L’Égypte et le Nil ont été une source d’inspiration pour de nombreux écrivains. Parmi ceux qui ont écrit sur leurs expériences, on trouve de nombreuses femmes, peut-être initialement intéressées à voir les temples et tombeaux de l’Égypte ancienne, mais qui ont également apporté aux lecteurs des détails fascinants sur la vie en Égypte pendant les périodes qu’elles ont visitées ou dans lesquelles elles ont vécu.
“On se demande comment il est possible que les gens reviennent d’Égypte et vivent comme avant.”
Florence Nightingale
Les voyages des femmes au XIXe et au début du XXe siècle étaient une évasion, du moins brièvement, des exigences et attentes de leur société, tout en leur offrant une exposition à des cultures fondamentalement différentes de la leur.
Les femmes voyageant expérimentaient souvent et percevaient leur environnement et les personnes qu’elles rencontraient de manière différente par rapport aux voyageurs masculins qui traversaient un pays ou une ville et le percevaient. Les femmes voyageuses avaient (et ont toujours) le potentiel d’apporter et de transmettre aux lecteurs des aperçus uniques, en particulier lorsqu’elles avaient parfois accès à des lieux que les hommes n’avaient pas.
Bien que les sociétés dont elles venaient étaient en pleine évolution, de nombreuses femmes avaient encore une autonomie limitée et peu d’occasions de s’exprimer et de partager leurs idées. En écrivant sur l’Égypte et son impact sur elles, elles pouvaient plus librement donner leurs points de vue sur de nombreux sujets.
Cela a conduit certaines d’entre elles à changer radicalement leur vie après leur séjour en Égypte. Leurs expériences de voyage ont élargi leurs horizons, non seulement dans un sens physique mais aussi en contribuant à leur développement mental et spirituel.
Carl Thompson a raison de dire que « Si la voyageuse enfreint l’idéologie patriarcale des sphères séparées en quittant sa maison et en s’aventurant dans le monde, l’écrivaine de voyage, ou du moins la femme qui publie un récit de voyage, enfreint cette idéologie deux fois. »
Cependant, bien que leurs expériences aient été valorisantes, leurs écrits peuvent aussi nous en dire beaucoup sur leurs attitudes négatives et préjugés. De nombreux voyageurs sont venus en Égypte avec des fantasmes orientalistes, qui ne correspondaient pas toujours à la réalité de l’Égypte, et leurs rapports étaient souvent jugés sévèrement. Bien que certains aient remis en question les suppositions et stéréotypes qu’ils et leurs sociétés tenaient à propos de l’Égypte et de son peuple, il semble que certains aient trouvé trop difficile de comprendre ou d’accepter les modes de vie qu’ils observaient. Certains de leurs préjugés étaient liés à l’Empire et à l’idée que l’Occident était civilisé et éclairé, tandis que l’Orient était primitif voire sauvage.
De nombreux voyageurs apportaient avec eux des stéréotypes et des généralisations qui collaient ou embellissaient les points de vue orientalistes longtemps établis concernant les femmes en Égypte. La capacité des femmes voyageuses à rencontrer des femmes locales, bien que meilleure que celle des voyageurs masculins, était parfois encore entravée par la timidité ou l’isolement des femmes égyptiennes. De plus, certains écrivains ne pouvaient partager qu’une vision subjective des femmes et des harems en raison de leur propre contexte social ou religieux. Bien qu’elles écrivaient pour informer, elles étaient peut-être prudentes afin de ne pas offenser la sensibilité de leurs lecteurs. Les points de vue objectifs étaient peut-être également moins possibles, car leurs perspectives sur la vie des femmes locales ne tenaient pas toujours compte du rôle des femmes dans une société musulmane.
De nombreux voyageurs voyaient les gens comme faisant partie du grand spectacle de l’Égypte qu’ils traversaient, et non comme de véritables personnes. Souvent, les visiteurs étaient plus intéressés par les monuments antiques que par les gens. Certains qui avaient commencé par critiquer les modes de vie et comportements égyptiens ont changé d’avis à mesure qu’ils prenaient plus de temps pour observer et en venir à comprendre qu’il existait d’autres façons de vivre et de penser. Certains écrivains étaient plus conscients de la nécessité de regarder au-delà de leur propre cadre de référence, par exemple, Harriet Martineau n’était pas impressionnée par de grands nombres d’animaux momifiés, mais elle estimait que « nous devrions comprendre avant de mépriser, et que, généralement, plus nous comprenons, moins nous méprisons ».
