We have recovered from ancient Egyptians the romantic tale of Sinhue, an Egyptian of the middle kingdom who travelled far, loved many women, and retired to a prosperous life at home. This is the redaction of that tale by a popular and entertaining Finnish writer with all the virtues and vices of the 1940's. ( )

Una novel.la entretinguda sobre la història de l'antic Egipte i dels conflictes d'Egipte amb altres civilitzacions com els hitites o els babilonis, durant els regnats dels faraons Akhenaton i Tutankamon. Il.lustra bé el context religiós amb les guerres entre els partidaris dels déus Amon i Aton. Pel què fa la política i societat, el protagonista, Sinuhé, viatge per diferents regions i civilitzacions fins a la llunyana Babilònia i Creta i ofereix una visió de l'Orient Mitjà de l'època. Alguns capítols, potser, són prescindibles i això fa que la novel.la s'allargui més del desitjat. ( )

Sinuhé, el egipcio
Mika Waltari
Publicado: 1945 | 536 páginas
Novela Histórico
Serie: Colección Reno #1 /sfQWZwChw_G4

En el ocaso de su vida, el protagonista de este relato confiesa: «porque yo, Sinuhé, soy un hombre y, como tal, he vivido en todos los que han existido antes que yo y viviré en todos los que existan después de mí. Viviré en las risas y en las lágrimas de los hombres, en sus pesares y temores, en su bondad y en su maldad, en su debilidad y en su fuerza». Sinuhé, el egipcio nos introduce en el fascinante y lejano mundo del Egipto de los faraones, los reinos sirios, la Babilonia decadente, la Creta anterior a la Hélade…, es decir, en todo el mundo conocido catorce siglos antes de Jesucristo. Sobre este mapa, Sinuhé dibuja la línea errante de sus viajes; y aunque la vida no sea generosa con él, en su corazón vive inextinguible la confianza en la bondad de los hombres. Una de las novelas más célebres del siglo XX y, en su momento, constituyó un notable éxito cinematográfico.

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PRATELEIRA EUNICE LIVRO 107
É a reconstituição total de uma era até hoje não devassada pela ficção, e como tal, enriquecem-na veias túmidas de fascinante erudição. Inteiramente autêntica, está escrita num estilo literário de que pouquíssimas novelas históricas podem gabar-se. Passa-se no Egito, mais de um milênio antes de Cristo, e abrange tudo do mundo conhecido de então. Vem narrada por Sinuhé, médico do Faraó, e é a história de sua vida.
Mika Toimi Waltari (Helsinque, 19 de setembro de 1908 — 26 de agosto de 1979) foi um escritor finlandês, mais conhecido por seu romance best-seller The Egyptian (em finlandês: Sinuhe egyptiläinen). Ele foi extremamente produtivo e, além de seus romances, também escreveu poesia, contos, romances policiais, peças, ensaios, histórias de viagens, roteiros de filmes e textos rimados para histórias em quadrinhos de Asmo Alho (foi um cartunista finlandês, editor de revista e ilustrador de dezenas de livros).

“My name was once inscribed in Pharaoh’s golden book, and I dwelt at his right hand. My words outweighed those of the mighty in the land of Kem; nobles sent me gifts, and chains of gold were hung about my neck. I possessed all that a man can desire, but like a man I desired more—therefore, I am what I am. I was driven from Thebes in the sixth year of the reign of Pharaoh Horemheb, to be beaten to death like a cur if I returned—to be crushed like a frog between the stones if I took one step beyond the area prescribed for my dwelling place. This is by command of the King, of Pharaoh who was once my friend.”

First published in Finland in 1945, this novel is a sweeping classic historical saga that tells the story of Sinuhe, an Egyptian physician. He is writing his life story from an older age while living in exile. He starts at the beginning of his life, as an orphan adopted by a doctor and his wife. He tells of his family, adventures, journeys, wars, friendships, and relationships. He ends with how he became exiled. His story features real Egyptian leaders, such as Amenhotep III, Nefertiti, Horemheb, Eie, and Tutankhamun.

