Mirage
Napoleon's Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt
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Narrated by:
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Cassandra Campbell
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By:
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Nina Burleigh
About this listen
Little more than 200 years ago, only the most reckless or eccentric Europeans had dared traverse the unmapped territory of the modern-day Middle East. Its history and peoples were the subject of much myth and speculation - and no region aroused greater interest than Egypt.
It was not until 1798, when an unlikely band of scientific explorers traveled from Paris to the Nile Valley, that Westerners received their first real glimpse of what lay beyond the Mediterranean Sea.
Under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte and the French Army, a small and little-known corps of Paris' brightest intellectual lights left the safety of their laboratories, studios, and classrooms to embark on a 30-day crossing into the unknown: some never to see French shores again. Carrying pencils instead of swords, specimen jars instead of field guns, these highly accomplished men participated in the first large-scale interaction between Europeans and Muslims of the modern era. And many lived to tell the tale.
Internationally acclaimed journalist Nina Burleigh brings listeners back to a little-known landmark adventure at the dawn of the modern era - one that ultimately revealed the deepest secrets of ancient Egypt to a very curious continent.
©2007 Nina Burleigh (P)2007 Books on TapeListeners also enjoyed...
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- By: Laurence Bergreen
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 16 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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As the most celebrated European to explore Asia, Marco Polo was the original global traveler and the earliest bridge between East and West. A universal icon of adventure and discovery, he has inspired six centuries of popular fascination and spurious mythology. Now, from acclaimed author Laurence Bergreen, comes the first fully authoritative biography of one of the most enchanting figures in world history.
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Educational and Entertaining but a bit repetitive
- By PETER on 01-02-13
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Rome
- By: Matthew Kneale
- Narrated by: Neil Gardner
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Rome, the Eternal City. Today visitors can stand on bridges that Julius Caesar and Cicero crossed; walk around temples in the footsteps of emperors; visit churches from the earliest days of Christianity. This is all the more remarkable considering what the city has endured. It has been ravaged by fires, floods, earthquakes, and - most of all - by roving armies. Matthew Kneale uses seven of these crisis moments to create a powerful and captivating account of Rome’s extraordinary history. He paints portraits of the city before each assault, describing how Romans, both rich and poor, lived their everyday lives.
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Lack of language skills an irritation
- By lmc on 07-16-18
By: Matthew Kneale
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The Man Who Loved China
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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No cloistered don, this tall, married Englishman was a freethinking intellectual, who practiced nudism and was devoted to a quirky brand of folk dancing. In 1937, while working as a biochemist at Cambridge University, he instantly fell in love with a visiting Chinese student, with whom he began a lifelong affair. He soon became fascinated with China, and his mistress swiftly persuaded the ever-enthusiastic Needham to travel to her home country, where he embarked on a series of extraordinary expeditions to the farthest frontiers of this ancient empire.
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turn your watch back 70 years
- By Andy on 05-22-08
By: Simon Winchester
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Conquistadors
- By: Michael Wood
- Narrated by: John Telfer
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Following in the footsteps of the greatest Spanish adventurers, Michael Wood retraces the path of the conquistadors from Amazonia to Lake Titicaca, and from the deserts of North Mexico to the heights of Machu Picchu. As he travels the same routes as Hernán Cortés, Francisco, and Gonzalo Pizarro, Wood describes the dramatic events that accompanied the epic sixteenth-century Spanish conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires.
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Horrific anti-European bias
- By Anonymous User on 08-30-20
By: Michael Wood
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Walls
- A History of Civilization in Blood and Brick
- By: David Frye
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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With Frye as our raconteur-guide, we journey back to a time before barriers of brick and stone even existed - to an era in which nomadic tribes vied for scarce resources, and each man was bred to a life of struggle. Ultimately, those same men would create edifices of mud, brick, and stone and with them effectively divide humanity: On one side were those the walls protected; on the other, those the walls kept out. The stars of this narrative are the walls themselves - rising up in places as ancient and exotic as Mesopotamia, Babylon, Greece, China, Rome, Mongolia, Afghanistan, the lower Mississippi, and even Central America....
