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The Egyptologist
The Egyptologist
The Egyptologist
Audiobook16 hours

The Egyptologist

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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About this audiobook

From the bestselling author of Prague comes a witty, inventive, brilliantly constructed novel about an Egyptologist obsessed with finding the tomb of an apocryphal king. This darkly comic labyrinth of a story opens on the desert plains of Egypt in 1922, then winds its way from the slums of Australia to the ballrooms of Boston by way of Oxford, the battlefields of the First World War, and a royal court in turmoil. Just as Howard Carter unveils the tomb of Tutankhamun, making the most dazzling find in the history of archaeology, Oxford-educated Egyptologist Ralph Trilipush is digging himself into trouble, having staked his professional reputation and his fiancEe's fortune on a scrap of hieroglyphic pornography. Meanwhile, a relentless Australian detective sets off on the case of his career, spanning the globe in search of a murderer. And another murderer. And possibly another murderer. The confluence of these seemingly separate stories results in an explosive ending, at once inevitable and utterly unpredictable. Arthur Phillips leads this expedition to its unforgettable climax with all the wit and narrative bravado that made Prague one of the most critically acclaimed novels of 2002. Exploring issues of class, greed, ambition, and the very human hunger for eternal life, this staggering second novel gives us a glimpse of Phillips's range and maturity-and is sure to earn him further acclaim as one of the most exciting authors of his generation.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateFeb 7, 2008
ISBN9781440796005
The Egyptologist

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Reviews for The Egyptologist

Rating: 3.350746177398721 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

469 ratings47 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The book is written in the form of documents: letters, journal entries, maps, and figures. The epistolary novel has a rapid pace, good character development, humor, and action. The main theme is passion of the mind, a personality trait that can take a person out of the most devastating developmental environment and into a world of dreams. Passion, however, can change to delusion that in archeology may go undetected for a millennium. Arthur Phillips’ great story is very different from his more sophisticated psycho-historical novel, Prague (see my review on Amazon). Recently, I bought the author’s novel, Angelica and look forward to reading it on my Kindle 1.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I can't think of too many other edge-of-your-seat novels about archaeologists. This one is an extremely unreliable narrator, and yet you are pulling for him regardless. The last half will surprise you.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Not my cup of tea. Too longwinded

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Creative. Thematic with themes of immortality, legacy, history, truth, subjectivity, creation of self.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I have mixed feelings about this one.The epistolary style just doesn't quite work for me - it seems initially clever, but just goes on a little too long. The Egyptology is correct enough - the author acknowledges the staffs of the British Museum and the Griffith Institute as sources - but the "look and feel" of Egypt never comes through. Perhaps the author can be excused for this because he's more interested in character development than narrative description. The pre-Tut Howard Carter is deliberately mischaracterized as being a lot more important than he actually was - although he had worked for Petrie, he had no formal academic training in Egyptology and primarily worked as an antiquities inspector, artist and tour guide before hooking up with Lord Caernarvon. He certainly would not have been considered an equal or superior by an Oxford-trained Harvard Egyptology professor like Ralph Trilipush, the novel's protagonist. However, this relationship is necessary for character development and therefore forgivable. The ending is sad and funny simultaneously, and restores some sympathy for previously unsympathetic characters. Although not really a mystery, you might find it classified in that section by bookstores who can't figure out where else to put it. There is a mystery of sorts, but typical readers should figure it out in the first few chapters (although there's a denouement that might offer a little surprise. I'll give it three stars - worth reading but not something I'd want to read twice.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Interesting, detailed, odd - voices were great and certainly could tell the difference between the people & their writings. I did get to the point where I figured out what happened, but still it was interesting to the end. But not a favorite book of mine.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    One of the strangest pieces of fiction I've ever read, but enjoyable. This epistolary novel moves back and forth from 1922 Egypt and America and 1954 Sydney, Australia. It consists of entries in a journal of an archaeologist, Ralph Trilipush, on the track on the tomb of an obscure king, Atum hadu [Atum-is-Aroused] who has written erotic verse; letters and cables to and from his [Ralph's] betrothed; and correspondence from a retired detective, Ferrell, in an old folks' home in Sydney to a certain Mr. Macy, who wishes to fill in gaps in his family history, mostly relating to events surrounding a great-aunt. 1922 is the year Howard Carter astonished the world with the discovery of King Tut's tomb. Our archaeologist wishes to outshine Carter, with a greater discovery. There are 4 murders involved. The novel traces the feckless archaeologist and his bumbling as well as giving us Ferrell's memories. Early on, I figured out NONE of the narrators was reliable. What was true and what was false in their telling? There were certainly questions in Ralph's background and he revealed himself as a confidence trickster. How much of what we hear or read should we believe? How much do we delude ourselves? I took the book as a wicked satire on archaeologists and their funding. Note: I played around with the letters in our hero's name; it's an anagram for the author's name.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A rather original twist on a murder mystery set in the 1920s; the heyday of archaeology in Middle East. The narrative is told from different point of views, from the british gentleman turned archaeologist, to his rich American spoiled fiancee, to an Australian private eye investigating a missing person from his native home of down under. Things are not what they appear to be either. The Author has done his homework so a thread of authentic history and archaeological methods reinforce the story, so you are not asked to suspend belief for the sake of this zany but plausible surprise ending. Good reading for 4 seasons!