Il y a aussi eu des préjugés exprimés à propos du type de voyage choisi pour découvrir l’Égypte. Thomas Cook a introduit une nouvelle manière de visiter le Nil, sur des bateaux à vapeur qui isolent davantage les touristes du pays qu’ils traversaient et de ses habitants. Cela a été vu avec mépris par ceux qui avaient l’argent et le temps de voyager sur un bateau privé, considéré comme une manière plus romantique de voir le pays. Comme Carl Thompson l’a commenté, « Une autre caractéristique récurrente de nombreux récits de voyage victoriens est une rhétorique anti-touristique qui cherche à distinguer l’auteur du troupeau touristique plus vulgaire. »
Les femmes écrivaines que nous allons présenter ont voyagé et vécu en Égypte de manières et pour des raisons différentes, il est donc naturel que leurs rapports diffèrent, bien qu’elles partagent aussi de nombreuses similitudes.
Par exemple, Sophia Lane Poole et Lucie Duff Gordon ont vécu en Égypte pendant plusieurs années et ont eu plus d’opportunités pour étudier et commencer à comprendre les habitants locaux, et bien qu’elles soient restées en fin de compte des étrangères culturelles, elles ont pu apporter un certain équilibre aux publications des visiteurs à court terme.
Certaines sont venues purement en tant que touristes, comme Florence Nightingale et Maria Georgina Shirreff Grey, mais leurs observations avaient toujours de la valeur, malgré leurs points de vue moins flexibles. Leurs écrits révèlent parfois autant leurs biais personnels que ceux de leurs sociétés, autant que ce qu’ils révèlent de l’Égypte. Sherriff Grey est apparemment restée insensible à beaucoup de ce qu’elle a vu. Les attitudes de Nightingale à propos de l’Égypte se sont améliorées au cours de sa tournée, bien que le changement ait été plus dans ses opinions sur les monuments du passé que dans ses réponses aux habitants de son époque.
Les visites de Harriet Martineau et Amelia Edwards ont eu lieu à près de 30 ans d’intervalle, toutes deux étaient des écrivaines indépendantes et déterminées qui s’intéressaient à plus que simplement présenter un récit de voyage. L’Égypte a, de différentes manières, changé leurs vies et déterminé leur parcours longtemps après leurs séjours.
Au siècle suivant, des écrivains comme Agatha Christie et Elizabeth Peters nous ont apporté des romans imaginatifs inspirés par la connaissance croissante de l’Égypte.
Les récits de voyage nous apportent des points de vue différents sur un pays, des perspectives qui ont été déterminées non seulement par la réalité de ce qui a été vu et vécu, mais aussi par la culture des écrivains et celle des lecteurs. Ces livres devraient être appréciés avec cela à l’esprit.
De manière positive, en lisant une sélection de ces écrivaines, il devient évident que les points de vue et les préjugés de ces femmes ont parfois été transformés par leurs expériences. Bien que l’écriture de voyage européenne ait souvent été « un véhicule pour l’expression de la vanité eurocentrique ou de l’intolérance raciste », heureusement certaines écrivaines ont réussi « à surmonter la distance culturelle par un acte prolongé de compréhension ». (citation de Dennis Porter, Haunted Journeys: Desire and Transgression in European Travel Writing (Princeton University Press, 1991).
https://www.pinterest.com/realegypt/books-about-egypt/
BOOKS and WRITERS
The Englishwoman in Egypt: Letters from Cairo, written during a residence there in 1842 – Sophia Lane Poole
Sophia Lane Poole traveled to Egypt in 1842 and stayed for many years. Her aim was to research and publish about Egyptian women and their customs. Her work was to provide more female insights in line with that of her brother Edward William Lane’s Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians. She learnt Arabic and dressed in local style, this and her research intentions made her access to hareems more productive than the visits of other women writers.
Eastern Life, Present and Past – Harriet Martineau (1848)
Martineau was perhaps the first female sociologist. The death of her father led to financial difficulties for her family, she contributed income by writing novels, histories, travel books, translations, political and social publications. Martineau did not shy from expressing controversial views, supporting the abolition of slavery and rights of women to education and self-development, and when she traveled to Egypt she was already an experienced writer on economic, political and educational issues.
