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272 NOTICES OF BOOKS.
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^ Ragged Life in Egypt. By M. X*. Whatel...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
W • Hose And}Her Mission. .A. Tale Of Th...
and arrived at by calm reasoning . The work is pervaded by a truly Christian spiritand while in tales commonly denominated religious
, , there is frequently a lack of sufficient interest in the characters and plot to keep alive the reader ' s attentionMrs . Lynch has
demon-, strated , like Miss Edgeworth in the past , that a truly moral tale can as fully enchain its peruser , as the flimsy frivolous novel-compound
with which we are continually deluged . Finally , we most cordially L advise ynch our per readers forman to ce jud and ge for we themselves cannot doubt of the but excellence that they of Mrs will .
, endorse our opinion as to gracefulness and pleasantness of style , and
abundance of incident .
272 Notices Of Books.
272 NOTICES OF BOOKS .
^ Ragged Life In Egypt. By M. X*. Whatel...
_^ Ragged Life in Egypt . By M . X * . Whately . Seeley & Co .
Theee is apt to be a sameness and a monotony in all works upon Modern Egypt . Read one and you have read all . Traveller after
traveller repeats the same observations . The romance which attaches to the Bedouin Arabceases when we view him apart
from his desert and his steed ; , and from Cairo to the confines of _3 _STubia , town after town , and village after village , is but a
repetition of one scene of moral degradation and social decay . The natives have nothing prepossessing about them , and travellers
generally , have not cared to acquaint themselves with the habits and feelings of the lower classes . Yetperchanceif they studied
any phase of social life , with as much , diligence as , they spell out the half-obliterated hieroglyphicswe should not find their
observations dull or unprofitable . It is , this omission which the present little book suppliesso far as it relates to one portion of the native
population of Egypt , , the " ragged life of Cairo , " and we close the book , astonished at the interest it awakens .
Miss "Whately was peculiarly fitted for the task she had marked out for herself . A previous visit to Egypt had made her acquainted
if only in a superficial manner , with the habits and language of the , _Country ; she was accompanied by a lady thoroughly conversant
with Arabic , while her experience in missionary work at home rendered her persevering under difficulties , and patient in waiting for
results . Her object was to open a school for children , but first a house must be selected . Far from seeking the civilized part of Cairo , Miss
Whately and her companions planted themselves in the very centre of the Moslim quarter . The chapter upon " House-hunting " is very
amusing ; we are carried through the dirty , narrow streets of Cairo , and by courts and alleys that would not lose by comparison
with those of London and Dublin . The old houses were found to be too dirty to be thought ofwhile the new ones were not onl
unfurnishedbut unfinishedfor , it is the custom in the East to leav y e the building , ' uncompleted till , the tenant be secured . After many
disappointments , a house was at length decided upon , and amid
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Dec. 1, 1862, page 272, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01121862/page/56/
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