8 h 54 minAudiobook11 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What does love cost when keeping faith means denying the heart?
In The Hawk of Egypt, Joan Conquest brings passion and duty into conflict against an Egyptian setting. This romance offers strong feelings, divided loyalties and choices that cannot be taken back. At its heart lies a hard question: what happens when love pulls one way and honour pulls another?
The desert, the great river and the memory of the pharaohs shape the appeal of this romantic world. Conquest writes within an early twentieth-century fascination with Egypt, where the country appears both real and dreamlike. Read with that period in mind: its colourful vision carries the attitudes of its time, rather than offering a quiet, realistic portrait of Egyptian life.
What you’ll discover
- Love tested by duty Explore the strain between following desire and remaining faithful to what a person owes.
- The cost of honour Consider what keeping faith demands when breaking it would be the easier choice.
- A vivid Egyptian setting Enter a romantic vision shaped by desert sands, the great river and memories of pharaohs.
- Feelings with lasting consequences Find strong emotion in a romance where choices matter and cannot simply be taken back.
- A window into period romance Encounter the colourful appeal, dramatic concerns and dated attitudes of an earlier romantic imagination.
Who will love it
Readers who love desert romance, horses and hawks, ruined temples by moonlight, and warm comic touches such as a foul-mouthed parrot and a fiercely loyal bulldog. It suits anyone who enjoys a story of love across two cultures.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A girl and her bulldog in Cairo
- A fight that brings two strangers together
- A duchess, a suitor and a wounded man
- The fortune-teller at the fancy dress ball
- Dawn rides and a courtesan's hatred
- The duchess decides to go to Jill
- Ruins, drums and a prisoner's confession
- A courtesan's revenge and a mother's fear
- Gossip, a note and a ride to the tents
- Two friends, a lion and a vigil
Who’s who
- Damaris HethencourtA spirited red-haired English girl who loves animals and the desert, and wants to learn what love really is before she marries.
- Hugh Carden AliThe Hawk of Egypt, son of an Arab sheikh and an English mother, a horseman and falconer who believes he can never marry the woman he loves.
- Ben KelhamA big, slow, steady Englishman and Hugh's old schoolfriend, who has loved Damaris since boyhood and will not give her up.
- Olivia, Duchess of LongacresDamaris's elderly, sharp-tongued godmother, who dresses outrageously, smokes small cigarettes and quietly works to untangle the lives of the young.
- Jill, wife of the SheikhHugh's English mother, who married an Arab sheikh for love and now fears that her son will pay for her choice.
- ZulannahThe most famous courtesan in northern Egypt, vain and ruthless, who falls in love with Ben and plots against those who stand in her way.
- Jane CoopDamaris's plain, fierce maid, who loves her young mistress like one of her lambs and makes her promise to say where she goes.
- WellingtonDamaris's huge bulldog, ugly and devoted, who guards her with his whole heart and chews his way across Egypt.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 8 h 54 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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Il falco d'Egitto
by Joan Conquest · 1922
A red-haired English girl and a hawk-keeping Arab with an English schooling meet in a Cairo bazaar, and Fate takes over.
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In short
The Hawk of Egypt is a romance by Joan Conquest, set in Cairo, Luxor and the western desert in the years after the Great War. It follows Damaris Hethencourt, a red-haired English girl of seventeen who arrives in Egypt with her bulldog Wellington, and Hugh Carden Ali, the son of an Arab sheikh and an English mother.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A girl and her bulldog in Cairo
The story opens at sunset in the Khan el-Khalili, the great bazaar of Cairo. The call to prayer rolls over the rooftops. Damaris Hethencourt, two weeks short of eighteen, stands unveiled among kneeling men. At her heels walks Wellington, her huge and very ugly bulldog.
Her hair is a vivid red, her eyes so dark they look black, and she has no idea of the stir she causes. Women peer at her from behind carved wooden lattices. Zulannah, the most famous courtesan in northern Egypt, watches her from a balcony. The author tells us plainly that a girl like this should not walk alone in the old quarter, but that Fate has laid out the path.
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What is The Hawk of Egypt about?
It is a romance about Damaris Hethencourt, a young Englishwoman in Egypt, and Hugh Carden Ali, the son of an Arab sheikh and an English mother. Their love meets questions of race, honour and loyalty to a close friend.
Why is Hugh Carden Ali called the Hawk of Egypt?
He is a master falconer who has the emblem of the ancient hawk worked on his clothes, saddlecloths and hounds. He also owns a jewelled hawk found in a temple, and the title fits his mixed nature.
What are the Tents of Purple and Gold?
They are three tents Hugh has pitched in the desert, hung inside with purple and orange satin and a third lined with painted emblems and patterned panels. They are his retreat in the desert, where he also welcomes passing travellers. Only Hugh himself enters the middle tent, the Tent of Death.
The author
Joan Conquest
1883–1941 · British novelist
Joan Conquest (1883–1941) was a British novelist who wrote in English during the early twentieth century. Her novels included Desert Love, Leonie, and The Hawk of Egypt. The Hawk of Egypt was published in 1922. Details of where she lived are not established here.
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