She traveled with friends in 1846-1847, for eight months from Cairo down through Nubia by boat, horse, donkey, camel and on foot. She also traveled to Palestine and Syria.
Back in England she published Eastern Life, Present and Past which includes the trip from Cairo to Assuit, Luxor, Edfu and Aswan up until the second Cataract. Her focus was on history, religion and the customs of the people around her.
Joan Rees stated “the greatest value of Eastern Life rests in her vigorous and imaginative attempts to prise open closed minds so that they might catch at least a glimpse of wider horizons than conventional English education had prepared them for.”
Letters from Egypt, A Journey on the Nile, 1849-1850 – Florence Nightingale (published 1987)
Some years before she became known as a symbol of modern nursing, in the winter of 1849 Florence Nightingale (age 29) traveled to Egypt. She believed she had a calling and had refused marriage, so her parents sent her on a trip through Europe with some friends. This led to Egypt and a dahabiyah trip up the Nile.
She kept a private journal and also wrote letters to family and friends. Some of these letters were edited by her sister in 1854, but it was not until 1987 that Anthony Sattin found, selected and published her letters as a book.
Journal of a visit to Egypt, Constantinople, the Crimea, Greece, &c: in the suite of the Prince and Princess of Wales, 1870 – Maria Georgina Shirreff Grey
Shirreff Grey traveled in Europe early in her life and was a skilled linguist. With her sister Emily she outlined an education for girls which included subjects such as arithmetic, geometry, history, elementary science and politics. She wrote during her marriage, but her public advocacy for improving education for girls increased after her husband’s death in 1864.
In 1869 she traveled to Egypt with the Prince and Princess of Wales. The Viceroy lent them his boat to travel up the Nile and arranged entertainment for them. This was around the time of the opening of the Suez Canal and the launch of the first Thomas Cook steamer, so Shirreff Grey documents a privileged view of a moment when Egyptian tourism and Nile travel were about to change substantially.
Her diary mostly described the daily activities of the royal tour party, with less enthusiasm for the ancient Egyptian monuments. Although she visited several hareems and experienced elite society she did not comment in any depth on the lives of the women, only on appearances and food. She did not write intending to publish, but her brother-in-law had her work printed.
A Thousand Miles up the Nile – Amelia Edwards (1876, second edition 1888)
Edwards was an established writer with several successful novels. She traveled in Europe and her account of hiking in the Dolomites during 1872, Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys, was well received.
In 1873 she traveled with a friend to Egypt and they hired a dahabiya and crew for the Nile trip from Cairo to Abu Simbel and back. Edwards became increasingly fascinated by the ancient monuments and this was to prove significant for the rest of her life and for Egyptology.
Returning to England, in 1876 she published A Thousand Miles up the Nile which included her illustrations made throughout the trip, and this travel account was a great success.
Edwards took her research seriously, learnt to read hieroglyphs and corresponded with Egyptologists such as Gaston Maspero and Dr. Samuel Birch, Keeper of Oriental Antiquities at the British Museum. She was concerned about the preservation of ancient Egyptian monuments and became an advocate for this.
In 1882, she co-founded the Egypt Exploration Fund (now Society) with Reginald Stuart Poole (a son of Sophia Lane Poole, a writer you have already met above). She bequeathed her collection of Egyptian antiquities and her library to University College London, with funds to found an Edwards Chair of Egyptology.
Her trip up the Nile turned into far more than a popular travel tale, it made Egypt her passion for the rest of her life and her work benefited the careers of many including Edouard Naville, Flinders Petrie and Francis Llewellyn Griffith.
Letters from Egypt, 1863-65 and Last Letters from Egypt – Lucie Duff Gordan (1866 and 2010)
Duff Gordan lived in Luxor for many years, in “the French house” set in Luxor Temple which was lent to her by the French Consul (Belzoni and Champollion, significant contributors to early Egyptology, had stayed there before her). Her letters included details about her everyday interactions with Egyptians and observations on the country and society, with many fascinating insights to local life.
She spoke several languages and before settling in Egypt had translated many literary works. In England her home circle of visitors had included Dickens, Thackeray, Warburton, Tennyson and other luminaries. Yet after some time in Egypt she would note “When I go and sit with the English, I feel almost as if they were foreigners to me too, – so completely am I now “Bint el-Beled” (daughter of the country).”
