Pharaoh (Polish title: Faraon) is the fourth and last major novel by the Polish writer Bolesław Prus. Composed over a year's time in 1894-95, it was the sole historical novel by an author who had previously disapproved of historical novels.
Prus had as a 15-year-old fought in Poland's 1863 Uprising, directed at restoring the country's independence. In Pharaoh he transmuted his experiences and his subsequent reflections on human societies into a unique novel on politics. Pharaoh is a study of mechanisms of political power, set in the Egypt of 1087-85 BCE as the country experiences internal upheavals and external threats that will culminate in the fall of its Twentieth Dynasty and New Kingdom.
"Through his analysis of the dynamics of an ancient Egyptian society," writes Nobel laureate Czesław Miłosz, "[Prus] suggests an archetype of the struggle for power that goes on within any state."[1] The ancient setting also permitted Prus to evade the depredations of the Russian censor, and to achieve a distance conducive to a dispassionate analysis of man and society.
Prus immersed himself in Egyptian history, art and writings, and produced perhaps the most compelling literary depiction ever of life at every level of ancient Egyptian society. Pharaoh's abiding popularity is attested by translations into 20 languages and by a 1966 feature film.
Publication
Pharaoh comprises a compact but substantial introduction, 67 chapters and an evocative epilogue (the latter omitted at original publication). Like Prus' previous novels, Pharaoh debuted (1895-96) in newspaper serialization. Unlike them, however, it had first been composed in its entirety rather than being written in chapters from issue to issue.
The 1897 and some subsequent book editions divided the novel's text into three volumes; later editions have presented it in two volumes or in a single one. Except in wartime, the book has never been out of print in Poland.
Plot
Pharaoh begins with one of the more memorable openings in a novel — an opening written in the style of an ancient chronicle:
| “ | In the thirty-third year of the happy reign of Ramses XII, Egypt celebrated two events that filled her loyal inhabitants with pride and joy. In the month of Mechir, in December, there returned to Thebes laden with sumptuous gifts the god Khonsu, who had traveled three years and nine months in the land of Bukhten, restoring to health the local king's daughter called Bent-res and exorcising the evil spirit not only from the king's family but even from the fortress of Bukhten. And in the month of Pharmouthi, in February, the Lord of Upper and Lower Egypt, the ruler of Phoenicia and of the nine nations, Mer-amen-Ramses XII, after consulting the gods, to whom he is equal, named as his Successor to the Throne his twenty-two-year-old son Ham-sem-merer-amen-Ramses. This choice delighted the pious priests, eminent nomarchs, valiant army, faithful people and all creatures living on Egyptian soil. For the Pharaoh's elder sons, born of the Hittite princess, had, due to spells that could not be investigated, been visited by an evil spirit. One, twenty-seven years old, had been unable to walk from his majority; another had cut his veins and died; and the third, after drinking tainted wine that he had been unwilling to give up, had gone mad and, fancying himself an ape, spent days on end in the trees. The fourth son Ramses, however, born of Queen Nikotris, daughter of High Priest Amenhotep, was strong as the Apis bull, brave as a lion and wise as the priests.... | ” |
Pharaoh combines features of several literary genres: the historical novel, the political novel, the Bildungsroman and the sensation novel. It also comprises a number of interbraided strands — including the plot line, Egypt's cycle of seasons, the country's geography and monuments, and ancient Egyptian practices (e.g. mummification rituals and techniques) — each of which rises to prominence at appropriate moments.
The fate of the novel's protagonist, the future "Ramses XIII" (historically there were only eleven Ramesside pharaohs), is known from the beginning. Prus closes his introduction with the statement that the story "relates to the eleventh century before Christ, when the Twentieth Dynasty fell and when, after the demise of the Son of the Sun the eternally living Ramses XIII, the throne was seized by, and the uraeus came to adorn the brow of, the eternally living Son of the Sun Sem-amen-Herhor, High Priest of Amon."[4] What the novel will subsequently reveal is the elements that lead to this denouement: the character traits of the principals, the social forces in play.
Ancient Egypt at the end of its New Kingdom period is experiencing adversities. The deserts are eroding Egypt's arable land. The country's population has declined from eight to six million. Foreign peoples are entering Egypt in ever-growing numbers, undermining its unity. The chasm between the peasants and craftsmen on one hand, and the ruling classes on the other, is growing, exacerbated by the ruling classes' fondness for luxury and idleness. The country is becoming ever more deeply indebted to Phoenician merchants as imported goods destroy native industries.
The Egyptian priesthood, backbone of the bureaucracy and virtual monopolists of knowledge, have grown immensely wealthy at the expense of the pharaoh and the country. Egypt is facing prospective peril at the hands of rising powers to the north: Assyria and Persia.
The 22-year-old Crown Prince Ramses, having as his father's viceroy made a careful study of Egypt and of the challenges that it faces, evolves a strategy that he hopes will arrest the decline of his own political power and of Egypt's internal viability and international standing as a world power. Ramses plans to win over or subordinate the priesthood, especially the High Priest of Amon, Herhor; obtain for the country's use the treasures that lie stored in the Labyrinth; and, emulating Ramses the Great's military exploits, wage war against Assyria.
Ramses proves himself a brilliant military commander in a victorious lightning war against the invading Libyans. On succeeding to the throne, he encounters the adamant opposition of the priestly hierarchy to his planned reforms. The broad masses of Egyptian society are instinctively drawn to him, but he must still win over or crush the priesthood and their adherents.
In the course of the political intrigue, Ramses' private life becomes hostage to the conflicting interests of the Phoenicians and the Egyptian high priests.
Ramses' ultimate downfall is caused by his underestimation of his opponents and by his impatience with priestly obscurantism: along with the chaff of the priests' myths and rituals, he has inadvertently discarded a crucial piece of scientific knowledge.
Ramses is succeeded to the throne by his arch-enemy Herhor, who paradoxically ends up raising treasure from the Labyrinth to finance the very social reforms that had been planned by Ramses.
