Prefatory Notice by EDWIN ARNOLD, Author of “The Light of Asia,” etc.
1 Vol. demy 8vo, with Frontispiece and Vignette, price 12s.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
“A lively and unpretentious piece of work, while being based upon journals that were kept from day to day, it gives an extremely faithful picture of a dahabeeah voyage. Too often the Nile notes of romantic travellers seem to be steeped in the sensuous memories of the Sybarite or lotus-eater, and are rather drawn on conventional impressions of things, as they are supposed to be, than the reflection of facts or exact recollections. Mr. Arnold thoroughly enjoyed the journey; but he shows, at the same time, that everything was not always couleur de rose.... In the way of sensational excitement, indeed, Mr. Arnold had one adventure such as seldom, happily, falls to the lot of the Nile voyager. His dahabeeah was actually shipwrecked—not in shooting the perilous rapids of the cataracts, but on one of the lower stretches of the river; and so his pleasant family party was broken up.”—The Times.
“He recalls very pleasantly the various incidents of that daily Nile life of which every traveller’s reminiscences are so delightful. One exceptional experience, indeed, he met with. His dahabieh was wrecked, and the family party broken up, he alone being enabled, by the generous and characteristic hospitality of an American traveller, to continue the voyage.”—Athenæum.
“A pleasantly and picturesquely, but very ambitiously, written account of a trip up the Nile. The author is the son of one of the most splendidly rhetorical of living journalists, and he bids fair to inherit the characteristic gifts of his eloquent sire.”—World.
“It may be that there is little new in this bright and gallant volume of travel; but the young writer can fairly be congratulated on his power of presenting, in fresh and vigorous colours, so much that is old. He has written, in truth, a volume by no means deficient in the quality which should be understood in the full sense of the term—‘information;’ and his command of easy, graceful, and natural language shows the literary faculty that might be expected in him.”—Daily Telegraph.
“The charm of this diary consists in its faithful account of the life and experiences of an English party travelling in Egypt. A very exciting and alarming adventure befel them almost at the commencement, the vessel in which they were travelling being wrecked. The story of the disaster, and the narrow escape of the two ladies and two gentlemen, is vividly told.”—Daily Chronicle.
“Messrs. Tinsley have seldom brought out a more attractive work than this voyage upon the Nile.... The series of pictures furnished by Mr. Arnold’s graphic description of the various scenes he visited remain fixed on the mind’s eye of the reader long after the book is closed.”—Court Journal.
“‘The book,’ says Mr. Arnold in his preface, ‘does not aspire to take the place of any learned treatise or methodical guide, but simply to catch the joyous spirit of the rich sunlight of the river, and to reproduce its scenes and sights by easy and passing touches.’ This aim it attains with very considerable success.... Really a delightful book.”—Spectator.