Duff Gordan wrote the most humane account of Egyptians, she was compassionate and positive in her aim of understanding those she lived among. Although she had come to Egypt with severe tuberculosis (eventually fatal), she made efforts to help others and her care gained the affection of many local people.
Her writing covered many subjects and provided many insights, however she admitted in one of her last letters to her husband a regret that she had not written more about what she had learned: “I honestly believe that knowledge will die with me which few others possess. You must recollect that the learned know books, and I know men, and what is more difficult, women.”
Wayfarers in the Libyan Desert – Lady Evelyn Cobbold (1912)
Early in the 1900s two women traveled through the north of Egypt. Not much is known about American Frances Gordon Alexander (née Paddock), but Lady Evelyn Cobbold, daughter of a Scottish earl, later became the first British-born Muslim woman to perform the hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca. They traveled from Cairo into the Libyan Desert and to Fayoum Oasis, guided by and with assistance of Egyptians.
Wayfarers in the Libyan Desert documented their experiences. It includes enthusiastic descriptions of visits to sites that will be familiar to anyone interested in Egyptology, for example their visit to the tomb of Ti:
“As we descend into the mysterious silence of the tomb, the Arab guardian lights candles whose feeble rays enable us to see dimly the marvelous drawings on the walls, in those rooms unlighted from above…In the exquisite bas-reliefs which cover the seven rooms of his mastaba there is such restraint, sense of proportion; above all such delicate modeling, such perfect rendering of every animal, bird, and reptile, that each one is at once an individual portrait and a type.”
During her childhood Cobbold spent winters in Algiers, she had some familiarity with Islam and the life of the people in this region, an interest which grew over the years. She renamed herself Lady Zainab and at age 66 made the pilgrimage to Mecca, published as Pilgrimage to Mecca (1934).
Moving further into the 20th century we find more novels than book travelogs inspired by Egypt. This could be due to the rise in television documentaries and series which took over from books in presenting the “this is what we saw and did” of travel experiences.
Into the 21st century novels inspired by Egypt continue to be published, while travelogs have morphed into blogs and vlogs as the popular ways to document travels through Egypt.
Naturally there are also many excellent novels about Egypt by Egyptian women writers, but that is another blog to look forward to.
Death on the Nile – Agatha Christie (1937) The great detective Hercule Poirot is on holiday in Egypt, but not for long…One of the best known novels set in Egypt, a classic murder mystery that has been reinterpreted in several movies. Christie had a passionate interest in Egypt and it was the setting for several of her novels, more details at https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-agatha-christies-love-of-archaeology-influenced-death-on-the-nile-180979544/
Visitors today sometimes like to stay at the Cataract Hotel in Aswan where Christie stayed. This hotel was also the setting for the excellent Egyptian television series “Secrets of the Nile / Grand Hotel”, a murder mystery, but we will discuss that in another blog post.
The Amelia Peabody series – Barbara Mertz under the name Elizabeth Peters (1975–2010, 2017)
“Another dead body. Every year it is the same. Every year, another dead body…”
Abdullah in Lion in the Valley.
The series of novels featuring the character Amelia Peabody has become one of the most loved fictions set in Egypt and has undoubtedly inspired many to visit or at least dream of visiting.
The series was written by Barbara Mertz under the name Elizabeth Peters. Mertz received her PhD in Egyptology at the University of Chicago in 1952. Her novels overflow with references to ancient Egypt as her characters visit many of the ancient sites, and give vivid descriptions of traveling along the Nile. She also included some astute criticism of colonialism and the attitudes of European explorers in the series, the events of which take place 1884 to 1922. Each book can be read as a stand-alone without previous knowledge, however the characters age throughout the series and events in earlier books (including spoilers concerning some of the main characters) are referenced in later books.
Mertz also published two non-fiction books about ancient Egypt.
If you haven’t read the Amelia Peabody series, start with “Crocodile on the Sandbank” which introduces key characters and gives you a taste of the sense of adventure, mystery (and a touch of romance) that features in the series. English scholar Amelia Peabody inherits a fortune from her father and leaves England to explore. In Rome she meets Evelyn Barton-Forbes, a young Englishwoman of social standing who had run off with and been abandoned by her Italian lover. The women travel to Egypt where they meet the Emerson brothers: the Egyptologist
Radcliffe and the philologist Walter. As they travel they become romantically involved, Amelia marries Radcliffe (referred to throughout the series by his last name “Emerson”), and Evelyn marries Walter.