In addition to following Sinhue’s journeys, it depicts the rise and fall of Pharoah Akhnaton (Amenhotep IV). Akhnaton changed the primary Egyptian religion from Amon and the traditional gods, to Aton, the sun god and only god. This change to monotheism created much disruption, upheaval, and violence. It is ironic since Aton was supposed to be a god of peace. It reflects the ways in which wars tend to surface despite peaceful intentions.

It is an engaging story with deeply drawn characters, expressive writing, and emotional ups and downs. The first half reminds me a bit of The Odyssey, where the main character travels by ship and surmounts many obstacles, though The Egyptian is fully set in the real world and does not employ actions by mythological creatures. A bit of humor is introduced through the antics of Sinuhe’s slave, Kaptah. Over the course of the story, they form a close friendship.

Through Sinuhe’s adventures, the reader feels immersed in the customs, culture, religious beliefs, medical practices, politics, and society of ancient Egypt and the surrounding regions. He encounters people from Syria, Mitanni, Hattusa, Babylon, and Crete. It would have been even more enjoyable if it were shorter (the war scenes become a bit much after a while) but is definitely worth reading and highly recommended. This book was made into a Hollywood film in 1954.

4.5
( )

This book was nothing like I expected it to be. I think this review will manifest itself as basically a list of all the ways it surprised me and general observations.

It is a historical novel, but honestly it's more like an odyssey of mythology retellings, a travel diary, medicinal practices, explorations in philosophy and spirituality, discussions on social issues, the horrors of war, the complications and limitations of friendship and loyalty, and an autobiography (mostly of very unfortunate and cringeworthy choices, LOL).

I should probably say that I did listen to this and, while some reviewers did not like the narrator, particularly where the women's voices were concerned, it is because of this narrator that I was able to get through the book. The writing was just fine and very clean, but the book is long and fraught with unhappy topics and discussions. He did all of this very well and I felt that all the voices, even the women, matched the characters he was portraying. I think what people may really have been upset about was the fact that many (and perhaps all) women in this book were not portrayed in the best of light--I don't know if this is the author attempting to portray some sort of general impression of how women may have acted in the historical period, if it is part of the author's own bias, if it is a reflection of the time period in which the author himself wrote the book, or if the author only did so to allow the story to occur. Whatever the reason, I felt the narrator gave the women voices who suited their characters and purpose, so most of them sounded wheedling, petulant, manipulative, and greasy. But, it's not as though the men in this story, including the protagonist, were angels, either, LOL.

Other reviewers have stated the repetition of certain phrases, which could get tiresome. Notably, these were things like: "the sound of flies buzzing in my ears," "so much ash in my mouth," "as dust under my feet," and "though why so-and-so did this, I do not know." This repetition didn't bother me too much, but a little more variety might have been good.

As to historical accuracy, I know some of Egyptian history, more of Greek myth, and some of the Bible and there were familiar stories and people and happenings all throughout, but I do think some creative license was taken and I was fine with that, as it didn't seem out of place or like extreme liberties were taken. There were some slow parts, but I still wanted to know what happened and listened to the whole thing. I think my favorite part and one of the most riveting was when Sinuhe followed Minea into the labyrinth to see what had befallen her.

Despite all the tragedy and suffering, there were some pretty funny parts. I felt the funniest people tended to be Kaptah and Muti.

Overall, I am glad I read this, as I had been meaning to for a while. ( )

"هیچ خدایی نمی تواند جهالت انسان را از بین ببرد"

تعریف این کتاب زیبا رو سال ها پیش از پدرم شنیده بودم و بعدها یکی از معلم های راهنماییم بهم گفت که هر موقع رفتی دانشگاه، بخون. با اختلاف چند ساله خونده شد و برای من تجربه ای بود از اتفاقات پر فراز و نشیب، با انواع احساسات متفاوت.
سینوهه در اول کتاب، خسته از خدایان و حاکمان، مشغول نوشتن کتاب و توصیف زندگی خودش می شه. و این داستانی شنیدنی می شه برای ساعت ها صحبت از انسان دوستی، رفاقت، زندگی در کنار فراعنه و مردم محروم، و نهایتا فریب و سو استفاده مستمر و مداوم از مردم و باورهاشون.

