Georg Ebers

Georg Ebers (1837–1898) was a German Egyptologist and historical novelist whose academic work gave his fiction an unusually strong archaeological and historical foundation. Born in Berlin, he initially studied law before turning to Egyptology under the influence of Richard Lepsius. He became a professor at Jena in 1865 and in 1870 took the newly established chair of Egyptology at Leipzig University. During a journey to Egypt in 1872–73 he acquired at Luxor the ancient medical manuscript now known as the Ebers Papyrus, one of the most important surviving sources for ancient Egyptian medicine, and published a facsimile in 1875. Ill health increasingly restricted his academic work from the 1870s, and he devoted more of his time to historical fiction, eventually becoming internationally known for novels that attempted to recreate ancient societies through contemporary scholarship.

Ebers wrote around twenty historical novels, many of them set in ancient Egypt, the Hellenistic world and the Roman Empire. An Egyptian Princess is set during the Persian conquest of Egypt; Uarda takes place in the reign of Ramesses II; The Sisters is set in Ptolemaic Egypt; Joshua retells the Exodus period; and Cleopatra portrays the final years of the Ptolemaic kingdom. The Emperor is set in Egypt during the reign of Hadrian, Homo Sum among early Christian communities in the Sinai, Serapis during the destruction of the Serapeum at Alexandria, Arachne in the Hellenistic Mediterranean, The Bride of the Nile during the Arab conquest of Egypt, and A Thorny Path during the reign of Caracalla. He also wrote European historical novels including Barbara Blomberg, The Burgomaster’s Wife, A Word, Only a Word, Margery and In the Fire of the Forge.