Women Travelers in Egypt: From the Eighteenth to the Twenty-first Century (2013) edited by Deborah Manley features more than 40 women who explored Egypt.
“Until late in the nineteenth century, few guide books acknowledged the presence of women as travelers – although women had been traveling around the world for centuries. Women’s accounts of their journeys, distinct from those of male travelers, began to appear more frequently in the early nineteenth century, and Egypt was a popular destination.
Women had more time to watch and describe and they spent time both in the harems of Cairo and with the women they met along the Nile. Some of them, like Sarah Belzoni, Sophia Poole, and Ellen Chennells, spoke Arabic. Others wrote engagingly of their experiences as observers of an exotic culture, with special access to some places no man could ever go.
From Eliza Fay‘s description of arriving in Egypt in 1779 to Rosemary Mahoney’s daring trip down the Nile in a rowboat in 2006, this lively collection of writing by over forty women travelers includes Lady Evelyn Cobbold, Isabella Bird, Winifred Blackman, Norma Lorimer, Harriet Martineau, Florence Nightingale, Amelia Edwards, and Lucie Duff Gordon.”
(from the publisher AUC Press)
Books about traveling or living in Egypt by some of the women mentioned above, and commentaries on their writing and lives.
Duff Gordon, Lucie. Letters from Egypt, 1863-65. Edited by Sarah Austin. 1865. British Library, Historical Print Editions, 2011. Original edition: Macmillan, 1866.
Duff Gordon, Lucie. Last Letters from Egypt: To Which are Added Letters from the Cape. Cambridge University Press: 2010.
Edwards, Amelia B. A Thousand Miles up the Nile. 1888. Parkway Publishing 1993. Original edition: George Routledge and Sons, 1891.
Grey, Maria Georgina Shirreff. Journal of a visit to Egypt, Constantinople, the Crimea, Greece, &c: in the suite of the Prince and Princess of Wales. 1870. Forgotten Books, Classic Reprint Series, 2012. Original edition: Harper, 1870.
Lane Poole, Sophia. Lane, Edward William. The Englishwoman in Egypt: Letters from Cairo, written during a residence there in 1842. 1845. Vol. 1 of 2. Forgotten Books, Classic Reprint Series, 2012. Original edition: C. Knight, 1844.
Martineau, Harriet. Eastern Life, Present and Past. 1848. Vol. II. Bibliolife, 2012. Original edition: Lea and Blanchard, 1848.
Nightingale, Florence. Letters from Egypt, A Journey on the Nile, 1849-1850. Selected and introduced by Anthony Sattin. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988.
Cobbold, Lady Evelyn. Wayfarers in the Libyan Desert. A. L. Humphreys, 1912.
Rees, Joan. Women on the Nile Writings of Harriet Martineau, Florence Nightingale and Amelia
Edwards. Stacey International, 2008.
Frank, Katherine. A Passage to Egypt The Life of Lucie Duff Gordon. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994.
Karara, Azza. Sophia Lane Poole, The English Woman in Egypt : Letters from Cairo written during a residence there in 1842-46. AUC Press, 2003.
Logan, Deborah. Harriet Martineau, Victorian Imperialism, and the Civilizing Mission. Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2009.
Martineau, Harriet. Harriet Martineau’s Autobiography. Forgotten Books, Classic Reprint Series, 2012
Pichanik, Valerie. Harriet Martineau. Michigan University Press, 1980.
Sattin, Anthony. A Winter on the Nile, Florence Nightingale, Gustave Flaubert and the Temptations of Egypt. Windmill Books, 2011.
Manley, Deborah (editor). Women Travelers in Egypt: From the Eighteenth to the Twenty-first Century. AUC Press, 2013. https://aucpress.com/9781617973604/
Manley, Deborah (editor). A Nile Anthology, Travel Writing through the Centuries. AUC Press, 2015.
Christie, Agatha. Death on the Nile. Collins Crime Club, 1937.
https://www.agathachristie.com/en/stories/death-on-the-nile
Peters, Elizabeth (Barbara Mertz). The Amelia Peabody series is listed at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Peabody_series
Thompson, Carl. Travel Writing. Routledge, 2011.
Porter, Dennis. Haunted Journeys: Desire and Transgression in European Travel Writing Princeton University Press, 1991.
ADD under the appropriate images these captions:
Barbara Mertz. AP Photo/HarperCollins
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie – dust-jacket illustration of the first UK edition 1937.