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Das Mädchen Thu und der Pharao
«Das Mädchen Thu und der Pharao» ist die Geschichte einer ehrgeizigen jungen Frau und ihres Aufstiegs von der Tochter einer Dorfhebamme zur Nebenfrau des mächtigen Ramses III. Klug nutzt sie ihre Fähigkeiten als Heilkundige und setzt all ihre Verführungskünste ein, um ins Zentrum der Macht zu gelangen. Doch als sie nicht mehr leugnen kann, dass sie in rätselhafte Mordanschläge und Intrigen am Hofe verstrickt ist, scheint ihr Schicksal besiegelt zu sein.«Eine aufregende Story aus dem Land der Pharaonen.» (Brigitte)
- GenresRoman
461 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
1 person is currently reading
16 people want to read
About the author
Pauline Gedge
47 books490 followersI was born in Auckland, New Zealand, on December 11, 1945, the first of three girls. Six years later my family emigrated to England where my father, an ex-policeman, wanted to study for the Anglican ministry. We lived in an ancient and very dilapidated cottage in the heart of the English Buckinghamshire woodland, and later in a small village in Oxfordshire called Great Haseley. I grew up surrounded by countryside that I observed, played in, and grew to know and love passionately, and I wrote lyrically of its many moods.
My father had his first parish in Oxford, so in 1956, having passed the eleven-plus exam, a torture now fortunately defunct, I attended what was then the Oxford Central School for Girls. I was a very good student in everything but mathematics. Any academic discipline that is expressed and interpreted through words I could conquer, but math was bewildering and foreign, a maze of numbers and ridiculous symbols with which I had nothing in common. I liked chemistry, because I was allowed to play with pretty crystals and chemicals that behaved as if they had magic in them. I studied the violin, an instrument I struggled over and gave up after two years, and the piano, which I enjoyed and continue to play, along with the recorders. Music has always been important to me.
Then in 1959 my father accepted a parish in Virden, Manitoba, and the family left for Canada. After three months at the local high school, I was sent to a boarding school in Saskatchewan. It was the most dehumanizing, miserable experience of my life. In 1961 I began one inglorious year at the University of Manitoba’s Brandon College. I did not work very hard, and just before final exams I was told that my sister Anne was dying. I lost all interest in passing.
Anne wanted to die in the country where she was born, so we all returned to New Zealand. She died a month after our arrival, and is buried in Auckland. The rest of us moved down to the tip of the South Island where my father had taken the parish of Riverton. For a year I worked as a substitute teacher in three rural schools. In ’64 I attended the Teachers’ Training College in Dunedin, South Island, where my writing output became prolific but again my studies suffered. I did not particularly want to be a teacher. All I wanted to do was stay home and read and write. I was eighteen, bored and restless. I met my first husband there.
In 1966 I married and returned to Canada, this time to Alberta, with my husband and my family. I found work at a day care in Edmonton. My husband and I returned to England the next year, and my first son, Simon, was born there in January ’68. In 1969 we came back to Edmonton, and my second son was born there in December 1970.
By 1972 I was divorced, and I moved east of Edmonton to the village of Edgerton. I wrote my first novel and entered it in the Alberta Search-for-a-New-Novelist Competition. It took fourth place out of ninety-eight entries, and though it received no prize, the comments from the judges and my family encouraged me to try again. The next year I entered my second attempt, a bad novel that sank out of sight. Finally in 1975 I wrote and submitted Child of the Morning, the story of Hatshepsut, an 18th Dynasty Egyptian pharaoh, which won the competition. With it came a publishing deal with Macmillan of Canada and the rest, as they say, is history.
My father had his first parish in Oxford, so in 1956, having passed the eleven-plus exam, a torture now fortunately defunct, I attended what was then the Oxford Central School for Girls. I was a very good student in everything but mathematics. Any academic discipline that is expressed and interpreted through words I could conquer, but math was bewildering and foreign, a maze of numbers and ridiculous symbols with which I had nothing in common. I liked chemistry, because I was allowed to play with pretty crystals and chemicals that behaved as if they had magic in them. I studied the violin, an instrument I struggled over and gave up after two years, and the piano, which I enjoyed and continue to play, along with the recorders. Music has always been important to me.
Then in 1959 my father accepted a parish in Virden, Manitoba, and the family left for Canada. After three months at the local high school, I was sent to a boarding school in Saskatchewan. It was the most dehumanizing, miserable experience of my life. In 1961 I began one inglorious year at the University of Manitoba’s Brandon College. I did not work very hard, and just before final exams I was told that my sister Anne was dying. I lost all interest in passing.
