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Arthur Phillips: The Egyptologist

mrkgnao

mrkgnao

New Member
I am currently reading The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips. At first, I thought I'd compare it with books like Dracula and The Historian - historical suspense written in the form of letters and diaries. But this one has a twist...

Usually in this type of book the narrators are implicitly objective and trustworthy. In The Egyptologist however, you realise rather soon you can't trust them. The two main narrators are an egyptologist writing his diary during an expedition in 1922, and a private detective writing letters in the 1950s, describing his 1920s investigation of the egyptologist.

The detective's story shows the would-be reliable, academic and heroic egyptologist as a conceited pathological liar with a very naughty imagination. And then you realise: :p then why should I trust the detective to be reliable?

It's a fun play on the genre, and it keeps you guessing and revising your opinion of what's going on - on several levels. I like that in a book! :D (I just hope Phillips can keep it up to the end...)


*mrkgnao*
 
alfinge said:
Hi there, can you Please tell me more about the book? :)
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It's about a young, idealistic egyptologist who goes to Egypt in 1922 to find a king's grave from 1600 BC. All he has to go on are some erotic poems, supposedly written by this king. The book consists of his diary, but also of some letters (written in the 1950s) of a private investigator who was looking for a missing person and found a lot of strange facts that cast doubts on the egyptologist. Read more here: http://www.theegyptologist.com/


*mrkgnao*
 
OK here goes.

Can anyone plz enlighten me on the end of The Egyptologist, i've read it but i really didnt get the end!

I must b stupid or just dumb :D
 
Well, it was a bit labyrinthine... ;) I figure
"Trilipush" went mad, thought he was Atum-Hadu and locked himself in the tomb to die as a mummy. Then the older letters revealed that "Trilipush" (the one who wrote the diary) was really the lost Australian, what was his name, Paul, who had assumed Trilipush's identity when he came back to Egypt from Turkey in 1918. Trilipush never really existed before that, he was a fictional character invented by Beverley Quint and Hugo Marlowe to act as a heterosexual alibi to talk about to their parents. Paul never knew that though.
. My, it's black as a tomb here! :D Hope this makes it clearer?

*mrkgnao*
 
Wow all that?! I didnt get any of it except that Trilipush/Paul thing. I liked the book but it was a bit hard to get into and I really didnt get the end so well! But now alot of things fit in better!!!!

I bought it 4 the reason that I love good endings but this was not so straight forward and seems I wasnt paying that much attention on it :D
 
Lol stewart no!!!! Just read on Amazon.com about it and it was written it had a good ending! Hehe never read endings before I come there after reading everything else :D
 
Real Great Idea said:
The Egyptologist sounds like a really good book. Do you recommend it?
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Yes. Yes I do. At least, for readers who like unpredictable and slightly weird books...
 
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