Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This varied collection pulls together little-known material from the classical Egyptian era, a span of more than 3000 years. They were an agricultural people so fertility had profound meaning for them. And, like us, they were vividly aware of the many meanings of human sexuality. Those concerns and delights both had their place in the writings and visual art that have come down to us.
This presents many samples from that long-lived civilization. Those include pictures from many papyri and other sources, from rough and iconic (p.123) to the more polished. I was especially impressed by the statuary and carvings, whether sensual and restrained (p.33, 102), comically bawdy (p.27), or functional as a lady's toy (p.39). The writings cover much the same range, including a Cinderella story where the glass slipper is replaced by a tuft of pubic hair!
Despite the enjoyable parts of this book, it suffers systematic flaws. Many of the photos are out of focus, and many modern line drawings are interspersed with the original images. I found them annoying until I realized that they were tracings of originals, possibly ones that had been rendered almost illegible by the ravages of time. A caption or two would have helped the modern drawings to make sense. That leads to my biggest problem with this book: it's lack of attributions. As the authors point out, the classical period of Egypt lasted longer than any other civilization by thousands of years, and went through many cycles of cultural change during that time. Despite that, almost none of the artworks or writings are tied to any particular era or area. The resulting image of the people's beliefs about sex and sexuality has been torn into kaleidoscopic pieces and scattered throughout the book. Because there are no attributions or bibliography, the authors make it impossible for me to piece that history together on my own.
This is OK as a coffee table book, despite the many flaws in the way it presents its images. It will disappoint any more serious reader, especially those who want a coherent picture of historical trends.
//wiredweird
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