Fans of Peters's bestselling series featuring Amelia Peabody Emerson and her family (Crocodile on the Sandbank
, etc.) will welcome this companion volume, which entertainingly blurs fact and fiction. In her role as "editor" of Mrs. Emerson's journals, Peters provides a preface, while other contributors supply articles on the historical and cultural background of Egyptology. (Typical is " 'Lesser Breeds without the Law': An Insightful Diatribe on the Victorian Attitude Towards Other Cultures & Peoples," by Barbara Mertz, the real name of the pseudonymous Peters, who has a Ph.D. in the subject.) One section, "The People of the Journals," straightfacedly presents period photographs of the members of the extended Emerson clan. Filled with black-and-white illustrations of people and places (credit for the design goes to Egyptophile Dennis Forbes), this attractive book both informs and enchants. The jacket art of three Victorian ladies inspecting a temple fits the tone of the text perfectly. (On sale Oct. 21)
