifies the Means: Pharaoh Akhenaton has aspects of these.
- Light Is Not Good: In a twist, both Aton and Ammon are explained using light-imagery.
- And, well, they were solar deities in the Egyptian Mythology canon.
- Loveable Rogue: Kaptah
- Love Freak: Akhenaton is a deconstructed example, although in a more subdued manner than most.
- Love Martyr: Nefer uses Sinuhe, Baketamon abuses Horemheb.
- Manipulative Bastard: Many -- e.g., Ay, Horemheb, Kaptah, Nefer...
- Although Kaptah arguably rises to magnificience.
- Modern Major-General: Pepitamon, one of Ankhenaton's generals, who is an excellent breeder of cats.
- Rightful King Returns: Averted; the heir to the throne ends up in exile, and the commoner Horemheb becomes pharaoh.
- The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized
- Sidekick: Kaptah
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: FAR, far on the cynical end of the scale.
- The Vamp: Nefer
- Kinda subversion, because she actually warns Sinuhe, that if he falls for her, she will eventually demolish everything he holds dear. But, being young and stupid, Sinuhe ignores the warnings.
- Say My Name: She is usually referred to as Nefernefernefer because "No man can resist, saying my name just once." It doesn't help that the world Nefer can mean "beautiful."
- And also "good". Oh, dear.
- Virgin Sacrifice: In a play on the story of The Minotaur Minea is to be sacrificed to the Cretan God... only God Is Dead and rather than being sacrificed, she is killed to keep this a secret. Yeah, it's that kind of story.
- What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic?: The novel works on several levels and often very deliberately so; the religion of Aton, for instance, stands for both Christianity and Communism. In general, you can tell it was written just after a world war.