1000 Miles Up the Nile

This account of Egypt and the Nile is wonderfully descriptive and in-depth. It also tells the story of a time in Egypt when tourism on the Nile was something new and unscripted. I recommend it to anyone interested in the recent history of Egypt.

Norton Creek Press has done a public service in reprinting an affordable version of this classic travel adventure. Amelia Edwards conveys her enthusiasm for Egyptian antiquities in a charming narrative that made this reader wish he could have been along for the voyage. Seeing the ruins through her eyes is as close as the modern traveller can come to experiencing the wonders of Egypt in a time when anyone with a shovel could dig for relics. Even readers without previous interest in Egyptology will become fascinated by the subject as they follow Amelia's jouney up the Nile, but be advised that people in Victorian times had much longer attention spans and much better vocabularies than the current norm. A dictionary and Google Earth will contribute greatly to the enjoyment of this book.

Another review claims that "A Thousand Miles up the Nile" has neither all of its pages nor all of its illustrations. This isn't true of the Norton Creek Press edition, which is the whole shebang, with all of the engravings from the second edition, and ending on page 499.

I've been looking for an in-print edition of this book for a long time. My one disappointment with it is that it seems to be incomplete. The narrative ends abruptly at the end of Chapter XIII, titled "Philae to Korosko". It's obvious that this isn't the end of the book. Very disappointing to come so far and suddenly find one's self teetering on the brink of a literary precipice with nothing ahead! Miss Edwards makes it clear throughout her narrative that her journey goes as far as Aboo-Simbel, but this reprint doesn't go there. In the preface she writes "It will be seen by those who do not weary of my companionship before reaching the eighteenth Chapter, that I had the great good fortune to be one of a party, which, in the month of February 1874, discovered and excavated an extremely interesting group of ruins at Aboo-Simbel in Nubia. If an apology were needed for the writing of another book about the Nile, this circumstance would alone furnish sufficient reason for the production of the present volumes." This leads me to believe that several chapters, at least Chapters 14 thru 18, are missing from this reprint. I can find no mention of a second volume or any explanation for the omission of the material referenced in the preface. Leaving that criticism aside, A Thousand Miles Up the Nile is a delight to read. Amelia Edwards is an engaging travel guide who provides a vivid picture of life in 19th-century Egypt and many colorful descriptions of the personalities she encounters. She also proves to be an excellent historian as she describes the ancient ruins she and her travel party encounter as they sail up the Nile on their dahabeeyah the "Philae". I thoroughly enjoyed every word of the text; however, as I read I continually lamented that there are no illustrations. A glossary and pronunciation guide would also have been helpful. This gem of a travel classic cries out to be updated in a new, annotated and illustrated edition! Recommended to anyone who enjoys 19th-century travel literature, Egyptian antiquities, or Elizabeth Peters' superlative mystery series featuring the redoubtable Victorian Egyptology sleuth Amelia Peabody Emerson.