15 h 0 minAudiobook8 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
Far from England, a woman facing death learns to listen to life along the Nile.
Ill with tuberculosis, Lucie Duff Gordon leaves England for Egypt and settles in Luxor. Her home stands in and above an ancient temple, looking over the river. In letters sent mostly to her husband, Sir Alexander Duff Gordon, she shares a life shaped by illness, distance and growing affection for her neighbours.
Lucie learns Arabic, dresses as local women do and treats sick neighbours with medicines she brings. Farmers, boatmen, priests and servants fill her letters, not just ancient sights. With warmth, humour and anger, she describes everyday customs and asks what the viceroy’s rule means for people facing taxes and forced work.
What you’ll discover
- A home above ancient stone Enter a house built into Luxor’s great temple, with the Nile in view.
- Conversations without a go-between Discover how learning Arabic brings Lucie closer to the people around her.
- Faith in daily life Follow her respectful observations of Islamic prayers, Ramadan and her neighbours’ religious customs.
- The cost of power See government through the lives of those who bear its taxes and forced labour.
- Warmth across the distance Meet a letter writer whose humour and sympathy sit alongside anger at injustice.
Who will love it
For readers who love travel writing, letters and Victorian life, and anyone curious about ordinary Egyptians in the 1860s as seen by a sympathetic guest.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A dying woman chooses the Nile
- Life in a house on a temple
- Becoming a neighbour, not a visitor
- Faith, women and everyday customs
- The whip, the tax and the forced worker
- How the letters were read and what lasted
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- Large print hardcover
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Lettere dall’Egitto
by Lady Lucie Duff Gordon · 1865
Lucie Duff Gordon goes to Egypt to survive, and her letters reveal life in Luxor under the viceroy's rule.
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In short
In 1862 an English woman named Lucie Duff Gordon sailed to Egypt because she was dying. She had tuberculosis, and doctors told her that the English winter would kill her.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A dying woman chooses the Nile
Lucie Duff Gordon was born in 1821 into a clever English family. Her mother, Sarah Austin, was a writer and translator, and her father, John Austin, was a legal thinker. Lucie grew up among writers and reformers, learned several languages, and became a translator herself. She married Alexander Duff Gordon, a baronet and civil servant, and they had children, including a daughter, Janet, who later became a writer too.
In her forties her lungs failed her. Doctors of the day often sent people with tuberculosis to warm, dry places, and Egypt had a name for helping the chest. Lucie first tried the Cape of Good Hope, then turned to Egypt, arriving in 1862. She meant to stay a winter. She stayed, with breaks, until the end of her life.
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What is Letters from Egypt about?
It is a collection of letters written by Lucie Duff Gordon from Egypt, mostly from Luxor, in the 1860s. She describes village life, religion, women, local friends, and the harsh treatment of farmers under the viceroy's government.
Why did Lucie Duff Gordon go to Egypt?
She had tuberculosis, and doctors advised her to leave the damp English climate. She chose Egypt for its warm, dry air and arrived in 1862. She lived mainly in Luxor and stayed until her death in 1869.
Is Letters from Egypt a true story?
Yes. It is made of real letters, written between about 1862 and 1869 and sent mainly to her husband, Alexander Duff Gordon. The first book appeared in 1865, and a further collection followed in 1875.
The author
Lucie Duff Gordon
1821–1869 · English travel writer
Lucie, Lady Duff Gordon (1821–1869), was a British writer and translator. She was born in London and married Alexander Duff Gordon in 1840. She moved to Egypt in 1862 because of tuberculosis and lived mainly in Luxor. Her Letters from Egypt appeared in 1865. She died in Cairo.
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