Mirage: Napoleon's Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt

I enjoyed this book. You suffer along with the scientists as they uncover the mysteries of Egypt and their triumphs and tragedies become yours. Although I'm happy I can take a quick ride on the tube to see the Rosetta stone whenever I want, it's hard not to feel a little frustrated when the British "steal" it away. After all the French went through you can't help but hope they'll come away from this mission with something memorable. It's well worth a read if you love history, archaeology, and science. I picked this book up because I was most interested in the story of the stone and Nina Burleigh devotes a whole chapter to it towards the end of the book. But I was pleasantly surprised to read this wonderful tale of adventure and discovery, culminating in the monumental book "The Description of Egypt." Definitely recommended.

Nina Burleigh - an author and a journalist - has written a book about Napoleon and Egypt. It covers the French invasion of Egypt (1798-1801), but only as a sideshow, because the main topic of her book is the story of the 151 scientists, scholars and students who were recruited for this expedition.The official name of this group was "The Commission on Arts and Sciences attached to the Army of the East." In French they were called "corps de savants" or simply "les savants," meaning "the clever ones." Most of them did not know the destination when they volunteered to go.The invasion of Egypt was a disaster. The fleet was defeated by the British, and the soldiers were defeated by several forces (Arabs, Turks and the British) and, to a large degree, by the hot climate and some deadly diseases. Napoleon himself did not stay on for the whole campaign. In August 1799, after little more than one year in the area, he sailed back to France, leaving most of his army and most of "les savants" to fend for themselves for another two years.The main part of the book is divided into 12 chapters. Nine of them present a scholar or a group of scholars. The chapter headings make you believe the structure of the book is thematic. It is, but it is also chronological. Every chapter has a subheading which indicates the time frame.Chapter 5 presents the engineers, the time frame is fall and winter 1798-1799. Chapter 6 presents the doctors, the time frame is spring and summer 1799. But the engineers and the doctors were present for the whole expedition, not just for a season or two.Chapter 7 presents a mathematician, the time frame is summer and fall 1799. But in this chapter the story continues until June 1800 when the French general Kléber was assassinated in Cairo. The subheading with the time frame is misleading.Chapter 8 presents an artist, Dominique-Vivant Denon, the time frame is fall and winter 1799-1800. But Denon left Egypt with Napoleon in August 1799. Again, the subheading with the time frame is misleading.Apparently, the author could not decide on her approach: thematic or chronological, so she decided to have both at the same time. This is unfortunate. The sections about the scholars should have been separated from the chronological account.I have to mention a few other things that bother me: a misprint, a mistake, an omission, and some unnecessary repetitions.* On page 118, she explains how a doctor had changed his aristocratic name Des Genettes to the more democratic Desgenettes. But later, on page 136, she uses the old name: Des Genettes.* On page 180 she says: "For hundreds of centuries, Philae had represented a major milestone for travelers in Egypt." I think this time frame is way too long. She must mean "For many centuries..."* On page 232, Desgenettes appears again: "When he got back to Egypt, Napoleon awarded him the rank of baronet..." But the doctor never returned to Egypt. She must mean "When he got back from Egypt..."* The bibliography is quite extensive, it includes some works published only in French. But a few recent items are missing:# 1: John Cole,  Napoleon's Egypt: Invading the Middle East # 2: Paul Strathern,  Napoleon In Egypt: The Greatest Glory # 3: Irene Bierman,  Napoleon in Egypt Items # 1 and # 2 were published in 2007. Maybe they are to new to be included in her list. But item # 3 was published in 2003. This item could - and should - have been included in her list.She likes to repeat herself:# 1. Two times Denon is described as "lace-cuffed." Pages 1 & 170.# 2. Two times we hear that Denon's book about his travels in Egypt "was translated into Italian, English, Spanish and German, and became the first best-seller of the nineteenth century." Pages 184 & 233."Les savants" were busy from the beginning to the end, taking notes and making drawings, although they had to work under very difficult conditions: (1) all the equipment they had brought from Europe was lost at sea just before landing in Alexandria. (2) Egypt was not a land of peace, the scholars had to work under military protection which the soldiers did not always want to provide. (3) Many scholars were afflicted by serious diseases like dysentery and an eye disorder known as ophthalmia.Napoleon's plan to conquer Egypt and turn it into a French colony was an impossible dream, a mirage, hence the title of the book. The French soldiers first experienced this phenomenon in July 1798 when they were marching through the desert from Alexandria to Cairo. In the distance they could see an oasis with palm trees and water. But when they got closer, there was nothing. It was a mirage, an optical illusion.The military campaign was a disaster, but for the world of science, education and historical knowledge it produced two important results:# 1: In 1799, the French soldiers found the Rosetta stone which turned out to be the key to understanding the Egyptian hieroglyphs. In 1801, the British took possession of the stone, and thus it ended up in the British Museum in London, but it was a French scholar (Jean-François Champollion) who eventually cracked the code of the hieroglyphs, as Burleigh explains in chapter 11.# 2: The French scholars wrote a book that was based on notes and drawings made during their stay in Egypt. This magnificent book - The Description of Egypt - was published in 24 volumes from 1802 to 1828, and it was the most comprehensive work ever published about this country, as Burleigh explains in chapter 12.The French invasion of Egypt is an incredible and fascinating story. Nina Burleigh's book about "les savants" and their stay in this country is interesting and easy to read. For reasons explained above, I can only give it four out of five stars.

At times this reads as an adventure, at other times it is a civics class. In 1798 Napoleon takes fifty thousand soldiers and one hundred scientist on an unknown mission which turns out to be to take over Egypt! Trouble occurs when the English take out his ships, they are met by disinterested locals, and Egypt is poor, dirty, and loaded with dangerous bugs. They battle weather and locals. Violence. Insight into 1800's Egypt culture.