The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians

by E.A. Wallis Budge

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genres: History, Egypt, Literature, Nonfiction, Mythology, Ebooks, Egyptology

312 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1914

About the author

Sir Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge was an English Egyptologist, Orientalist, and philologist who worked for the British Museum and published numerous works on the ancient Near East.

Reviews

[Two Readers in Love · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15932

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating overview of some of the types of literature produced in Ancient Egypt. While perhaps a little biased in some of its analyses (a function of scholarship in the period in which it was written, I suppose), it is otherwise a clear and thorough text of great use to the beginner. In particular, I appreciated the fact that it discussed the various genres that were written and gave examples and extracts of each, as until I read it I had mistakenly assumed that most of the texts we possessed from the Ancient Egyptians were all of a type (c.f. The Book of the Dead). It could have benefited from a timeline of the pharaohs and their various names for student reference, as I found it difficult to keep them straight, and a map of Egypt would have been beneficial as well for people like me whose knowledge of the Ancient World is rather limited. Nevertheless, an interesting and educational book.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This copy of the e-book has none of the illustrations that were in the original.
The translations seem pretty dated, and the author translates multiple, very repetitive hymns, but only mentions some pretty famous papyri in brief paragraphs. A paragraph or two translated from those papyri would have been much more interesting than a seemingly endless litany of titles and honorifics.
He does tell a couple of folktales (including the Tale of the Two Brothers) as well as a number of entertaining stories about magicians.
Still, this book was originally published in 1914 and there must be better books about ancient Egyptian literature by now.

[A gin and orange, a lemon squash, and a scotch and water, please! · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly good.
Not that I was expecting much. tbh I was expecting a turgid read making something fascinating boring. Not a bit of it. Sure, it's dated, but it's a real eye opener with excerpts from papyri and other sources and clear and easy to read explanations and background info.
A pleasant surprise. I really should read more of Wallis Budge.

[Justin Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great overview of ancient Egyptian minds and legends. Read along with the book of the dead. By Budge also