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    Mirage: Napoleon's Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt
    Unavailable
    Mirage: Napoleon's Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt
    Unavailable
    Mirage: Napoleon's Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt
    Ebook418 pages6 hours

    Mirage: Napoleon's Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt

    By Nina Burleigh

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Two hundred years ago, only the most reckless or eccentric Europeans had dared to traverse the unmapped territory of the modern-day Middle East. But in 1798, more than 150 French engineers, artists, doctors, and scientists—even a poet and a musicologist—traveled to the Nile Valley under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte and his invading army. Hazarding hunger, hardship, uncertainty, and disease, Napoleon's "savants" risked their lives in pursuit of discovery. The first large-scale interaction between Europeans and Muslims in the modern era, the audacious expedition was both a triumph and a disaster, resulting in finds of immense historical and scientific importance (including the ruins of the colossal pyramids and the Rosetta Stone) and in countless tragic deaths through plague, privation, madness, or violence.

    Acclaimed journalist Nina Burleigh brings readers back to the landmark adventure at the dawn of the modern era that ultimately revealed the deepest secrets of ancient Egypt to a curious continent.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061863400
    Unavailable
    Mirage: Napoleon's Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt
    Author

    Nina Burleigh

    Nina Burleigh is the national politics correspondent at Newsweek, an award-winning journalist, and the author of six books. Her most recent book, The Fatal Gift of Beauty, was a New York Times bestseller. Originally from the Midwest, she has lived in and reported from France, Italy, and the Middle East. She lives in New York City.

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    Reviews for Mirage

    3.5/5

    6 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Mirage tells the story of the men, scholars (or savants in French), who volunteered to accompany Napoleon on an unknown mission. They weren't paid. They didn't even receive rations as the soldiers and seamen did. They came because of love for France's general and a belief that where ever he was going, it was their duty to expand scientific knowledge. One has to admire them.They were the best and brightest France had. Mathematicians, chemists, engineers, geologists, zoologists, artists. They ranged in age from their mid-fifties to 15. Many died in Egypt, many were maimed, almost all of them were damaged for life by the experience.They accomplished miracles in the face of unbelievable hardship, starvation, deprivation and disease. Their own countrymen loathed them. In the end, they were used as bargaining chips in the desperate attempt of the abandoned French army (Napoleon had long since quit Egypt to return to Europe, leaving his army with no way to get home) to negotiate with the British for transport. Did you ever wonder how the Rosetta stone ended up in the BM? The French gave it to them to get home.What the savants accomplished, and how the accomplished it, in the face of these odds is an extraordinary story. They started a rage for Egyptiana that still continues. From Aida down to The Mummy. Whether that was to Egypt's benefit is still being argued. Zahi Hawass will undoubtedly go to his deathbed clamoring for the return of the vast quantity of lost national treasures. Be that as it may, the book the savants finally produced, "Description de l??gypte" is a phenomenal work of art.
    • 3/5
      Interesting non-fiction book about Napoleon's expedition in Egypt. It really lowered my opinion of Napoleon, but I found the lives of the scientists interesting. And to think that I always believed that the Rosetta stone was discovered by the British...
    • 3/5
      This book is obviously well researched. I learned much I didn't know about science and scientific methods and about the fascinating Napoleonic expedition to Egypt. I found the organization and layout a bit confusing. The book seemed to unnecessarily jump back and forth in time and place to place.