Vintage Egypt: Cruising the Nile in the Golden Age of Travel

Men in white suits and Panama hats, women with perfectly set bobs, billboards for Hennessy cognac, palm trees and camels: Egypt in the first half of the 20th century had an allure that felt European but was distinctly exotic. This intriguing book shows what life was like for the privileged classes in Cairo and Alexandria during the British occupation. Blottiere, a Frenchman who has written novels and nonfiction works on Egypt, assembles an amazing array of many previously unpublished photographs of private homes, museums, landscapes and street scenes. Black & white or sepia-toned, the photographs depict such snapshots as a picnic in a palm grove in the early 1900s, a 1920s costume party in Cairo and the crew of the film Fires of Fate standing in the Temple of Luxor in 1923. Blottiere offers varying commentary for each image, sometimes giving background, other times simply stating the subject, photographer and year. Brief essays shed light on the era's conflicting undertones of glamour and political fragility.