Ramsès, Tome 2: La Dame d'Abou Simbel, Sous l'acacia d'Occident

Ramsès #4-5

by Christian Jacq

"Ramsès, le plus grand des vainqueurs, le Roi Soleil gardien de la vérité" : c'est en ces termes que Jean-François Champollion, qui nous ouvrit les portes de l'Egypte en déchiffrant les hiéroglyphes, décrit le pharaon Ramsès Il, auquel il voua un véritable culte. L'œuvre de ce guerrier, de ce bâtisseur, de ce sage fut immense ; elle continue de susciter un intérêt inépuisable à plus de trente siècles de distance.
Dans la seconde partie de sa grande fresque romanesque, Christian Jacq raconte les tourments, les espérances et les rêves d'un Ramsès qui œuvre pour la paix. Le pharaon a le pouvoir de transformer en force positive la puissance destructrice de Seth, le dieu de la Foudre et de la Guerre. Il vainc la barbarie à force d'habileté, élève les temples d'Abou Simbel par amour de la grande épouse royale, et offre à son pays une éclatante prospérité. Mais la mort lui enlève un à un tous ses proches, le laissant affronter seul les ennemis de l'Egypte...
Par l'association de la fiction romanesque et de l'égyptologie Christian Jacq nous projette dans un univers étonnamment réel, tangible. Mêlant dans son intrigue les mondes de l'Ancien Testament, de la Grèce et de l'Egypte anciennes, Ramsès nous plonge aux sources mêmes de notre civilisation tout en demeurant un trépidant roman d'aventure.

527 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 24, 1998

About the author

Also writes under the names Célestin Valois, J.B. Livingstone, and Christopher Carter.

Christian Jacq is a French author and Egyptologist. He has written several novels about ancient Egypt, notably a five book suite about pharaoh Ramses II, a character whom Jacq admires greatly.

Jacq's interest in Egyptology began when he was thirteen, and read History of Ancient Egyptian Civilization by Jacques Pirenne. This inspired him to write his first novel. He first visited Egypt when he was seventeen, went on to study Egyptology and archaeology at the Sorbonne, and is now one of the world's leading Egyptologists.

By the time he was eighteen, he had written eight books. His first commercially successful book was Champollion the Egyptian, published in 1987. As of 2004 he has written over fifty books, including several non-fiction books on the subject of Egyptology.

He and his wife later founded the Ramses Institute, which is dedicated to creating a photographic description of Egypt for the preservation of endangered archaeological sites.

Between 1995-1997, he published his best selling five book suite Ramsès, which is today published in over twenty-five countries. Each volume encompasses one aspect of Ramesses' known historical life, woven into a fictional tapestry of the ancient world for an epic tale of love, life and deceit.

Jacq's series describes a vision of the life of the pharaoh: he has two vile power-hungry siblings, Shanaar, his decadent older brother, and Dolora, his corrupted older sister who married his teacher. In his marital life, he first has Isetnofret (Iset) as a mistress (second Great Wife), meets his true love Nefertari (first Great Wife) and after their death, gets married to Maetnefrure in his old age. Jacq gives Ramesses only three biological children: Kha'emweset, Meritamen (she being the only child of Nefertari, the two others being from Iset) and Merneptah. The other "children" are only young officials trained for government and who are nicknamed "sons of the pharaoh".