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Ancient Evenings
Ancient Evenings
Author: Norman Mailer
Ancient Evenings, a dazzlingly rich, deeply evocative novel, recreates the long-lost civilisation of Ancient Egypt. Mailer breathes life into the figures of that era; the eighteenth dynasty Pharaoh Rameses and his wife, Queen Nefertiti; Menenhetet, their creature, lover and victim; and the gods and mortals that surround them in intimate and tele...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780316544108
ISBN-10: 0316544108
Publication Date: 3/1983
Pages: 709
Rating:
  • Currently 3.3/5 Stars.
 11

3.3 stars, based on 11 ratings
Publisher: Little Brown Co (T)
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback, Audio Cassette
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Ancient Evenings on + 96 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
THE GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL, July 6, 2003
Reviewer: Donald A. Newlove (Greenwich Village)

I read this the first week it came out, long ago, and thought it the Great American Novel, despite its being set in Egypt. Why so grand an opinion? Because the writing, especially the set-pieces about mummification and a trip up the Nile, as well as others, were better written than any passages of equal length by any American author I'd ever read. RAINTREE COUNTY sets out to be the Great Amrican Novel but, as much as I enjoyed it when I was twenty, its lyricism falls short of Mailer's. The trip up the Nile is equaled only by Twain's Mississippi, Melville's Three-Day Chase at the end of MOBY DICK, and Hemingway's description of the deep waters Santiago fishes in in THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA. I found Mailer's characters, even the walkons, more well-rounded and weighted than any by the whole pantheon of classic American writers. Melville, Twain, Thomas Wolfe, Dreiser, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Bellow, Updike, none of them has created Tolstoyan characters with feet as fully plantd on the page as Mailer's Egyptians. Nor has Mailer ever again matched the exquisite bath of light in which he washes these pages.
reviewed Ancient Evenings on
Helpful Score: 1
Norman Mailer reveals the beauty and brutality of ancient Egypt. Very long for my taste but has a bit of humor that makes it bearable.
AudioHRGal avatar reviewed Ancient Evenings on
Helpful Score: 1
Ancient Egypt and weird happenings.
reviewed Ancient Evenings on + 9 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Beautiful imagery, a story I have read multiple times and never tire of.
Read All 14 Book Reviews of "Ancient Evenings"

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KBooklover avatar reviewed Ancient Evenings on + 18 more book reviews
Memorable and bawdy. Crossing three millennia to Pharaonic Egypt, this tale returns to that land's essences - the war, magic, gods, death and reincarnations, the lusts, ambitions, jealousies, and betrayals.
GemGirl avatar reviewed Ancient Evenings on + 37 more book reviews
Slow, slow, slow! Despite my huge interest in ancient Egypt and the tale of Ramses, I really had to force myself to get through this book.
buzzby avatar reviewed Ancient Evenings on + 6062 more book reviews
Long and involved story, or rather stories within stories, once put down hard to pick up again.
reviewed Ancient Evenings on + 50 more book reviews
Mailer takes on the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Fun.
reviewed Ancient Evenings on + 8 more book reviews
Long but a really great read, lots if good imagery.


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