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OverviewFull Product DetailsAuthor: Robert (Bob) M. BrierPublisher: HarperCollins Publishers Inc Imprint: William Morrow Dimensions: Width: 15.30cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 23.50cm Weight: 0.350kg ISBN: 9780688007966ISBN 10: 0688007961 Pages: 320 Publication Date: 15 January 2020 Audience: General/trade , General Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: Awaiting stock The supplier is currently out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you and placed on backorder. Once it does come back in stock, we will ship it out for you. Table of ContentsReviewsThis may be, as Professor Brier (Egyptology, the New School) claims, the first popular treatment of Egyptian magical practices in over 80 years, but do we need it? This chatty, cheerful, disorganized survey wanders up and down the Nile, stopping for glimpses of the pyramids (how they evolved, were excavated, robbed, etc.), hieroglyphs, horoscopes, mummies, medical lore, amulets, spells, and so forth. It all fits in, up to a point, because belief in magic penetrated the whole fabric of Egyptian life. But Brier piles on information indiscriminately, mixing trivia and essentials, telling us at once too much and too little. His chapter on Tales of Magic, for instance, collects a half dozen incoherent pieces of practically no interest to the general reader. On the other hand, Brier says almost nothing about magic as primitive philosophy - as a method (not necessarily foolish or irrational) for coping with reality - and so creates the impression that it's all picturesque mumbo-jumbo. Well, it is picturesque (a spell against constipation advises the patient to mix half an onion in some beer foam, adding This is also a delightful remedy against death ), and the book makes for pleasant browsing. (It's also rather fully illustrated for something in this price range.) But Brier's editor should have cut and shaped this overlong, unwieldy mass. A sort of shaggy-sphinx story. (Kirkus Reviews) Author InformationBob Brier is a world-famous Egyptologist who has conducted research on pyramids and tombs in fifteen countries. A senior research fellow at the C.W. Post campus of Long Island University, he is the author of seven books, including The Murder of Tutankhamen, and hosted the Great Egyptian series for the Learning Channel. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |