The Cat of Bubastes : A Tale of Ancient Egypt

Review: <b> The Cat of Bubastes by G. A. Henty.This is a wonderful “Children’s Classic” written over a hundred years ago. There is no copyright date but the author was born in 1832 and died in 1902. I thought it was well written and I loved the characters. I really didn’t know at first that it was a children’s book until I read about the author. The story is written for any age with adventure, coming of age, culture, and people of various races as far back as Moses. The setting is in Egypt and described with as much authenticity to keep the reader captivated. Each chapter gives a great amount of details and interesting facts about Egypt woven into an exciting and suspenseful story that any reader would enjoy.The story is about a teen-age Rebu Prince, Amuba who lost his Kingdom, his father, his family, and his home to the Egyptians in a battle to take over the kingdom. They took many of the Redu people back to Egypt to use as slaves. However, the Prince and one of his father’s best companions, Jethro both ended up being chosen by the High Priest of the Temple of the Gods as a companion for his teen-age son Chebron, and a protector for his daughter. One day Chebron and Amuba took their bows and arrows out to the area where the hens, geese, ducks and other animals were migrating and hid in the bushes to find out what has been scaring and killing some of the flock. They heard a loud screech and noticed a large black raven swooping down in attempt to catch his prey. Both boys stood at a stance with their weapons ready and shot their arrows toward the bird. Amuba’s arrow found its mark and the bird dropped to the ground.Amuba was elated that he hit his mark until he looked over and saw Chebron in a state of panic pointing to the shed that housed some of his sister’s pets. Stuttering and crying Chebron managed to explain to Amuba that his arrow veered off a branch and struck his sister’s favorite and sacred cat. In Egypt a few animals are considered Gods of worship and this cat was highly sacred and was chosen as the one special blessed cat of Egypt. If it was known that he killed the cat he would be denounced and most likely be killed. Once this happens the decision was made by his father for Amuba, Jethro and Chebron to go away as far as they could. Before they even got out of the city the news had spread….The story moves on with plenty of adventure and chaos….One moral concept I got from the story was that no matter what religion, race, sex or god many people gave a helping hand and were considerate of each other to the very end….but most stories has a villain….

This book is a fun read. The plot was slow at some places, especially in the first half, and it took a while for the main part of the story to get underway; but overall it was an exciting read and a fine introduction to G.A. Henty novels, as this is the first one I've read.The main characters are Amuba, a prince of the Rebu nation; Jethro, his father's trusted aide; Ameres, high priest of Egypt; and Chebron, son of Andres. At the beginning of the book the Rebu, who live by the Caspian Sea*, are conquered by the Egyptians; the king dies in battle and Amuba and Jethro are carried off as captives to Egypt. They become slaves in the house of Ameres, who fortunately is a good man and treats them well. Ameres has become convinced that the gods served in Egypt are not true gods, but that there is one God who rules over all. Amuba and Chebron become friends. One day they accidentally kill a cat; not only is it sacrilegious to kill a cat in Egypt, but this cat had been chosen as a sacred cat for the temple in Thebes. Facing the wrath of the people and government, they become fugitives and must attempt to escape out of Egypt.*In fact, historically, the Rebu actually lived in what is now Libya, and other translations of Rebu are Libu or Lebu, from which we get our term Libya. I don't know if this was not known when Henty wrote this book, and if he guessed or used poetic license to decide the location of the Rebu homeland, or if it was genuinely believed that the Rebu came from that area.

I like the fact that it's based in Egypt and does make note of the fact that the Egyptians worshiped God, though they were unsure of His name, and they also had a lot of pets, such as Dogs and Cats. Dogs for hunting, and many people know that Cats were worshiped in Ancient Egypt and possibly are still by some today. I dislike the fact that pages 9 and 50 so far are completely missing. As in, they do not exist. There were also story skips. Don't buy this. Get a paperback or an audiobook.

One and alone is the character in this book. George Alfred Henty is the king, sometimes the queen, the priest, the friend, everybody here talks with his heart, his (very slowly) voice and mind. Even in the heat of the battle, the beliefs of the author are calmful explained, and every one that doesn't share them (the violent ones) is because they're victims of their ignorance about those ideas. The plot is secondary to that goal, which seems to be that monotheism is the truth and you are more human the more you accept it. This idea I am not criticizing, each point of view, without demonizing others, is respectable. I criticize the execution: the characters are flat and, in order to be avatars of the author, they lack development. There are events but they happen as if the author would not care that much about them, a bit like in the cartoon Flinstones where (and there it's entertaining) the past is just a way to dress the present with clothes of the past to highlight observations of ourselves that, otherwise, we wouldn't notice.

For a book written at least 140 years ago This story was well written. I was interested in the characters immediately and had to read quickly to see what happened to them. Life in ancient Egypt and its territories is accurately described. I think this book is one of several written for boys as the preface is addressed to "Lads" but I enjoyed it very much. It is interesting to see how much the English language has changed since the book was written. I much prefer the 19th century language compared to that of today. It is much more respectful.Don't be put off by the age of this story. It will draw you in. Enjoy!

Ok.... this book has THE SMALLEST PRINT possible!!! My very healthy teenage kids, with perfect vision, and better than perfect vision can't even read it. It made the book unusable.

On the western shores of the Caspian was a town, the town was well defended with two high walls, the town was to be attacked and they prepared for war, they had already withstood attacks by the Persians but this time they were to face the Egyptians, this was to be the first battle for the Kings son Amuba 15yrs, as the army marched out to meet the enemy 16,000 men remained behind to protect the town, Jethro a proven warrior was chosen to go with Amuba and protect him, it was a terrible battle with the Egyptians far outnumbering the Rebu, it was decided to retreat to the town but Amuba's father was killed, Amuses their general started to arrange the defense of the town, 34,000 were defending the town, the Egyptians attacked with 300,000, Amuses was put in total command, the town was taken, Thotmes the Egyptian King entered the town, a garrison was left to run the town and fifty men and 50 woman were to go as slaves to Egypt, Amuses had escaped, Jethro and Amuba were taken as slavesOn the march to Egypt Jethro and Amuba picked up the Egyptian language, after many weeks they saw pyramids and soon they entered Thebes, the slaves were now split up, Jethro and Amuba were lucky to be brought by the high priest, the priest told Amuba to tell no one he was the son of a King, in the house he met the priests wife and his daughter Mysa 12yrs, Jethro was to be her attendant, Amuba was to be a companion to Chebron the priests son who was Amuba,s age, although they were slaves they were treated as equals, Amuba was very close to Checron, they were both taught the use of weapons, Jethro was allowed to take the boys hunting, they spent many weeks, one day Chebron heard a scream a crocodile was carrying off a little girl, he dashed over and with the help of the other two killed the crocodile luckily the girl was only bruised, they took her to her grandfather who was very grateful, the two were Israelites worshiping one godRuth was to be Mysa,s companion when her grandfather died, Chebron took his place in the priesthood they had all now returned, another priest below Ameres named Ptylus was jealous of Theres, Ptlytus wanted his son Plexo to marry Mysa but he was refused, Amuba and Chebron overheard a plot of murder at the temple but did not know who the victim was, Ameres son Neco had been murdered but they did not find the killer, a sacred cat had died at the temple of Bubastes and a search was on for a replacement, this was found in Mysa's cat Paucisa which lived in the garden, a hawk had been taking animals from Chebrons garden and the two boys got their bows and decided to kill it, both shot at the same time, Amuba shot the hawk Chebrons shot was deflected and killed the cat, the sentence was death whoever you were, they both buried it in the garden, at first Ameres told the boys to say nothing, there was a search for the cat and Ameres sent Amuba, Chebron and Jethro away for a whileA mob of people killed Ameres, Chigrin the embalmer hid the boys, Mysa had been taken and they would not run until they had rescued her, Ptylus and his son had taken Mysa to force her to marry his son Plexo, it took quite a while but they found where she was and killed Pttylus and Plexo rescuing her, they decided the girls must go with them and Jethro hired a boat, soon all were on board, finally after many adventures they reached the outskirts of Egypt at Semnek, there was much travelling by boat and land with many battles along the way but finally reached a Rebu villageYou must now read on to find out if Amuba ever reclaims his Kingdom, my verdict quite a good story, very long but worth a read

A Great deal from Amazon for my Kindle Reader App on my Tablet (Free) cant get better than that. Although a specialist book market - loads of free material to download.

good story

I got two pages in, and it's unreadable due to US spelling. I checked that Henty was British! This may be free, but I'll leave it, thanks, and try another freebie to see if that has correct spellling.

Good detective