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Ugh, I finished! I did NOT enjoy this book. I normally enjoy stories that are character driven, but all the characters in this book are just horrible people. They are conceited, clueless, pompous, etc.
    And as far as my earlier update: I was right on the money. I.E., this book is very predictable.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It was kind of hard to get into it, but was glad I stuck with it. Very twisted and good!

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was EXCELLENT. Summary: archeology, murder, and crazy people in Egypt. It's got not one, but TWO unreliable narrators, and usually I'm not that crazy about even one. This is so well done, though, the author is so successful at feeding you just enough clues that you can stay on top of both story threads and have a reasonable idea of what is going on. It's also one of my favorite things, the archeological exploration during the 1920s (the Carter-Carnarvon excavation is going on in the background); I like to marvel at the insanity of people just digging up stuff on a whim with no method at all.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book started like a house afire. Unfortunately, the house was made of straw, so it burned out after the first 50-70 pages and all that was left were some smoldering embers and and .loose pieces of gold & silver left over from incinerated costume jewelry.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    There is a lot to be said in favor of this book: it seems pretty well-researched, has an interesting set of characters and is clever & funny. But it also drags things out far too long, a common vice of epistolary novels. Also I find myself disappointed in the fact that Philips relied too much on the farcical and didn't give us a proper view of the main character. I think there was more potential there. And I really want to know what the "tomb" really was. This loose end bothered me.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Insufferable protagonist.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I read this book with a speed that would make you think I adored it, but in fact I figured out the plot twists very early on and finished it just to have my guesses confirmed. I'm not sure I would recommend this to anyone except former childhood (or current adult) egyptologists--the parts with fictional!Carter were the best of the book.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is awesome so far. Great voices on the audio.

    Still really enjoying this... I like that I can't figure out what the hell's going on with the mystery!


    ... so this turned out to be very Poe-esque, which I liked, although I really was looking for something... more at the end.

    I feel like I was very involved in the beginning and especially middle with the characters, but then suddenly I didn't have a hold on anybody - which was great fun and mysterious and all that... but I never got the hold back so I just felt sort of lost.

