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Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung
From the New York Times bestselling author Sally Beauman comes an intensely atmospheric, spellbinding re-creation of Lord Carnarvon's hunt for Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings.
Sent abroad to Egypt in 1922 to recover from the typhoid that has killed her mother, eleven-year-old Lucy becomes swept up in the feverish excitement surrounding the search for Tutankhamun's tomb. Through her friendship with Frances, the daughter of an American archaeologist, Lucy witnesses first-hand the intrigue, politics, and passions surrounding this quest. Raised in a world in which adults are often cold and unpredictable, Lucy forms an immediate bond with Frances. Their friendship sustains them throughout childhood, guides them through the class-ridden colonial society in which they grow up, and takes them into an adult life that promises fulfilment--until it veers toward heartbreak.
Deftly constructed and transportive, peopled by powerful characters, moving from the 1920s to the present day, The Visitors is a timeless coming-of-age narrative set against the backdrop of profound historical change. But how is such change documented? Whose testimony is reliable? Which witness should we believe?
Looking back on her past much later in life, viewing it from the perspective of age, Lucy tells a deeply moving story of love and loss, of mistakes made and incendiary secrets concealed. She reveals the circumstances that lie behind the most celebrated discovery ever made in the Valley of the Kings, a discovery clouded by deception, in which triumph swiftly turned to tragedy; it is a story, as she comes to see, whose truths are both elusive and occluded, one that mirrors her own. As Lord Carnarvon and the archaeologist Howard Carter force the desert to yield its treasures, Lucy reveals the extremes to which people are driven by desire--even when these extremes involve building a life around a lie.
Rezensionen (3)
Kirkus-Rezension
This historical novel approaches, slantwise and at considerable length, the 20th century's most sensational archaeological event.The most obvious way to fictionalize the 1922 discovery of King Tutankhamen's tomb would be to have the major players tell the taleHoward Carter, principal archaeologist, and his financier and mentor, Lord Carnarvon (resident earl of Highclere Castle, of Downton Abbey fame). Beauman's (The Sisters Mortland, 2006, etc.) more original approachhave a character at the margins carry the narrative weightis riskier. The narrator, Lucy, is 11 when she first arrives in Egypt after the untimely death of her mother. Her trip is financed by her wealthy American maternal grandparents, since her widowed father, a Cambridge classics don, cannot cope with a child. Through a new friend, Frances, whose parents are archaeologists, Lucy hovers on the fringes of the dig, which includes the irascible, hard-drinking Carter; the affable, high-minded Lord Carnarvon; and their entourage of scientists, curators, wives and lovers. Abetted by Lucy's snoopy spinster guardian, Miss Mack, the girls hone their eavesdropping skills on the scandals surrounding glamorous divorce Poppy, one of the hangers-on. Forced to return to the gloomy home of her father, Lucy is schooled in the art of manipulation by her conniving governess, Nicola, soon to be her stepmother. Then Lucy escapes back to Egypt just as Lord Carnarvon and Carter reveal their find, exceptional not merely for the magnitude of its treasure, but for the fact that the tomb has remained, through three millennia, virtually unmolested by looters. The ensuing "Tutmania" has unintended consequences for both men. Lucy's juvenile point of view is interspersed with the retrospective musings of nonagenarian Lucy, as a documentary filmmaker pesters her to divulge the untold story of the Tut dig. Since the main event is recounted mostly through hearsay, Lucy and her fellow supernumeraries have to be interesting in their own rights for this novel to succeed, and perhaps by dint of the sheer number of pages they occupy, they almost are.There are riches here, but it takes patience to unearth them. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist-Rezension
*Starred Review* This is an old-fashioned novel in the best sense, featuring clever English schoolgirls; boorish, self-involved men; pitiable orphans; and those good-hearted types you find in Dickens, whose decency offers the only relief from life's parade of awfulness. Lucy is 12-year-old girl in 1923, whose beloved mother has died. Her mother's American friend, Miss Mack, has taken Lucy to Egypt to escape her loneliness and the neglect of her father, a pretentious Cambridge don. Once in Luxor, she befriends the children of the archaeologists who are on the cusp of a great discovery, the tomb of Tutankhamun. From their privileged vantage point at the dinner table with their parents, eavesdropping at the hotel's tea room, and tagging along to the tombs the children try to disentangle the web of adult relationships, the sparring of society ladies, the moral choices of their ambitious elders, and their own grief. A book of astounding scholarship on Egyptology and the 1920s, The Visitors never loses sight of its compelling story of the characters' search for that thing a great achievement, financial independence, a kindred soul that will give their lives meaning. The novel's length may prove exasperating for some readers as we follow the principals into adulthood and old age, but its writing and characterizations are golden.--Weber, Lynn Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal-Rezension
In best-selling author Beauman's (Destiny; Rebecca's Tale) latest novel, an elderly woman remembers archaeologist Howard Carter and the opening of King Tut's tomb in 1922. Eleven-year-old Lucy is shipped off to Egypt to recuperate after her mother's death from typhoid leaves her in the cold and distant care of her father. Soon after her arrival, she meets Frances, the daughter of an American archaeologist who introduces her to the exciting and politically fraught world of the Valley of the Kings. There are lots of familiar characters here, including Carter and his patron, Lord Carnarvon, who should appeal to fans of Egyptology. The mystery at the center of the plot, whether Carter and company opened the boy king's tomb illegally, keeps the story going through a few less successful subplots. Beauman particularly shines in the development of her characters: Carter is mercurial and difficult but fascinating, and the elderly Lucy is delightfully opinionated and great fun to read. VERDICT The novel isn't without its problems. Sometimes Lucy sounds a bit too grown-up for her age, and one plot line with Nicola, Lucy's governess-turned--stepmother, is tied up too neatly. But fans of the author's work, archeology, or historical sagas won't mind. [See Prepub Alert, 1/28/14.]-Liz Kirchhoff, Barrington Area Lib., IL (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