"احتمالا شما هم معرکه گیرهای ژنده پوشی را دیده اید که در کمال فقر از طلا و نقره، گشاده دستی و فراوانی نعمت ها حرف می زنند. به اطرافیان معرکه خود وعده گنج می دهند و مردم شیفته سخنان آنان می شوند. همیشه از دروغ نفرت داشته ام." ( )

Unfinished but at over half way and given the novel's length able to review (?). The early parts are the best as he focuses on description of life in ancient Egypt - the plot is slow here, but treat it like a documentary. It's dark, atmospheric, educational, livened by humor. Further along it relaxes and is informed by the film Gunga Din (1939) other similar films of that era and can be visualized that way, it's a mix of low and high brow. Has some legit literary chops, in parts, and other long stretches of puerile crap, why I bailed. ( )

Link to review in my blog:

https://sravikabodapati.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-egyptian-by-mika-waltari-book-r... ( )

This is well-written. One quibble: I wanted to learn much more about the ancient Hittites and other peoples of the region. ( )

Told mostly in dialogue, Finnish author Waltari describes the life and travels of a principled ancient Egyptian doctor, Sinuhe, as he witnesses the culture's battles for supremacy with external foes and internal successions. ( )

Wiki is your friend
Pharaoh's Aton, not so much
don't piss off the priests. ( )

The Egyptian is a fiction work interspersed with some historical fact. It is about (surprise, surprise) an Egyptian, how he lives, his adventures, and his work. His name Sinuhe, the Lonely One. Equipped with this information here is the story.
Sinuhe was found floating down the river when he was only a day old by Senmut, a physician, and his wife, Kipa. Being childless they raised him as their own. When Sinuhe grew up he was placed in the Temple of the Living to learn to be a doctor. He was quick to learn but he asked too many questions and found that the duller ones were passing him. It was during this time that he met Nefernefernefer, a woman who would bring him great sorrow in time to come. Soon Sinuhe learned to ask no questions and he became helper to the royal physician. Soon after he graduated as a qualified physician. He bought a slave and set up a house in a fashionable quarter. His business began to prosper. Then he once more met Nefernefernefer. He wanted her but she made him pay for her favours. Eventually Sinuhe lost all his money, his home and his slave, his parents' home, and their tomb. Feeling that he had betrayed his family he ran away from Egypt to Syria and other lands. His adventures acquainted him with the kings of Syria, Babylon, Hatta, and Crete. He met and fell in love with a Cretan maiden who was picked to enter the maze and live with the Crete god. She died in the maze and Sinuhe returned to Egypt where he becomes the royal physician to Pharoah Akhnaton. The pahroah tries to institue a new god in place of the old one, Amun. The people rebel and the Pharoah is killed. Sinuhe then becomes physician to the next Pharoah who, after a few years, banshes him to Punt for insubordination.
I cannot say that this book has a tremendously dramatic message for mankind, but it does provide good reading for quite a lengthy time. It also provides, in a relatively easy-to-read way, a history of Egypt and the story behind the pyramids. It has all the ingredients of a good story: suspense, romance, history, a gallant hero, good descriptive passages. As I read it, I could not help becoming interested in Sinuhe's travels. It is a very restful book. It does not require the reader to probe the mind of the author or anything so intellectually tiring. It was a pleasure to read.

I read this book and wrote the review in high school.(June 1970). ( )

It's been at least 30 years since I read this book last, and it's still as brilliant as I remember it. It feels ancient and timeless and modern at once. My words cannot do this book justice. ( )

A remarkable historical novel set in ancient Egypt mainly during the reign of the pharaoh Akhenaton, who tried to bring monotheistic worship of Aton to Egypt. His reign was marked by internal conflict and he and his descendants in the 18th dynasty were later denounced by Horemheb, and their names were erased in the Egyptian records. The worship of Aton is speculated to be a precursor of Judaism.