    Definitely fun and worth it, though.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I can't think of too many other edge-of-your-seat novels about archaeologists. This one is an extremely unreliable narrator, and yet you are pulling for him regardless. The last half will surprise you.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In addition to numerous conventional virtues, what makes this book extraordinary is its use of not one but two unreliable narrators. Each of them misapprehends events in a different way, and yet through their misguided narratives the author allows the reader to glimpse the truth.It's almost as if we were looking through two panes of glass, each with an amorphous shape painted on it, and discerning a figure only in the area where the two overlap--imperceptible if you see just one of them (and also if you fail to look at the reflections in the shiny surfaces). A remarkable achievement.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    This was a tough book. I think the author is a very good writer. At times I liked the structure of the book. Most of the times I did not. It was not a simple narrative, which I could see this book getting five stars. It was a "package" of a journal from a main character, letters from another main character, and a few other letters from minor ones. I FELT THE AUTHOR WAS LAZY when the journal writer skimped due to feeling tired. I was confused because I didn't know that the documents were arranged in chronological order, sometimes breaking the main characters letters into different parts, with parts of the journal in the middle of the letter. The author was too clever for me. The four stars I gave to Fire Ice was too generous. The two stars to this book is too mean, but sometimes you got to be a Grinch.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I had to read this for my book club. I had tried it once before and given up, but stuck with it for book club. I am not sure I can recommend it very highly. I found it a little rambling and confusing. I think I know what happened in the end, but by the time I got there, I really didn't care.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved this book -- what a treat it was. Yfngoh misses the point a bit, I think -- the book is a delightful example of the "unreliable narrator" technique. Of course the guy is bogus. Give it a try.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Can a writer be too talented? Arthur Phillips might be. This book has wonderful moments. The plot concerns the life of an Australian slum boy who falls in love with Egypt. He then remakes his own life, becoming an Egyptologist replete with an Oxford degree. The next step, naturally, is to make some earth-shaking archaeological discovery. If you can invent yourself, you can invent a pharaoh as well. All these lies are tied to an aging Australian detective who dreams of becoming a mystery writer, a Boston beauty with a love of opium, Howard Carter (of King Tut fame), World War I, and the circus. If it all sounds a bit too much, well, it is. But just a bit. The second Arthur Phillips book I've read, but not the last.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Bogus delusional researchers; tedious story.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    In 1922 while Howard Carter is uncovering King Tut’s tomb, Ralph Trilipush, also an Egyptologist, is obsessed with finding the tomb of Atum-hadu, supposed Egyptian king and erotic poet. Trilipush is engaged to marry Margaret Finneran, a Boston socialite, whose father is bank rolling the expedition. Australian detective, Harold Ferrell, sticks his nose into their business while investigating the death of Paul Caldwell, an Australian soldier stationed in Egypt at the same time as Trilipush. He finds inconsistencies in Trilipush’s background and starts to believe he killed Caldwell.The story is told through journal entries, letters and cables. Most of the narrative comes from Trilipush’s journal from 1922. The other half of the narrative comes from Ferrell’s letters to Margaret’s nephew written in 1955. Both narrators are unreliable. Trilipush’s narrative can not be relied upon because he is so focused and sure of Atum-hadu’s existence that he can’t accept when the expedition starts to fall apart. Ferrell’s letters are also unreliable because he is writing from a rest home and piecing the story together from thirty-three year old notes and his own memories.The theme of the story is immortality. Egyptian kings thought they would achieve immortality through the Egyptian burial rituals; being buried in tombs with objects that would help them in the afterlife and mummification. Trilipush believes his immortality lies in finding Atum-hadu’s tomb. As Ferrell writes to Macy, he talks about how they can team up to publish Ferrell’s cases as a series of detective stories.There are no heroes in this novel. All of the characters are flawed; Margaret is a drug addict and her father hopes Trilipush’s find will pay off his underworld debts. Ferrell falls for Margaret and tries to sabotage her engagement to Trilipush. Some of Trilipush’s journal entries are tedious. I found myself looking ahead to see when Margaret or Ferrell would add one of their letters to the narrative. Near the end though, Trilipush’s entries became so interesting I couldn’t put the book down. I highly recommend this novel to anyone interested in the psychology of obsession.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The book is written in the form of documents: letters, journal entries, maps, and figures. The epistolary novel has a rapid pace, good character development, humor, and action. The main theme is passion of the mind, a personality trait that can take a person out of the most devastating developmental environment and into a world of dreams. Passion, however, can change to delusion that in archeology may go undetected for a millennium. Arthur Phillips’ great story is very different from his more sophisticated psycho-historical novel, Prague (see my review on Amazon). Recently, I bought the author’s novel, Angelica and look forward to reading it on my Kindle 1.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Good mystery.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In "The Egyptologist" Arthur Phillips gives us a murder mystery that features an Australian con man (named Caldwell, posing as Trilibush), a foppish Brit who "read the Pharoahs" at Oxford, and a dim Aussie detective who'd like to sell his idea of this story to Hollywood. All this is set in the exciting backdrop of Egypt in the '20s, with the world agog with the King Tut discoveries.Principal among Caldwell/Trilipush's ambitions is the hand of Margaret Finneran, daughter of mobster money, but he believes he has to find a real Egyptian treasure to make himself worthy. His belief in this treasure is the driving energy behind the narrative. Too bad the belief is based on poor information, incomplete evidence, and outright falsehoods. In the end our protaganist's belief becomes maniacal: he comes to equate himself with his apocryphal Egyptian king, and kills himself. He leaves in his wake, confusion, uncertainty, murder, blackmail, and a dead gangster.Phillips is very generous with his readers. We learn in plenty of time of Caldwell/Trilibush's delusion; there is wonderful dialogue - witty, and spot-on with the vernacular of the times. We have a complete understanding of story when the two men die at the end - the dream of discovery, the mystery of the Egyptian king who never existed, and the mayhem our would-be social climber caused. This book has a wondeful cast of characters, an exciting climax, and takes us on a trip to a far-away land and time. I recommend it - take and enjoy.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is an epistolary novel, told in a series of letters from several of the main characters. Those from Ralph Trilipush, Oxford grad, Harvard lecturer, archeologist, date from 1922 during a trip to Egypt to hunt for the tomb of Atum-hadu, whose existence most experts doubt. The letters reveal a man so confident that he is always right and destined for greatness that he filters everything through that belief and you quickly get the sense that there is only a grain of truth in his letters. His constant posturing and self-justification are very funny and cleverly written. The remaining bulk of the letters are from an Australian private detective who stumbles across Trilipush's trail and sets out to find him. Phillips is very clever to use this format to tell his story as the letters reveal the characters so clearly. It quickly becomes obvious that the letters are all self-serving and the truth somewhere in between. As the story progresses, you get a sense that it is headed for disaster. The ending does not disappoint. This is a very clever, beautifully written book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Totally unexpected and one of the most memorable books I've read. The story is written like a spiral, bringing the reader closer and closer to the truth about the main character, who believes he has found a pharaoh's tomb to rival Tut's (being excavated nearby by his rival Howard Carter). Wild, horrifying, vivid. How I wish I could find something this wonderful to read even once a year!
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I absolutely hated this book .. I felt like I needed to wash my brain after I'd finished reading it (hoping against hope that the ending would make the torture of reading it worthwhile).