History Literature / Uarda

* MartyStu: Pentaur, oh God Pentaur!

* JerkassWoobie: There is no question that Paaker is jerkass - but he gets no breaks at all; somebody steals his girl, everybody agrees he's unworthy of his noble father and nobody but his mother seems to like him.

''Uarda'' by George Ebers is a seriously dated historical romance set in ancient Egypt. Ebers was a 19th century amateur Egyptologist best remembered as the owner of an important medical papyri known by his name. The title ''Uarda'' is a mystifying choice, seeing as the girl is in fact a very minor characters. She is, on the other hand, the catalyst that sets off the whole novel. Uarda is accidentally run over by the chariot of Princess Bent-Anath, favorite daughter of Rameses II. Bent-Anath carries the injured child home to her grandparents whereby which she becomes ritually unclean as they belong to a Pariah class of Necropolis workers. Bent-Anath's refusal to submit to a ritual cleansing brings her into conflict with the High Priest at the head of the college of King Seti. The morning after the accident Uarda's humble hut serves as a general rendezvous during which we meet all our primary characters: our hero, the tiresomely noble and perfect Pentaur who is a priest of the College of Seti, and the much more interesting and sympathetic antagonist the imperfect, tormented and unhappy Paaker. Of course we are supposed to root for Pentaur but the modern reader is much more likely to sympathize with Paaker.
As is common with 19th century works the long arm of coincidence is worked to exhaustion and the plot is stuffed full of tropes making it eminently predictable - at least to 21st century readers.

'''''Uarda''''' by George Ebers is a seriously dated historical romance set in ancient Egypt. Ebers was a 19th century amateur Egyptologist best remembered as the owner of an important medical papyri known by his name. The title ''Uarda'' is a mystifying choice, seeing as the girl is in fact a very minor characters. She is, on the other hand, the catalyst that sets off the whole novel. Uarda is accidentally run over by the chariot of Princess Bent-Anath, favorite daughter of Rameses II. Bent-Anath carries the injured child home to her grandparents whereby which she becomes ritually unclean as they belong to a Pariah class of Necropolis workers. Bent-Anath's refusal to submit to a ritual cleansing brings her into conflict with the High Priest at the head of the college of King Seti. The morning after the accident Uarda's humble hut serves as a general rendezvous during which we meet all our primary characters: our hero, the tiresomely noble and perfect Pentaur who is a priest of the College of Seti, and the much more interesting and sympathetic antagonist the imperfect, tormented and unhappy Paaker. Of course we are supposed to root for Pentaur but the modern reader is much more likely to sympathize with Paaker.

''Uarda'' is a historical romance set in ancient Egypt - a seriously dated one. It was written by George Ebers a 19th century amateur Egyptologist best remembered as the owner of an important medical papyri known by his name.
The title ''Uarda'' is somewhat mystifying as the girl is in fact a very minor characters. On the other hand she is the catalyst that sets off the whole novel which begins with her being accidently run over by the chariot of Princess Bent-Anath, favorite daughter of Rameses II. Bent-Anath carries the injured child home to her grandparents whereby which she becomes ritually unclean as they belong to a Pariah class of Necropolis workers. Bent-Anath's refusal to submit to a ritual cleansing brings her into conflict with the High Priest at the head of the college of King Seti. The morning after the accident Uarda's humble hut serves as a general rendevous where we meet all our primary characters; our hero, the tiresomely noble and perfect Pentaur who is a priest of the College of Seti, and the much more interesting and sympathetic antagonist the imperfect, tormented and unhappy Paaker. Of course we are supposed to root for Pentaur but the modern reader is much more likely to sympathize with Paaker.

* SwitchedAtBirth: [[spoiler: Pentaur and Paaker. To the infinite credit of their mother she continues to love the son she raised and all but ignores her 'real' son.]]

* HistoryMarchesOn: Ebers was at the cutting edge of Egyptological thought - over a hundred years ago. We know a lot more now, enough to realize that almost all our early conceptions were wrong.

* JerkassWoobie: There is no question that Paaker is jerkass - but he gets no breaks at all; somebody steals his girl, everbody agrees he's unworthy of his noble father and nobody but his mother seems to like him.

* SwitchedAtBirth

* Orphan'sPlotTrinket: Uarda has one, half of a golden pendant. Needless to say she finds the other half and her family before the end.

* OrphanTalisman: Uarda has one, half of a golden pendant. Needless to say she finds the other half and her family before the end.

* OrphanTrinket: Uarda has one, half of a golden pendant. Needless to say she finds the other half and her family before the end.

The title ''Uarda'' is somewhat mystifying as the girl is in fact a very minor characters. On the other hand she is the catalyst that sets off the whole novel which begins with her being accidently run over Princess Bent-Anath, favorite daughter of Rameses II. Bent-Anath carries the injured child home to her grandparents by which she becomes ritually unclean because they belong to a Pariah class of Necropolis workers. Bent-Anath's refusal to submit to a ritual cleansing brings her into conflict with the High Priest at the head of the college of King Seti. The morning after the accident Uarda's humble hut serves as a general rendevous where we meet all our primary characters; our hero, the tiresomely noble and perfect Pentaur, a priest of the College of Seti, and the much more interesting and sympathetic antagonist the imperfect, tormented and unhappy Paaker. Of course we are supposed to root for Pentaur but the modern reader is much more likely to sympathize with Paaker.

* MarySue: Pentaur, oh God Pentaur!

* MartySue: Pentaur, oh God Pentaur!
* SwitchedAtBirth

As is common with 19th century works the long arm of coincidence is worked to exhaustion and the plot is stuffed full of tropes making it eminently predictable - at least to 21st century readers.