8 h 0 minAudiobook11 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 8 h 0 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if a journey to Mars leads not just to an ancient civilization, but to a daring gamble in wheat?
In Pharaoh's Broker, Ellsworth Douglass brings planetary adventure and the grain trade into the same story. A voyage to Mars opens the way to an ancient society, while a huge wheat speculation stretches across two worlds. The stakes lie in trade and risk as much as in the wonder of reaching another planet.
First published in 1899, this science fiction adventure belongs to the tradition of scientific romance. Its title brings together ancient kingship and the business of a broker: rulers and storehouses on one side, markets and bold speculation on the other. Travel, commerce and strange old civilizations meet in a tale with the odd humor of period adventure.
What you’ll discover
- A voyage beyond Earth Follow a journey to Mars shaped by the wonder of early planetary adventure.
- An ancient society Explore the meeting of another planet and a civilization rooted in an old world.
- Wheat becomes an adventure Discover a story that puts a basic good of commerce at its center.
- A bold market gamble Encounter a huge wheat speculation whose reach extends across two worlds.
- The flavor of scientific romance Enjoy the blend of travel, business and wonder that gives this adventure its character.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy early science fiction in the spirit of Jules Verne, lively debates between a dreamer and a dealmaker, tales of strange worlds, and comic and sharp pictures of money, markets and power.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A trader meets a professor with a dream
- Gravity can be made to push as well as pull
- A cigar-shaped craft and a hopeful guess
- Launch, the Pole and a fear of light
- Weight fades and the dead line nears
- Mars, its moons and its red light
- A war fought with reeds and a mute woman
- A young Hebrew ruler and a land like Egypt
- Famine, rival plots and the price of wheat
Who’s who
- Isidor WernerA young Chicago wheat trader, quick with a deal and slow to see beyond profit, who tells the story and goes along for the adventure.
- Doctor Hermann AnderweltA German physicist and former teacher who invents the gravity projectile and wants his name placed beside Kepler and Newton.
- ZaphnathThe young Hebrew ruler of Kem, who governs in the Pharaoh's name and speaks the old language that Werner knows.
- The PharaohThe ruler of Kem, tired of plenty and of feasting, who leaves his affairs in Zaphnath's hands and welcomes the visitors.
- HotepA great landowner of Kem with rich fields and a thousand mules, who bargains with Werner for gold and later turns to rebellion.
- ThenocrisA tall, silent young woman revered by the Kemi, whom Werner calls Miss Blank and who first greets the strangers without fear.
- Two-spotThe small fox terrier who travels with the pair, barks with joy, and leaps through the weak gravity of Mars like a flea.
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 8 h 0 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 11 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Der Makler des Pharaos
by Ellsworth Douglass · 1899
A Chicago wheat trader backs a professor's gravity projectile and ends up cornering grain on Mars.
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In short
Pharaoh's Broker is an adventure novel by Ellsworth Douglass, an American writer who died in 1933. It was published in the 1890s, in the age of the first great grain corners and the first dreams of travel between planets.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A trader meets a professor with a dream
The story begins on the day after February 29. Isidor Werner has just made more than two hundred thousand dollars by betting against the wheat firm of Slater, Bawker and Company. He is hurrying to lunch when his chief clerk, Flynn, tells him that a peculiar old man has been waiting in his private office since eleven o'clock.
The visitor is Doctor Hermann Anderwelt, who once taught Werner physics at Heidelberg and kept him back for an extra year. He has given up theory for applied science. He wants ten thousand dollars to build a gravity projectile, a craft that does not fly but falls, in any direction he chooses.
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What is Pharaoh's Broker about?
A Chicago wheat trader joins a German professor on a trip to Mars in a gravity powered craft. There they find a kingdom like ancient Egypt, ruled by a young Hebrew, where the trader tries to corner the grain.
Who is Zaphnath in Pharaoh's Broker?
Zaphnath is the young Hebrew ruler of the Martian land of Kem. His name matches the Egyptian name given to Joseph in the Bible, and he governs in the Pharaoh's name.
What is the Theory of Parallel Planetary Life?
The doctor's idea is that every habitable world passes through the same history at its own speed. On this view, Mars is at an early stage that matches ancient Egypt on Earth.
The author
Ellsworth Douglass
1863–1933 · American author
Ellsworth Douglass was an American author, real-estate speculator, and insurance broker. He was born in 1863 and died in 1933. His novel Pharaoh’s Broker was published in 1899. He lived in the United States during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
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