Hatchepsut: The Female Pharaoh (1998) - Plot & Excerpts
Hatchepsut has fascinated the popular imagination by cross-dressing as a man, donning a man's kilt, wearing a false beard, and claiming herself as a king rather than a queen. While Hatchepsut was definitely not the first nor the last female pharaoh, she is the most successful of the female kings. Her powers and success eclipsed the later more famous queen, Cleopatra VII. Tyldesley's unbiased biography highlights Hatchepsut's accomplishments to show that Egyptian women were capable of ruling as the male pharaohs. Hatchepsut was the Egyptian princess of Pharaoh Tuthmosis I and Queen Ahmose. She married her half-brother Thutmosis II, at tweleve years old and had a daughter named Neferure. After her husband's death, Hatchepsut became queen regent to the child Tuthmosis III. A few years later, she decided to rule as Pharaoh of Egypt instead. The author portrays Hatchepsut as a young woman between the age of fifteen and thirty years old, when her husband died. She also portrays Hatchepsut as a woman who at first did not want to be pharaoh but was comfortable in her role to be a conventional queen regent. One of the explanations that she gives for Hatchepsut's decision to be pharaoh is because the young child king Tuthmosis III may die before he reached adulthood. Because of Hatchepsut's young age, we find that we can relate to her prudent decision to become Pharaoh of Egypt. Unlike the common myth of Tuthmosis III hating his step-mother for usurping his throne, Tyldesley states that there was no evidence for his hatred. Tuthmosis did not make any attempt to oppose Hatchepsut during her reign, but instead allowed her to be the dominant pharaoh. Tyldesley explains that this may be because he was most likely waiting for her to die off. The author gives a great introduction into the history of the 18th dynasty. We learn that women had far more freedom than that of the other contemporary kingdoms. Tyldesley also gives a comprehensive account about the everyday life of ancient Egypt. The biography also discusses the history of the archeological findings regarding Hatchepsut. Overall, this book is more of a history of archeological work of how Hatchepsut has been interpreted since her discovery than of Hatchepsut herself. The work is dry, poorly structured, and redundant. However, the author highlights Hatchepsut's accomplishments as pharaoh, and we are able to glimpse how striking a woman she truly was. While it was fascinating at times to see how Hatchepsut has been viewed since the discovery of her in the nineteenth century (for thousands of years her name has been erased from history because she was a successful female king), the archeology is not near as fascinating as the living, breathing Queen/King of Egypt. This novel is a great introduction for readers who would like to learn about Hatchepsut and the ancient Egyptian empire.
This is a non-fictional historical work detailing the life of Pharaoh Hatshepsut. Initial chapters describe the Hyksos invasion of the Second Intermediate Period, their defeat, and the establishment of the New Kingdom and 18th Dynasty under Pharaoh Ahmose I, and finally how the Tuthmosides came to the throne. After this, Tyldesley finally describes Hatshepsut's life as princess, queen and pharaoh - her monuments, military exploits, the famous expedition to Punt and her relationship with her trusted advisor Senenmut. Through use of archaeological and historical evidence, Tyldesley builds up a picture of Hatshepsut's motives and personality.The first "setting-the-scene" chapters were a good introduction for the average reader coming to this book, but totally unnecessary for academics already familiar with the period, which I assume the book was aimed at. It felt like too much time was spent on this setting-the-scene than on Hatshepsut! Tyldesley's use of historical and archaeological material to build up a plausible picture of Hatshepsut's motives and personality is to be commended, and one of my favourite parts of the book, along with the section on the expedition to the fabulous land of Punt. However, the chapter on Hatshepsut's monuments dragged on a bit and was a bit dry.All in all, a well constructed picture from the evidence, but rather dry in places.
What do You think about Hatchepsut: The Female Pharaoh (1998)?
I think it was pretty good. I recommend this book only to people who enjoy reading about ancient Egypt. This book is informational.
—idk
Scholarly, accessible and aiming for objectivity. The book reads like an undergraduate essay or a book-length Wikipedia article. It isn't always very structured.It's useful and comprehensive and I'd recommend it to any layperson with a strong interest in this pharaoh (i.e. people like myself) but not to people with just a passing interest. The book does not really bring Hatchepsut to life, and it fails to be vibrant and exciting. It's not pop science - but it would have been a more enjoyable read if it had been.
—Robert
Meh. This is a very well-written biography, I'll say that right away. The author is engaging, and explains things as clearly as she can to ground the reader into something they can relate to, in a culture very different than ours. We try to read as we can feel the events, rather than just dry names and numbers. Hatchepsut, after all, was one of Egypt's better kings, much to the contrast to the more famous, but failing But unfortunately, what we can get out of the book is that historians hardly have any idea about her reign at all, other than that she led Egypt to trade with a poorer country called Punt somewhere to the southeast, ruled by a very fat queen; and that she designed and built a very large temple. Nothing else is concrete. There are hints of rivalry with her step-son; there are hints of a love story gone wrong with the architect Senenmut. There may have been a war, or at least a series of minor rebellions in conquered territory. But combined with propaganda and the mysterious, sudden attacks of her name and image done sometime after her death left us confused and uncertain, and while I left the book definitely knowing more about the Pharaoh, history, not the author, left me a bit disappointed.
—Colleen
