Amelia Peabody series

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The Amelia Peabody series of mystery novels are written by Elizabeth Peters (a pen name of Egyptologist Dr. Barbara Mertz). As of 2006, there have been 18 novels spanning a thirty-eight year period from 1884 to 1922, as well as one non-fiction companion book, Amelia Peabody's Egypt. The novels are intended as a blend of parody (mostly of the adventure novel, such as written by H. Rider Haggard), mystery, and comedy.

The series is set in Victorian-era Egypt and features an amateur archaeologist named Amelia Peabody Emerson. In the first novel, Crocodile on the Sandbank, Amelia, a confirmed spinster, suffragist, and scholar, inherits a fortune from her father and leaves England to see the world. In Egypt she meets up with several characters who will return throughout the series, including Radcliffe Emerson, whom she marries at the end of the first book.

1 Family background
2 Archaeological inspirations
3 Chronology
4 Other locations
5 See also
6 Sources

[edit] Family background

Following the birth of their son Ramses (né Walter) Emerson ("as swarthy as an Egyptian and as arrogant as a pharoah"), the Emersons initially settle in Kent, from where Emerson commutes to a job lecturing in Egyptology at university in London. Despite Amelia's suggestions that he resume seasonal digs in Egypt, Emerson insists on staying England with his family while Ramses is too young to travel.

Peabody and Emerson return to Egypt at least once without Ramses (The Curse of the Pharaohs) in 1892 before deciding to bring him with him on their annual digs (The Mummy Case), beginning in the 1894-95 season. Amelia's desire to explore pyramids is countered by Emerson's refusal to be diplomatic with the Egyptian Service d'Antiquites, resulting in their firman (permit) to excavate at Mazghuna, a minor pyramid field southwest of Cairo.

It is while the Emersons are excavating at Mazghuna that they first encounter an enigmatic individual that Amelia initially calls "The Master Criminal," but whose nom de guerre is Sethos. The family encounters Sethos again in the 1895-96 season while working at Dahshoor. Sethos is initially presented as a rival to Emerson for Amelia's affections, but becomes an important part of the Emerson's large circle of friends, allies, and acquaintances in later books, as it is discovered that Sethos is Emerson's half-brother.

Deeds of the Disturber describes events in the summer of 1896 that take place in England, and is the only installment in the series not to be set in the Middle East.

The Emerson family expands during the 1897-1898 season while on an archaeological expedition to Nubia. The family encounters a hitherto unknown civilization in a remote wadi in the desert (The Last Camel Died at Noon), becomes embroiled in turbulent politics, and discovers Nefret Forth, the daughter of a long-presumed dead explorer. Nefret returns to England with the Emersons and becomes their ward, later their adopted daughter, and daughter-in-law by marriage to Ramses.

In 1898-99, Peabody and Emerson return to Amarna, where they first met—without Ramses—and again encounter Sethos, while Emerson is stricken with amnesia.

The family expands again in the 1899-1900 season when the family encounters David Todros, the son of Abdullah's estranged daughter and her Christian husband. David is living in a state of semi-slavery, working for a forger of antiquities. He is taken in by Evelyn and Walter Emerson as ward. David later marries Evelyn and Walter's daughter Amelia (known as Lia to avoid confusion with her aunt).

The Emerson-Peabodys are supported in their digs by an upper Egyptian family from a village called Atiya. The head of the family is Abdullah ibn al-Wahhab, Emerson's reis or foreman, who supervises their archaeological digs. Abdullah has several children, among them his youngest son, Selim, who, originally assigned as a bodyguard of sorts for Ramses (The Mummy Case), eventually replaces his father as reis.

[edit] Archaeological inspirations

Most of the archaeological achievements attributed to the Emerson-Peabodys were, in reality, accomplished by many of the archaeologists who pass through the novels as supporting characters. For example, the excavations that Emerson and Walter are undertaking at Amarna in 1884 (in Crocodile on the Sandbank) are based on those conducted by Sir William Flinders Petrie in 1891. Peters has indicated that the character of Radcliffe Emerson is based in part on Petrie, whose meticulous excavation habits were legendary and set a new standard for archaeological digs.

In other instances, fictional accomplishments are ascribed to Amelia and Emerson. For example, the tomb of the 17th Dynasty Queen Tetisheri, whose discovery and excavation form the basis of the plot in The Hippopotamus Pool has, in fact, never been found. Most scholars suggest that the tomb - assuming that it still survives - would be found in the general area where the Emerson-Peabodys discover it. The intact Old Kingdom burial found in The Falcon at the Portal is also fictional; in fact, no intact burials from the Old Kingdom period have ever been found.

[edit] Chronology

This list includes the year a story takes place, the location, and the title of the book. The archaeologist's "season" generally begins in the fall and concludes in the spring, so each story spans part of two years.