Daughter of Egypt
In Daughter of Egypt, Marie Benedict tells the story of two women who defied the expectations of their time: Lady Evelyn Herbert, daughter of Lord Carnarvon, and Hatshepsut, Egypt’s “lost pharaoh” of the 15th century BCE.
Told in alternating parts and timelines, Benedict shifts between Eve and Hatshepsut—women separated by millennia—as they move and act in male-dominated realms. Eve is a well-trained amateur archaeologist in 1919 who has learned from the best: Howard Carter and her wealthy father, whose collection of ancient artifacts at Highclere Castle attest to his expensive addiction. Eve longs to accompany them to Egypt for the next expedition, which Lord Carnarvon insists must be to locate King Tutankhamun’s tomb; but Eve has other ideas, as she and Carter make clandestine plans to also search for the tomb of one of Egypt’s most controversial rulers, Hatshepsut. Eve knows all too well the history of Hatshepsut, a woman who became pharaoh at a chaotic time in ancient Egypt’s history, only to have her name, images, and history virtually erased by the bitter male pharaohs who followed in her wake.
Benedict, who writes wonderful and well-researched historical fiction with real people as her subjects, manages to tie together these two distinct eras and characters with her theme of “daughters of Egypt,” while at the same time serving up a larger issue: the provenance of ancient artifacts and the question of who “owns” history. When Carter discovers King Tut’s tomb (much to Eve’s disappointment, Hatshepsut is her goal), a subplot of illegal antiquities dealing to cash in on Egypt’s past adds another intriguing layer to the action.
Blending the best of her research and storytelling skills, Benedict delivers another page-turning adventure in Daughter of Egypt.
