(DOWNLOAD) "Impertinent Miracles at the British Museum: Egyptology and Edwardian Fantasies for Young People (Critical Essay)" by Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts " eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Impertinent Miracles at the British Museum: Egyptology and Edwardian Fantasies for Young People (Critical Essay)
- Author : Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts
- Release Date : January 22, 2009
- Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines,Books,Professional & Technical,Education,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 95 KB
Description
In THE STORY OF THE AMULET (1906), E. NESBIT INCLUDES A SCENE OF FOUR CHILDREN rushing from the British Museum with an ancient Babylonian queen who has traveled through time; a newspaper headline in the next day's paper carries the banner, "IMPERTINENT MIRACLE AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM" (512). Nesbit's headline might have summed up the feelings of many Edwardians, who marveled at but were at times disturbed by the discoveries and reckonings emanating from the British Museum, particularly those of Egyptologist E. A. Wallis Budge, the keeper of the Museum's Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities. Nesbit, well known for her fantasies and comic family stories dedicated The Story of the Amulet to Budge. H. Rider Haggard, best-known for adventure fantasies such as King Solomon's Mines (1885) and She (1886), both of which extolled the values of the British Empire and encouraged the exploration and exploitation of Africa by white Britons also dedicated a novel to Budge, the 1910 Morning Star. That these two authors would dedicate their books to Budge is a minor miracle in itself, and deserves investigation. Nesbit and Haggard, both successful British writers for young people, had little else in common. Although both were products of the Victorian era, Haggard spent several years in Africa, while Nesbit never left Europe and spent most of her life in London. Haggard's books generally reflect the prevailing ideas about the external empire and imperial subjects, while Nesbit's children's literature concentrates more on domestic concerns, bringing in the idea of empire only indirectly if at all. Although Haggard, already famous for writing King Solomon's Mines, wrote to Nesbit in 1886 to compliment her on her work, the letter concerned Nesbit's poetry, not her children's literature. Haggard called himself "a humble admirer of your poetic power" (Moore 121), but this appears to be the only time the two authors ever corresponded. Nesbit soon gave up poetry; Raymond Jones notes that
 "Impertinent Miracles at the British Museum: Egyptology and Edwardian Fantasies for Young People (Critical Essay)" by Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts " eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free){kind=link}