I read my first Amelia Peabody novel (from Elizabeth Peters's series) in Freshman year of high school, and I've been hooked ever since. Amelia is a riveting character, and the novels are filled with romance, mystery, and a good dose of history too. The beauty of the Peabody novels lies in the first-person narration, of which the reader is supposed to be skeptical. The heroine's confidence, strength, and vitality make Peabody admirable, but her faults and accurately-period prejudices make her human. Peters creates a truly lovable character in Amelia Peabody, and it's no wonder that the Peabody legacy spans 20 novels and 35 years. Of course, Peters's experience in the field of Egyptology doesn't hurt either.
However, until I picked up a book about early female archaeologists, I had no idea how much actual history Peters included: that Amelia Peabody was based on an actual woman, Amelia Edwards, who lived a generation before her fictional counterpart. Like Peabody, Amelia Edwards traveled Egypt by dahabeeya, with a female companion; both are clearly skilled writers, with Edwards succeeding greatly in travel journalism and Peabody with her accounts. Edwards actually co-founded the organization responsible for the success of Sir Flinders Petrie, which must be one of the greatest ironies in the Peabody series (Petrie is set up as Emerson's rival, and Emerson eventually becomes Peabody's husband). An even greater difference is that the historical Amelia never married; she broke off an engagement with a man, and the author of Ladies of the Field speculates that Edwards's sexuality tended towards women rather than men. I'm not sure why Peters changed this aspect--if this is even a significant omission, brought about by the constraints of Peters's own time period, or perhaps an element of Edwards's character that hadn't been yet brought to light or acknowledged--but in the end, Amelia Peabody is clearly her own character and not the shade of her historical namesake, and despite a rather conventional romance, the characters are unconventional enough for their time period to make their marriage just as unique.
Learning about Amelia Edwards adds an extra layer to the fictional character of Amelia Peabody, and it's exciting to know that a woman truly did play a significant role in the emergence of Egyptology--so significant, in fact, that Edwards is known as the "Godmother of Egyptology."
I have yet to finish this book--Ladies of the Field: Early Women Archaeologists and their Search for Adventure by Amanda Adams--but the first chapter was so exciting personally, I just had to write a post . . . I have a feeling that if the other five women are as interesting as Amelia Edwards and the Mexican Archaeologist Zelia Nuttal, this will be one of my favorite books yet--even if it is non-fiction.
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