The Egyptian Heaven and Hell (Books on Egypt and Chaldaea, V. 20-22.) (Paperback)

~ E. A. Wallis Budge (Author) "THE inhabitants of Egypt during the Dynastic Period of their history possessed, in common with other people of similar antiquity, very definite ideas about the..." (more)
Key Phrases: mummied form, twelve goddesses, twelve gods, Other World, Book of the Dead, Books of the Dead (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Complete hieroglyphic renderings of two ancient "books of the underworld" which provided the dead with a guide their souls would need to make the journey from the world of the living to the "abode of the blessed." Ancient texts shed considerable light on the development of material and spiritual elements in Egyptian religion and on numerous primitive gods. Extraordinary documents for students of Egyptology.

About the Author

About the Author:

"E.A. Wallis Budge was born in Bodmin, Cornwall to Mary Ann Budge, a young woman whose father was a waiter in a Bodmin hotel. Budge's father has never been identified. Budge left Cornwall as a young man, and eventually came to live with his grandmother and aunt in London.

Budge became interested in languages before he was ten years old, but given that he left school at the age of twelve in 1869 to work as a clerk at the firm of W.H. Smith, he studied Hebrew and Syriac in his spare time with the aid of a volunteer tutor named Charles Seeger. Budge became interested in learning the ancient Assyrian language in 1872, when he also began to spend time in the British Museum. Budge's tutor introduced him to the Keeper of Oriental Antiquities, the pioneer Egyptologist Samuel Birch, and Birch's assistant, the Assyriologist George Smith. Smith helped Budge occasionally with his Assyrian, whereas Birch allowed the young man to study cuneiformtablets in his office and obtained books of Middle Eastern travel and adventure such as Sir Austen Henry Layard's Nineveh and Its Remains for him to read from the British Library.

From 1869 to 1878 Budge spent whatever free time he had from his job at W.H. Smith studying Assyrian, and he often walked down to St. Paul's Cathedral over his lunch break to study during these years. When the organist of St. Paul's, John Stainer, noticed Budge's hard work, he decided to help the boy to realize his dream of working in a profession that would allow him to study Assyrian. Stainer contacted Budge's employer, the Conservative Member of Parliament W.H. Smith, as well as the former Liberal Prime Minister W.E. Gladstone, and asked them to help his young friend. Both Smith and Gladstone agreed to help Stainer to raise money for Budge to attend Cambridge University, where Budge later studied Semitic languages, including Hebrew, Syriac, Ethiopic and Arabic from 1878 to 1883, continuing to study Assyrian on his own. Budge worked closely during these years with the famous scholar of Semitic languages William Wright, among others." (Quote from en.wikipedia.org) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 864 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (November 27, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486293688
• ISBN-13: 978-0486293684
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,453,505 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Outdated and Questionable, July 22, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Egyptian Heaven and Hell (Paperback)

This is actually three books in one which deal with the Amduat and the contents of other underworld books. The book contains the hieroglyphic text, as well as, a translation of the Amduat. Although Budges translation and conclusions are highly questionable the book is still of some use. If there was another English translation of the Amduat, this book probably would have received one star.

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Egyptain Heaven and Hell: Three volumes Bound as One, April 4, 2000

By	haley wales (United State) - See all my reviews

In my opinion, this was a very good book. The author knew what they were talking about. They made it clear to me about the beliefs of heaven and hell in ancient egypt. It was a good translation of the hieroglyphs and I would recomend it to anyone.