Lives of the Ancient Egyptians: Pharaohs, Queens, Courtiers and Commoners

What a surprise that this history of Egypt, ending with the bio of Cleopatra, would prove so readable and interesting. At first, the idea of 100 short bios of figures throughout Egypt's ancient history sounds disjointed; why not just read Wikipedia entries? But the stories of pharaohs, administrators, scribes, priests, tomb-builders, and even a common criminal, unfold logically and form a fine portrait of life in the Old Kingdom onwards to Ptolemaic period and then the Romans,

I have read several books that seem to be written for the amateur Egyptologist (!)--like myself--but this is the first one that truly gives me a feeling for how the religious, economic and political aspects of Egyptian life changed over 3,000 years. A standard show more historical view focuses on the 3,000 years of continuity in art, etc. (except for the Amarna period) but reading of these lives the differences emerge.

One note: Some promotional statements note the book is "profusely illustrated! I don't think 17 color plates is how I would define "profusely" and as I read I longed for more illustrations of tombs, sculpture and visual aids. Perhaps even a map. But the convenient paperback is easy to hold and absorb, whereas an expanded format with illustrations could make it into a reference book no one could casually read through so easily as I did. show less

As others have mentioned, the title of this book is a little misleading. I thought I'd be learning about the average life of an ancient Egyptian, whereas what I actually got was a hundred short biographies of ancient Egyptian individuals. It's not very deep and I didn't find it particularly engaging, but it did serve as a decent re-cap to reinforce my more in-depth learnings about ancient Egypt.

What I most appreciated was the inclusion of names of the subjects' family members and sometimes even pets. I feel like these are too often forgotten.

100 Ancient Egyptian Lives, from the (probably) first pharaoh, Narmer, to the last, Cleopatra. Toby Wilkinson spends an average of three pages on each figure. Not only kings, of course, but also court officials and gradually also a bit more 'ordinary' figures. Positive is the special attention given to women, although they remain scarce. Each period is introduced appropriately. But all in all this remains a rather stereotypical and superficial introduction to Ancient Egyptian history. More in my History account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6818893951