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NAPOLEON'S PYRAMIDS
By: William Dietrich
HarperCollins: New York
2007 (hc)
Recently a dear friend, Jill Pintz, marked my 60th
birthday by giving me a copy of William Dietrich’s Napoleon’s Pyramids
-- an exciting, swashbuckling, rollicking adventure story of the kind we
rarely see in contemporary literature. In style and to a certain extent in
language it hearkens back to such works as Fielding’s Tom Jones and
Stevenson’s Treasure Island and Kidnapped. The reader is
introduced to the novel’s hero, a young footloose American who is obviously
enjoying the wilder side of life in late 18th Century Paris. He
had been an aide to Benjamin Franklin during his days as the ambassador to
France during the very early days of the young Republic. While certainly no
intellectual, the youthful Gage, because of his association with
Franklin, something of a Frontier polymath in the eyes of many Parisians,
was able to fit into the society of philosophers, scientists, and charlatans
alike. Like his famous mentor, Ethan coupled an inquisitive if undisciplined
intellect with the earthy pragmatism of the New World frontiersman. He
appeared to be equally at home in the company of gamblers, prostitutes,
criminals and a wide assortment of Parisian scoundrels, much to his later
chagrin.
His true adventure began with his winning a mysterious
medallion in a game of chance—a medallion etched with mysterious and
undecipherable markings that attracted the interests of both some of his
Freemason comrades --Franklin had introduced him to the mysteries of
Freemasonry, although he found its arcane rituals and legends fairly
infantile-- as well as an array of sinister characters who seemed willing to
kill him to obtain the medallion, including a splinter group of Masons
called the Egyptian Rite that reveled in the occult practices of Nile River
ancients. Nearly a victim of foul play himself, Ethan quickly finds himself
the prime suspect in the brutal murder of a prostitute and the subject of a
manhunt by Paris law enforcement, an institution not far removed in behavior
from the criminals they pursued. All of his misadventures seem to point
back to his medallion, and he determines that he must unlock its secret if
it is of such great interest to so many people!
Because his Freemason friends believe it to be an
artifact of ancient Egypt (from whence Freemasonry traces its roots), and
because killers and the French authorities are hot on his heels, Ethan is
convinced to join, along with his Freemason friends, Napoleon Bonaparte’s
armada, which is about to sail from Toulon to conquer Mameluke-ruled Egypt.
Accosted by highwaymen (who seem to be some of the very same thugs he faced
in Paris) on the road to Toulon, he is aided by a band of Gypsies, and
finally disembarks with the 34,000 soldiers, sailors, support crew that make
up Napoleon’s forces. But Ethan is numbered among the savants, the
scientists, mathematicians, and naturalists that the future emperor brought
with him to study the ancient civilization that was Egypt—and Ethan hopes he
can solve the mystery and decipher that etchings on his medallion.
Ethan is with Bonaparte on July 1, 1798, as the French
fleet attacks and storms first Alexandria and then moves on to occupy
Cairo. As a result of his participating in combat, Ethan wins “ownership”
of a beautiful Greco-Egyptian woman, Astiza, who, he quickly learns,
possesses arcane knowledge of ancient Egyptian customs, religious beliefs,
and scientific insights—she may, in fact, be a priestess of some ancient
cult, or even a sorceress—and she hints at knowledge pertaining to his
medallion! Looming over Ethan and his savant comrades, as well as
Astiza, are the pyramids of Giza—ancient already in the time of Christ— that
hint at cosmic secrets that may unlock the workings of the universe. And
Ethan’s medallion appears to be connected, perhaps as some sort of key, to
unlocking those secrets.
From historic battles of the Napoleonic assault on
Egypt (sometimes described in painfully long detail), to almost slapstick
episodes in Egyptian prisons and late-night harem raids, to an
edge-of-the-seat life and death chase through tunnels deep within the Great
Pyramid of Cheops, the reader is treated to a wonderful tale of adventure
that culminates, not in the discovery of the ancient secrets of Egyptian
civilization, but something even better—the promise of a sequel novel and
the continuing adventures of Ethan Gage!
This novel is one of high adventure at its best—four
trowels for Napoleon’s Pyramids and the hope that the wait won’t be
too long for the sequel!
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