The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading)

by E. A. Wallis Budge, Paul Mirecki (Introduction)

Overview

The Egyptian Book of the Dead is by far the most sensational book handed down from the priests of ancient Egypt. After nearly 4500 years it still intrigues modern readers with its imaginative insights into the universal human condition and the desire for a blissful afterlife.

Entombed with this book of rituals, the deceased had an illustrated travel guide for the nightly journey with the sun through the dark and dangerous underworld, providing a guarantee of resurrection in the afterlife at dawn. We discover in the Book of the Dead a commonly shared humanity that reaches out to us across more than four thousand years with timeless and universal expressions of hopes and fears that are sometimes quite familiar, sometimes quite strange.

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781411428508
Publisher:	Barnes & Noble
Publication date:	09/01/2009
Series:	Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	544
Sales rank:	312,727
File size:	25 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	3 Months to 18 Years

About the Author

The Book of the Dead did not have a single author, as it is a composite work written by unknown Egyptian priests over a period of nearly 1000 years, but there is an author to whom we are deeply indebted: British Egyptologist Sir E. A. Wallis Budge (1857-1934). Budge was an extremely productive scholar who drew attention to many Egyptian and other ancient writings that might otherwise have remained unpublished.