Review by Corinna Christopher on show 20th Oct 2011
This story is told by Sally a lady’s maid in Victorian London. Her mistress, the toast of the city is Lady Duff Gordon. Unfortunately this lady is in poor health with debilitating tuberculosis which means that staying in England is not an option. Her husband Sir Alick prescribes a warmer climate and in spite of a young family she agrees to travel to Egypt in the company of her maid Sally with whom she has a close bond .
Sally is excited and thrilled with this new adventure and in the middle of summer they travel via France to pick up a ship bound for Egypt.
Lady Gordon’s elder daughter resides in Alexandria and when they arrive there they are met by various contacts including the American consul –General who arranges for them to have a ‘dragoman (that is a professional interpreter or guide). His name is Mr. Omar Abu Halaweh and he organises everything for them including the hire of a boat to cruise up the Nile. This takes them to Cairo which they find too hectic and crowded and therefore carry on to Luxor.
Once there they take up residence in the deserted French House where Lady as she is known to all, is a great hit with the local people and her salon is famous for erudite discussion and political debates/ Lady and Sally visit all the notable ancient sites and temples in the company of Omar who is diligent in teaching them both to talk the local language. Lady soon dispenses with her English attire to don the clothing of a native man which is much more comfortable, Sally joins her in more suitable clothing and they are soon melded into Egyptian life . Needless
to say Lady continues to have bad bouts of poor health and is ministered with great care by Sally.
It may seem improbable in 1860’s Egypt but Sally and Omar fall in love as they tend to Lady, and inevitably Sally becomes pregnant. Omar does of course already have a wife in Cairo and also a child but under Islamic law is allowed to have more than one wife. Foolishly they do not tell Lady until the baby is born and there of course many consequences to this event.
The subsequent storyline carries on and by this stage in the book the reader is gripped in the unfolding drama. The local scenes are full of fascinating details and the description of the Simoom or sandstorm that arrives in Luxor is very realistic. We also learn much about the politics and turmoil that takes place at that historic time in Egypt.
Lady Duff Gordon throughout her stay in Egypt wrote endless letters to her husband in England and subsequently these were turned into a wonderful book which has been in print almost continuously since 1865.
The novel is based on a true story but obviously there has been fictional interpretation of the characters of Sally and Omar for which nothing is known about and the author took many years to write the book. She was given a research grant to travel to Egypt 2002 to 2007
After a slightly slow start to the book I thoroughly enjoyed this absorbing story , a mixture of fact and conjecture. A good read.
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