The book is in the form of autobiography of Sinuhe a physician who rises to become an advisor and friend of pharaohs and kings. His travels take him from Egypt to Syria, Babylon, Mitanni, Hattusa and Crete at the end of Minoan civilization. Albeit set in the 14th century Egypt, the travels of Sinuhe paint a timeless human story in all its foibles and follies. It reveals the brutal reality of human civilization where ultimately the strong oppress the weak and it is the poor who always suffer.

Akhenaton is portrayed as a utopian dreamer and visionary who is completely out of touch with the reality. All his best intentions lead to death and disaster. Sinuhe isn’t exactly a very likable character. He often comes off as cowardly, self-centred and arrogant, but also as one who tries to do good but only at the price of losing everything.

The novel is thoroughly researched and historically accurate for its time. There are some inaccuracies, like Tutankhamen was the son of Akhenaton and Rameses was not the son of Horemheb, but I’m guessing these weren’t known at the time the book was written.
( )

Abandoned about halfway through...I usually love books about Egypt but this bored me senseless. ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2475568.html

Published in 1945, this was apparently a huge classic in the middle of last century, described as the best known book written in Finnish (Tove Jansson wrote in Swedish), the only Finnish book ever adapted to become a Hollywood movie, and the best-selling translated novel in America until The Name of the Rose.

It's about an ancient Egyptian doctor, Sinuhe, who spends most of the first half of the story travelling through Egypt's neighbours, as far as Crete, Smyrna and Babylon, and then in the second half returns home to participate in the intrigues at the courts of Akhenaton and his successors Tutankhamun and Horemheb (an old friend of the narrator). It was hailed for its "realistic" portrayal of ancient life, which to me tends to signal that it buttressed existing popular conceptions; I definitely felt that the scenes of ideologically driven internal conflict and brutal military suppression of popular uprisings might be drawn from more local experience of mid-century Europe than from any study of ancient Egypt.

It is a solid book of its kind, which would have appealed to the prejudices of mid-century readers while at the same time making them think that the author was informing and enlightening them. Of course, it has a comic slave character, almost all the women are seductresses, and none of the many "Negroes" are named. But there is a decent sense of scale in both space and time, and the reflections of the politics of the day are sufficiently oblique to remain interesting. ( )

This just misses five stars--because it took me a long time to warm up to the Sinuhe, the protagonist and narrator, and it's just a little bit too much of a downer. So no, I wouldn't call this a happy tale--but it is a rich epic and great historical fiction of Ancient Egypt under Akhenaton, its heretic pharaoh. Had I not known going in, I wouldn't have guessed this novel was written in 1945. Although that might explain some of its bleakness--I've read that when it was published, it resonated with people who had seen humanistic ideals collapse in the face of Stalin, Hitler, the Holocaust.

This is set in Ancient Egypt over 1,300 years before the birth of Christ. Akhenation is thought to be the first monotheist, so he holds some fascination for Jews, Christians and Muslims. Before this I had read Naguib Mahfouz's Akhenaten, Dweller in Truth. Mahfouz is a Muslim and I thought I could detect that coloring his novel. Waltari, for his part, was supposedly a believing Christian. His novel doesn't come across as Christian fiction though--at all. As I said, it doesn't come across as written in 1945. I didn't feel as if there was a overlay of a worldview alien to the time in which this was set--and for me that's the mark of great historical fiction, that you feel transported to another place and time, rather than reading modern people in historical costumes. In fact, I think Waltari did almost too well--as I said it took a long time for me to warm to Sinuhe. Especially in his youth he was arrogant, misogynist, and too-stupid-to-live. But there are positive, strong female characters in this novel--they're just not very apparent early on.

