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Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 396 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 396 pagesAbout 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
Readers who love travel writing with a human face will enjoy these warm letters about the Nile and its temples, especially those drawn to portraits, jokes, faith and daily life.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Courtesy opens doors in Cairo
- Close encounters unsettle her expectations
- Illness reveals Omar’s devoted friendship
- Ancient beliefs survive beneath new names
- Luxor becomes a place of belonging
- Care means acting rather than waiting
- Government demands leave the villages hungry
- Her protection must include everyone
- Ordinary meetings overturn distant judgments
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25 languages, side by side
Letters from Egypt 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.
Letters from Egypt
by Lucie Duff Gordon · 1865
An ailing woman moves into a Luxor house built on a temple and becomes the village doctor.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
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In short
What would you do if doctors told you to leave your children and live somewhere warm, perhaps for the rest of your life? Lucie Duff Gordon, an English writer and translator with failing lungs, chose the Nile.
Letters from Egypt at a glance
- Reading time
- About 9 h7 h 10 min fast, 10 h 40 min slow
- Length
- 128,400 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1865by Lucie Duff Gordon
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
Cairo greets her like the Arabian Nights
The first letters come from Cairo in November 1862. Lucie is ill, weary of English winters and delighted by what she sees. She tells her mother that she has stepped into the Arabian Nights.
Her servant Omar finds her a boat, and the bargaining is a small comedy. The owner asks thirty pounds a month. She says she is not made of money like other English travellers and offers twenty. He shows her a worse boat, she leaves to inspect others, and he follows her with a price of twenty-five.
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An ailing woman moves into a Luxor house built on a temple and becomes the village doctor.
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Details
- First published
- 1865
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 9 h 45 min
- Level
- Medium level
- Paperback
- 396 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Hardcover
- 396 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Large print paperback
- 656 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Large print hardcover
- 656 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Delivery and returns
- Printed when you order. Usually here in 12 to 14 days.Arrives Wed 2 Dec to Tue 8 Decto United States, printed for you at cost
For Christmas, order by Thu 12 Nov
Cite this edition
Duff Gordon, Lucie. Letters from Egypt. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/letters-from-egypt.
Duff Gordon, L. (2026). Letters from Egypt. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/letters-from-egypt (Original work published 1865)
Duff Gordon, Lucie. Letters from Egypt. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/letters-from-egypt.
@book{duffgordon2026letters,
author = {Duff Gordon, Lucie},
title = {Letters from Egypt},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/letters-from-egypt},
note = {First published 1865}
}
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What is Letters from Egypt about?
It collects the letters Lucie Duff Gordon wrote to her family from Egypt between 1862 and 1869. She describes her Nile journeys, her life at Luxor, her work as a village doctor, local beliefs and the Pasha's taxes.
Who is Omar in Letters from Egypt?
Omar Abou el-Halaweh is her servant, cook and companion, a young man from Alexandria whose family are pastry cooks. He manages her boats and house, nurses her through illness and refuses to leave her, calling her mother.
Who is Sheykh Yussuf?
Sheykh Yussuf is a young scholar and preacher at Luxor who teaches her Arabic, reads and dictates tales to her and prays for her health. He belongs to the family of the local saint Abu-l-Hajjaj and becomes her closest friend.
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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