Lucile Morrison (1896–1991)

This excellent review is from Kathy Twitchell.

I’ll be adding my own after I read this.

“The Lost Queen of Egypt is historical fiction at its best! I had the chance to borrow this book from the city library, and it is fantastic! I couldn't put it down. The characters are vivid, the setting realistic, and the story is entirely believable. This book made me want to run out and buy a copy, and find all the books in her bibliography, to read more.

DUE TO CULTURAL CONTENT CONSIDERATIONS, I would reserve this excellent book, The Lost Queen of Egypt by Lucile Morrison, for ages 12 and up.
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Spoiler alert:
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This really is tastefully handled in this book, but the Egyptian pharaohs married their sisters. Our young, adventurous heroine knows from early girlhood that she will marry her half brother. They are about twelve when they do marry. She miscarried more than one child (or still birth) as a young teen, and despaired of her fertility.

In addition, our engaging heroine loses one of her chronically ill beloved sisters as well as her father while still a child. The king's daughters are discussed openly as commodities to be married for political advantage. While likely to be entirely accurate for the cultures of the time, these harsh realities might be difficult for sensitive children. These are the primary reasons I would not suggest this most excellent book for younger children. I also do not think one can just skip over those parts in a read aloud.

Notes by Kathy Twitchell,
Literary Lantern Bearers
10/5/2020… (meer)

This was one of the books that gave me a love for ancient Egypt when I was a girl. Thanks to the internet and Bibliofind, I finally got my own copy in 1995. I was happy, yet reluctant to read it again, in case it would have lost its magic for my middle-aged self. Well, I took a chance an reread it this week. My fear was unfounded. I love this book still.

The endpapers have Tutankhamon standing in the lower left corner holding up his left hand. Ankhsenamon stands in the lower right corner, both hands holding flowers as if she's offering them to her husband. The background is a map of the ancient world. The frontispiece is 'From a painting by Winifred Brunton in her 'Great Ones of Ancient Egypt''. The colors are soft and beautiful. It's the only full-face illustration in the book because Franz Geritz's black and white line drawings are done in ancient Egyptian style.

Lucile Morrison makes the Egypt of Akhenaten and Tutankhamon come alive, as seen through the eyes of a princess who is not quite six at the book's opening and not yet 20 at its end. Little Ankhsenpaaten is going to meet her grandmother, Queen Tiy, who is coming to her son's city. The four older princesses and their nurse chatter and speculate while they are made ready. Each has her own personality with Ankhsenpaaten, the 'small bird,' as the liveliest. I enjoyed her first meeting with her young aunt, Baketaten, and the way Grandma dealt with the situation.

Kenofer, the half-Egyptian, half-Cretan boy artist who plays a major role in the book, is introduced in chapter 4, but not named until chapter 6. This faithful and talented friend provides much comfort to the small bird. Ankhsenpaaten needs a friend. She overhears conversations in which her grandmother tries to convince her pacifist son that their vassals need for Egyptian soldiers to rescue them. Akhenaten refuses to shed the blood of even Egypt's enemies. The translation of his hymn that appears in the description of religious ceremony in chapter 4 is beautiful.

Childhood joys give way to sorrows that multiply as the years pass and loved ones die. Ms. Morrison gives us the uneasiness and outrage of the new Pharoah and Queen of Egypt as they move the capital back to Thebes. Ankhsenpaaten, now Ankhsenamon, realizes how much she is hated for being the daughter of her father. There's a tense scene when her father's mummy has to be secretly moved in order to save it from that hatred.

The poor queen's heart is broken when her baby is stillborn while her king is away. Knowing nothing of the dangers of inbreeding, she wonders why the tragedy happened. King Tutankhamon is portrayed as a tender and loving husband who wishes only for his queen to return to health.

There's intrigue and danger. Ay and the priests of Amon are the villains of the story. Ankhsenamon has great reason to fear them after her husband's death. She has no one to trust but Kenofer and two Hittite slaves, Tergen and Kahtara. Ms. Morrison's explanation for why Anksenamon became the 'Lost Queen of Egypt' is probably better than whatever her actual fate was.

This portrayal of Ankhsenamon is the reason I recoiled from the version of her that appears in the otherwise enjoyable Lord Meren series by Lynda Suzanne Robinson. I suppose a fan of Ay would dislike his portrayal in this book.

Ms. Morrison includes some helpful information for her readers such as a brief summary of the period on pp.ix-x. Right after that is a feature I really appreciated: a cast list with a pronunciation guide on pp. xi-xii. There's a bibliography for readers who want to learn more on pages 363-364. Pages 365-367 have an illustrated glossary of crowns, headdresses, scepters, symbols, and a few words. Page 368 gives us the months and seasons of the Egyptian Year.

There's not much racist language in this book -- one use of an old term for a person of mixed African and Caucasian descent in chapter 23, one mention of white men in the context of a fever in Kush that's probably malaria in chapter 25. 'Negroes' appears a few times, but it was a polite term when this book was first published. I wish that this novel could be made available again as a reprint or print-on-demand or e-book.

The Lippincott cover under the dustjacket is very similar to my Stokes copy, which is also missing its dustjacket. Aside from the name of the publisher, they differ in that the Stokes cover is a very dark teal in color with gold-colored lettering and decoration.… (meer)