9 h 52 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 9 h 52 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What can love protect when a prince and a Hebrew woman stand on opposite sides of Egypt’s crisis?
In H. Rider Haggard’s Moon of Israel, Egypt’s royal household faces a crisis of power and faith. The Hebrews seek deliverance from bondage, while Egyptian rulers resist losing their authority. Ana, an Egyptian scribe close to Prince Seti, tells the story from within the court, where public conflict presses on private lives.
Seti loves Merapi, a Hebrew woman known as the Moon of Israel. Their relationship crosses religious, political, and social boundaries. As the plagues strike Egypt, royal rank offers no simple shelter from suffering. Faith, duty, and affection pull against one another, and the lovers’ choices carry consequences beyond themselves.
What you’ll discover
- A scribe inside the court See royal affairs through Ana’s personal experience, close to Seti rather than at a distance.
- Love across opposing peoples Follow Seti and Merapi as affection meets the boundaries their peoples place between them.
- Egypt under the plagues Enter a country where suffering reaches beyond the reach of royal power and rank.
- The costs of loyalty Explore what loyalty demands when faith, royal duty, and love pull in different directions.
- Adventure with a personal heart Find ceremony, hierarchy, and danger around a question of care between people whose peoples stand opposed.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy ancient Egypt, the story of Moses told from the Egyptian side, loyal friendship, and doomed love.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A writer finds an unexpected friend
- Justice seals a bond between friends
- Royal duty leaves little room for love
- Merapi risks her place among her people
- Faith stands before a stone god
- Seti chooses conscience over the crown
- Power must answer to justice
- Loyalty matters most when it costs
- Ana gives great events a personal voice
Who’s who
- AnaA white-haired scribe and storyteller from Memphis who tells the tale and swears himself to Prince Seti, guarding his friend with pen and sword.
- SetiThe gentle, thoughtful heir to Pharaoh, who would rather be just than powerful and longs to choose his own love.
- MerapiCalled Moon of Israel, a brave Hebrew woman whose faith and beauty draw both Seti's love and the hatred of her enemies.
- UsertiSeti's proud half-sister and wife by decree, who wants to be queen in fact as well as in name.
- KiThe chief magician of Egypt, with statue-like eyes, who seeks the secret of Merapi's power and plays a dangerous game.
- BakenkhonsuA very old priest and councillor who laughs at everything, knows more than he tells, and loves Ana and the prince.
- AmenmesesSeti's dark-browed, ambitious cousin, who is named heir and crowned Pharaoh while the gods turn against Egypt.
- LabanMerapi's jealous Hebrew betrothed, who cannot accept losing her and follows her with vengeance.
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Moon of Israel in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Moon of Israel
by H. Rider Haggard · 1918
A scribe from Memphis befriends an Egyptian prince, and a Hebrew woman's prayer shatters a god's statue.
Medium level5–10 hours to read16 languages
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In short
What happens when one woman stands before the mightiest god in Egypt and asks him to strike her dead? In Moon of Israel, the answer comes at dawn in a temple at Tanis, as sunlight falls on a towering stone statue.
Moon of Israel at a glance
- Reading time
- About 5 h 45 min4 h 30 min fast, 6 h 50 min slow
- Length
- 81,600 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1918by H. Rider Haggard
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A dreaming scribe finds a prince who needs a friend
Ana begins his scroll as a very old man. He is the son of a temple scribe in Memphis, trained to copy the Books of the Dead. Yet from boyhood he wants to write something that others will copy. He walks beside the Nile at night and sees whole stories moving in the moonlight.
Life gives him sorrow first. His father goes blind and dies, his baby daughter dies, and his wife leaves him for a soldier. His hair turns white before he is thirty. Then his stories spread. Prince Seti, born on the very same day as Ana, reads them and asks to meet the writer.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1918
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 6 h 25 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Haggard, H. Rider. Moon of Israel. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/moon-of-israel.
Haggard, H. R. (2026). Moon of Israel. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/moon-of-israel (Original work published 1918)
Haggard, H. Rider. Moon of Israel. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/moon-of-israel.
@book{haggard2026moon,
author = {Haggard, H. Rider},
title = {Moon of Israel},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/moon-of-israel},
note = {First published 1918}
}
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What is Moon of Israel about?
It tells the story of the Exodus from within Pharaoh's court. Ana, a scribe, befriends Prince Seti, who loves a Hebrew woman named Merapi, while plagues fall on Egypt and the prince's conscience costs him the crown.
Who is Moon of Israel in the novel?
Moon of Israel is the nickname of Merapi, a Hebrew woman, daughter of Nathan the Levite. Her beauty and courage draw Prince Seti, and her prayer in the temple of Amon makes Egypt believe she is a great sorceress.
Which Pharaoh is the Pharaoh of the Exodus in this book?
Haggard's author's note argues that the Pharaoh of the Exodus was not Meneptah but the short-ruling usurper Amenmeses, whose fate history does not record. The novel builds its plot on that suggestion.
The author
H. Rider Haggard
1856–1925 · English adventure novelist
Henry Rider Haggard (1856–1925) was an English novelist. He was born in Norfolk, lived in southern Africa from 1875 to 1881, and later settled in Norfolk. He wrote King Solomon’s Mines (1885), She (1887), and Beatrice (1890). He also wrote about agriculture and rural life. He died in London.
More by H. Rider Haggard
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