Popular stories of ancient Egypt

Part of the "ABC-CLIO Classic Folk and Fairy Tales" series, this volume is a republication of an 1882 anthology of ancient Egyptian narratives translated into French by renowned Egyptologist Gaston Maspero. His meticulously documented work was translated from French into English in 1915. The text is unchanged except for the added introduction by El-Shamy (Indiana Univ.) discussing Maspero's methodology, his importance, and the significance of this collection. Maspero wrote from the perspective of Egyptologist and literary scholar; El-Shamy adds the perspective of folklorist, classifying narratives by tale type and identifying motifs. Although Maspero's footnotes on customs and language are very helpful, the book's age poses problems. The archaic style of the translations is distracting: "Behold thou, since thine ass eats my wheat, I shall put him to labour...." The Egyptian names appear in unfamiliar forms with no list of modern equivalencies: Hatshopsuitu for Hatshepsut, Tafnit for Tefnut. Most serious: a layperson cannot know what information or translation has been rendered invalid by recent scholarship. Despite the considerable difficulties, libraries supporting extensive programs in this area of study will want to acquire this volume because of its explanatory footnotes, its historical significance, and El-Shamy's folkloristic approach to the tales. Upper-division undergraduates and above. S. M. Most Eastern Michigan University

Collecting popular stories from ancient Egypt is unlike collecting folktales from more modern societies. With the literary tales involved here, there are the basic problems of translating from hieroglyphics and of dealing with damaged and fragmentary manuscripts. Beyond that, however, are deeper issues of cultural differences and assumptions from storytellers about what audiences will understand. These stories from Gaston Maspero's classic volume, originally published in 1882, are accompanied by extensive footnotes that detail social expectations and patterns of behavior in ancient Egyptian society, making the texts comprehensible to modern readers. Between Maspero and edition editor Hasan El-Shamy (folklore, Indiana Univ.), introductions make up fully a third of the current volume, but included are important discussions of backgrounds, research methodologies, tale types, and motifs. Each story receives its own brief introduction as well, including provenance, dating of manuscripts, thematic and content discussions, and comparison with other tales. Part of the ABC-CLIO "Classic Folk & Fairy Tales" series, whose senior editor is noted folklore scholar Jack Zipes, Popular Stories of Ancient Egypt is recommended for all libraries.-Katherine K. Koenig, Ellis Sch., Pittsburgh (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.