Anne wanted to die in the country where she was born, so we all returned to New Zealand. She died a month after our arrival, and is buried in Auckland. The rest of us moved down to the tip of the South Island where my father had taken the parish of Riverton. For a year I worked as a substitute teacher in three rural schools. In ’64 I attended the Teachers’ Training College in Dunedin, South Island, where my writing output became prolific but again my studies suffered. I did not particularly want to be a teacher. All I wanted to do was stay home and read and write. I was eighteen, bored and restless. I met my first husband there.
In 1966 I married and returned to Canada, this time to Alberta, with my husband and my family. I found work at a day care in Edmonton. My husband and I returned to England the next year, and my first son, Simon, was born there in January ’68. In 1969 we came back to Edmonton, and my second son was born there in December 1970.
By 1972 I was divorced, and I moved east of Edmonton to the village of Edgerton. I wrote my first novel and entered it in the Alberta Search-for-a-New-Novelist Competition. It took fourth place out of ninety-eight entries, and though it received no prize, the comments from the judges and my family encouraged me to try again. The next year I entered my second attempt, a bad novel that sank out of sight. Finally in 1975 I wrote and submitted Child of the Morning, the story of Hatshepsut, an 18th Dynasty Egyptian pharaoh, which won the competition. With it came a publishing deal with Macmillan of Canada and the rest, as they say, is history.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 6, 2021
Empfehlenswert für diejenigen, die das Setting "Ägypten" interessant finden und gleichzeitig das Aufstreben einer ehrgeizigen jungen Frau miterleben wollen, die ihrer Kultur weit voraus ist und doch irgendwo das Kind-Sein nicht ablegen kann.
Ich hatte das Buch in meiner Jugend schon einmal gelesen und bin heute immer noch begeistert.
Der Charakter der Protagonistin ist nicht unfehlbar, im Gegenteil, oft findet man die eigenen Abgründe darin wieder, die hier schamlos ausgesprochen werden oder eben klar zwischen den Zeilen zu lesen sind. Die Geschichte einer heranwachsenden, ehrgeizigen, skrupellosen und leidenschaftlichen Frau, im Grunde noch ein Kind, deren jugendliche Arroganz und und Kindlichkeit einem zugleich vertraut und fremd vorkommen. Pauline Gedge hat hier meiner Meinung nach eine wunderbare Geschichte erschaffen, die den Hochmut, die Verletzlichkeit und die Unschuld von Heranwachsenden thematisiert und vor Augen führt, wie sehr sich die Kulturen unterscheiden und dennoch gleichen.
Ich hatte das Buch in meiner Jugend schon einmal gelesen und bin heute immer noch begeistert.
Der Charakter der Protagonistin ist nicht unfehlbar, im Gegenteil, oft findet man die eigenen Abgründe darin wieder, die hier schamlos ausgesprochen werden oder eben klar zwischen den Zeilen zu lesen sind. Die Geschichte einer heranwachsenden, ehrgeizigen, skrupellosen und leidenschaftlichen Frau, im Grunde noch ein Kind, deren jugendliche Arroganz und und Kindlichkeit einem zugleich vertraut und fremd vorkommen. Pauline Gedge hat hier meiner Meinung nach eine wunderbare Geschichte erschaffen, die den Hochmut, die Verletzlichkeit und die Unschuld von Heranwachsenden thematisiert und vor Augen führt, wie sehr sich die Kulturen unterscheiden und dennoch gleichen.
April 4, 2021
The end is the best part of the book. Did not expect it. Sometimes inbetween a bit long, but a good description of old egyptian life. Do not expect to see much of the country since most of it is staged inhouse.
November 24, 2023
Ich muss sagen, das ist eines der schwächeren Romane von Pauline Gedge. Das war nun das 7. Buch, das ich von ihr gelesen habe und ich war enttäuscht. Thu war mir zu naiv und zu dumm. Gedge versucht es als selbstsüchtig und ehrgeizig zu verkleiden, aber das funktioniert leider nicht. Was mir gut gefallen hat, war Thus frühe Erkenntnis, dass sie als Frau in Ägypten immer eine Gefangene ist. Ob in ihrem Dorf, im Haus des Sehers oder im Harem. Ich habe den zweiten Teil hier liegen, bin mir aber noch nicht sicher, ob ich ihn lesen werde...
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews