CHRONICLE OF THE QUEENS OF EGYPT:
JOYCE TYLDESLEY Book Number: 74360 Product format: Hardback

Surprisingly, this is the first book ever to recount the full history of the colourful queens of Egypt. Its vivid biographies cover 3,000 years of Egyptian queenship from Early Dynastic times until the suicide of Cleopatra in 30 BC. There are stories of famous queens such as Hatshepsut, Nefertiti and Nefertari as well as lesser-known consort queens, which reveal the variety of roles a queen could play from supportive wife and mother to husband's deputy in time of crisis, and even Pharaoh in her own right. Special features in each section, ranging from hairdressing to childbirth, female sphinxes to food, the oracle to sexual etiquette, and personal names to women in literature highlight different aspects of Egyptian culture. Readers can ponder what Cleopatra looked like and how her image has changed through the ages. This revelatory volume starts with a consideration of the rights and responsibilities of the wife and mother in the traditional dynastic family, then proceeds to examine the specific example of the royal family. The second part documents the lives of individual queens on a dynasty-by-dynasty basis and follows the development of their increasingly complex titles, regalia and funerary provisions. And what of Egypt's insignificant queens, the numerous wives and daughters maintained in pampered seclusion in the harem palaces? These women are generally forgotten, their graves lost in the desert sands. But the anonymous ladies occasionally stepped from the security of the harem to influence the royal succession, and their stories, too, are told. 224 pages 26cm x 20cm with 273 illustrations, 173 in colour, list of royal consorts and female kings, chronology, genealogical trees, royal couples list.
Published price: £19.95
Bibliophile price: £10.00

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