Mirage, Nina Burleigh
Mirage, Nina Burleigh
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Mirage
Napoleon's Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt

Author: Nina Burleigh

Narrator: Cassandra Campbell

Unabridged: 10 hr 25 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/04/2007


Synopsis

Little more than two hundred years ago, only the most reckless or eccentric Europeans had dared traverse the unmapped territory of the modern-day Middle East. Its history and peoples were the subject of much myth and speculation–and no region aroused greater interest than Egypt.

It was not until 1798, when an unlikely band of scientific explorers traveled from Paris to the Nile Valley, that Westerners received their first real glimpse of what lay beyond the Mediterranean Sea.

Under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte and the French Army, a small and little-known corps of Paris’s brightest intellectual lights left the safety of their laboratories, studios, and classrooms to embark on a thirty-day crossing into the unknown–some never to see French shores again. Carrying pencils instead of swords, specimen jars instead of field guns, these highly accomplished men participated in the first large-scale interaction between Europeans and Muslims of the modern era. And many lived to tell the tale.

Internationally acclaimed journalist Nina Burleigh brings readers back to a little-known landmark adventure at the dawn of the modern era–one that ultimately revealed the deepest secrets of ancient Egypt to a very curious continent.

About The Author

Nina Burleigh is an award-winning journalist and author of a number of books, including Mirage: Napoleon's Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt, which was selected by the New York Times as an Editors' Choice and won the Society of Women Educators' Award in 2008. She has been a staff writer at Time and People, and her articles have appeared in the New York TimesWashington Post, and Huffington Post.Cassandra Campbell is an actress, director, and teacher who has performed in New York at the Public Theater, the Mint Theater, and the Clurman Theatre. She is an accomplished voice-over artist whose credits include numerous audiobooks, documentaries, and commercials in both Italian and English.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Laura

The stories recounted in this book are fascinating and it's sobering to realize how readily men's lives were thrown away because of Napoleon's delusions. I found the author's style sensationalist at times. She was also occasionally incorrect with small details. As an art historian, the one that leap......more

Goodreads review by Steve

In 1798, the young French Republic is at war with just about everyone in Europe who doesn’t want the French brand of revolution to spread. The nation needs a victory somewhere and Napoleon, never one to pass up an opportunity, decides to take the French Army to Egypt to secure a base by which grow a......more

Goodreads review by Pat

Napoleon’s core of scientific adventurers in Egypt is arguably the greatest singular event to straddle those two reductive “Ages” of European history—ie the Enlightenment and the Romantic. It is also a complete disaster. What a ride! Of course, Mirage is great as an audiobook for road trips b/c the......more

Goodreads review by Raye

An interesting but poorly organized account of Napoleon's ill conceived invasion of Egypt. While the subject matter was interesting and the prose engaging, the author frequently repeated herself, and many tidbits of information were repeated almost verbatim in several chapters. There was an attempt,......more

Goodreads review by Jacki

I found this to be a great introduction into the scientific and political climate of the time period. I had no real knowledge of what Egypt was like at this time, so I was particularly interested in how the people lived, and how the soldiers and scientists adjusted, not just what finds and developme......more