Lucie Duff Gordon – författare

'The fearless nineteenth century English Lady who lived on top of an Egyptian temple' TOBY WILKINSON, TELEGRAPH 'A lyrical, sharply observed, often humorous' KATHERINE FRANK In 1862, Lucie Duff Gordon, cousin of Harriet Martineau and friend of Caroline Norton, Meredith and Thackeray, embarked on a solo trip to Egypt in an effort to rid herself of consumption. The next seven years were spent in a ruined house above a temple in Luxor on the Nile. Feeling at home in this most foreign of lands, Lucie Duff Gordon integrated herself quickly in the locale, setting up a hospital from her home and welcoming the people of Luxor, be they officials or slaves into her house. The absorbing story told through her letters offers a wonderfully penetrating and sympathetic view of mid-nineteenth century Egypt as well as the personal story of this brave and generous woman.

Lucie Duff Gordon (1821-1869) was a translator and travel writer. Forced to leave England in 1851 due to tuberculosis, she went first to South Africa and then to Egypt. Her letters home were published, with considerable success. She writes with great feeling about the ordinary life of the Egyptians: her interest in and sympathy with them is clear, and her great affection for them led to criticism of the derogatory way in which many western visitors regarded them. But she was also highly critical of the effects of western influence on them, and her comments about the Suez Canal project and new railroads being achieved by forced labour and high taxes were not well received: some of her political opinions were removed from subsequent editions. This volume, first published in 1865, was edited by her mother, also a writer, and covers the years 1862-1865, including her voyage out.

Lucie Duff Gordon (1821-1869) was a translator and travel writer. Forced to leave England in 1851 due to tuberculosis, she went first to South Africa and then to Egypt. Her letters home were published with considerable success. She writes with great feeling about the ordinary life of the Egyptians: her interest in and sympathy with them is clear, and her affection for them led her to criticise the derogatory way in which many western visitors regarded them. This second, posthumous volume (the first, Letters from Egypt, 1863-65, is also reissued in this series) contains not only the letters from the latter half of her time in Egypt, but also her letters from the Cape, and a memoir by her daughter, Janet Ross.

In 1862, Lucie Duff Gordon left her husband and three children in England and settled in Egypt, where she remained for the rest of her short life. Seeking respite from her tuberculosis in the dry air, she moved into a ramshackle house above a temple in Luxor, and soon became an indispensable member of the community. Setting up a hospital in her home, she welcomed all - from slaves to local leaders. Her humane, open-minded voice shines across the centuries through these letters - witty, life-affirming, joyous, self-deprecating and utterly enchanted by her Arab neighbours.

From travellers whose course of wild adventure and whose manifold and uncommon gifts put a pressure upon the reader in following them, similar to that felt by them in exploring, it is very delightful to turn to so small and readable, but fresh and pleasant a volume, as Lady Duff Gordon''s. The scenes she visits and describes are supposed to be well known, but assuredly she has the merit of investing them with all interest very new, arising, principally, from her watchfulness over all human ways, and her own interest in every aspect of human life. The letters are written in a singularly captivating and vigorous English style. They possess the rare virtue of enabling the reader to realize the position of the writer and the true aspect of the people.