And Waltari set this not just in Egypt--this is like a grand tour of the Bronze Age world--Egypt, Canaan, Syria, Babylon, Hatti, Crete. There are allusions to both Biblical stories and Greek myth. Sinuhe was found as a baby floating in the river on a reed boat and Minea, one of the positive female characters, is a bull-leaper from Minoan Crete--and there is a minotaur and a labyrinth. According to what I gather from online, Waltari did extensive research for this book and garnered praise even from Egyptologists. So truly, this novel is a great ride I'd recommend to anyone looking for great historical fiction--even if I found it a rather melancholy read. ( )

I read this years ago - about 46 or so (when I was 15 and should have been studying for my exams ...)

I still remember it today as one of my favorite books. Can still remember the opening paragraph and just recently re-bought it to read it again.

A great book for anyone interested in historical fiction and Ancient Egypt ( )

Mika Waltarin vuonna 1945 ilmestyneen Sinuhe Egyptiläisen luin lukioaikoina. Päähenkilönä on orpo Sinuhe, josta monien vaiheiden jälkeen tulee Faaraon henkilääkäri. Waltari kirjoitti kirjan Kalhon huvilallaan, mutta teos on hyvin tarkka historiallisilta yksityiskohdiltaan. Jotkut ovat luulleet kirjoittajan olevan Egyptologi. Waltari käytti kirjassa paljon raamatullisia viitteitä ja siinä on nähty paljon toisen maailmansodan nostattamia tuntemuksia. Kirjasta tuli nopeasti bestseller ja se on käännetty 40 kielelle. Se on mielestäni hyvin kiehtova ajankuvaus. Siitä on tehty mös Michael Curtizin ohjaama elokuva The Egyptian. ( )

"Would that I had words that are unknown, utterances and sayings in new language, that hath not yet passed away, and without that which hath been said repeatedly, and without that which hath been said repeatedly - not an utterance that hath growth stale, what the ancestors have already said."

-Khekheperre-Sonbu, a learned man and priest of the reign of Senusret II, c. 2150 BCE

With all due respect to the complaints of millennia past, I must instead defer to Mark Twain. He offers that history does not repeat itself, but it rhymes.

Such is the story of Sinuhe, the royal physician to a heretic king, the Egyptian who wanders from Egypt to Babylon to Syria to the Hattusa to Crete. This is the archetypal story of love and loss, and yet it is new and familiar. He struggles for meaning and existence, both naive and sly, enduring the currents of dogma and war of history - all words repeated so much they are nearly meaningless, but still a cipher of every human being's story.

Waltari, though a rather astonishing depth of research, recreates a long-distant world, and dare I cliche - makes them Come Alive. A linear plot seldom exists, save for the wanderings of our eternal protagonist, and the surroundings and people around him, from his beginning to the end.

It is also an interesting coincidence that the author is Finnish - a country placed squarely in the middle of the most brutal conflict of the last century, between Nazi and Soviet, yet suffered far less than its southern neighbors. In that far country, they survived well enough to give warnings of war and dogma and tyrants, that we might learn from their history. ( )

My first introduction to "The Egyptian" was through a late night movie with Michael Rennie playing Sinuhe. The credits stated something like :Adapted from Mika Waltari's bestsellling novel." I got the book out of the library the very next day and found several things, not the least of which is that Hollywood doesn't always follow the story in the book.
The story of Sinuhe, an Egyptian physician, is told in first person and describes his life in the time of great change. He is just oeripheral to the major historical happenings, close enough to see what actuallyhappens to ordinary peopke when the leaders make monumental changes.

I read this first in the early 60s and again now, almost 50 years later and I find I still enjoy the book and see even more layers than I did so long ago. ( )

What a great book!

The setting of the book is in ancient Egypt--actually in other areas of the ancient Near East as well. Though nominally narrated by an average Egyptian doctor, this average doctor was deeply involved in the politics and diplomacy of this very pivotal point in Egypt's history. ( )

fremragende bog ( )