London: A. Deutsch, 1979
This is not only a beautiful but a timely and important book, combining a superb picture of Egypt, past and present, with a 50,000-word essay on Egyptian character and civilisation. The well-known and gifted photographer Fred J. Maroon provides a stunning pictorial record: capturing magical hues of light and form, he celebrates familiar as well as seldom-visited places. P.H. Newby’s thoughtful text relates the fascinating story of a people who throughout 5,000 years or recorded history have been, in the author’s words, “humane, humorous, and unfanatical.”
The Egypt Story begins with an expert, illustrated introduction to the aesthetic principles that guided ancient Egyptian artists. Then, pictures and text present vivid vignettes of those remarkable Pharaohs who shaped Egypt’s past.
As the text traces the succession of foreign conquerors — Alexander the Great, the Fatimids, the Mamelukes, Napoleon, the Albanian Mohammed Ali — the photographs reveal the lingering vestiges of each invader’s reign, from the fabled harbour of Alexandria to the colourful bazaars of the Fatimid districts of Cairo.
We come finally to modern Egypt, where 20th century skyscrapers share the horizon with the Pyramids, and where the bent figures of fellaheen toiling along the Nile are replicas of their ancestors as depicted on the walls of tombs.