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A boom that will transform how you view all of history.
- By BB on 08-04-24
By: David Frye
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Off the Edge of the Map
- Marco Polo, Captain Cook, and 9 Other Travelers and Explorers That Pushed the Boundaries of the Known World
- By: Michael Rank
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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An exciting new audiobook on the greatest explorers in history and how their discoveries shaped the modern world. Whether it is Rabban Bar Sauma, the 13th-century Chinese monk commissioned by the Mongols to travel West form a military alliance against the Islam; Marco Polo, who opened a window to the East for Europe; or Captain James Cook, whose maritime voyages of discovery created the global economy of the 21st century, each of these explorers had an indelible impact on the modern world. This audiobook will look at the 11 greatest explorers in history.
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Fascinating stories, delivery sometimes cringe-y
- By Oliver on 10-02-14
By: Michael Rank
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Lords of the Horizons
- A History of the Ottoman Empire
- By: Jason Goodwin
- Narrated by: Grahame Edwards
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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The Ottoman Empire has long exerted a strong pull on Western minds and hearts. For over 600 years the empire swelled and declined, rising from a dusty fiefdom in the foothills of Anatolia to a power which ruled over the Danube and the Euphrates with the richest court in Europe. But its decline was prodigious, protracted and total.
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Good introduction to the Ottomans, bad narration
- By Skeptical on 06-06-18
By: Jason Goodwin
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River of the Gods
- Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile
- By: Candice Millard
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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For millennia the location of the Nile River’s headwaters was shrouded in mystery. In the 19th century, there was a frenzy of interest in ancient Egypt. At the same time, European powers sent off waves of explorations intended to map the unknown corners of the globe—and extend their colonial empires.
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Good book by Millard, narrator ruined it
- By Tally D Lykins on 05-25-22
By: Candice Millard
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Cleopatra
- A Life
- By: Stacy Schiff
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Her palace shimmered with onyx, garnets, and gold, but was richer still in political and sexual intrigue. Above all else, Cleopatra was a shrewd strategist and an ingenious negotiator. Though her life spanned fewer than forty years, it reshaped the contours of the ancient world. She was married twice, each time to a brother. She waged a brutal civil war against the first when both were teenagers. She poisoned the second. In a masterly return to the classical sources, Stacy Schiff here boldly separates fact from fiction to rescue the magnetic queen whose death ushered in a new world order.
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Approach this book with caution
- By GolfZilla on 12-02-10
By: Stacy Schiff
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Koh-i-Noor
- The History of the World's Most Infamous Diamond
- By: Anita Anand, William Dalrymple
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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On 29 March 1849, the 10-year-old Maharajah of the Punjab was ushered into the magnificent Mirrored Hall at the centre of the great Fort in Lahore. There, in a public ceremony, the frightened but dignified child handed over to the British East India Company in a formal act of submission not only swathes of the richest land in India but also arguably the single most valuable object in the subcontinent: the celebrated Koh-i-Noor diamond. The Mountain of Light.
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Fascinating
- By Jean on 07-08-17
By: Anita Anand, and others
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The Black Count
- Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo
- By: Tom Reiss
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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General Alex Dumas is a man almost unknown today, yet his story is strikingly familiar—because his son, the novelist Alexandre Dumas, used his larger-than-life feats as inspiration for such classics as The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers.
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The story behind the greatest novelist of all time
- By Melinda on 01-13-13
By: Tom Reiss
What listeners say about Mirage
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- mostafa
- 11-12-12
nice prespective on what happenned on the ground
If you could sum up Mirage in three words, what would they be?
I enjoyed the read. It made you feel and smell the aroma of the time and it tells you how the role of science and scientists make all the difference in human progress.
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- L. Brown
- 02-23-17
Too little plot, too much political patronizing
The politically correct carping starts subtly and ends overtly. It's not terribly thoughtful. Though purporting to rescue Egyptians from the stain of French and British foreigners, the author instead disrespects them with her view that they were helplessly infantile.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Cathi Britz
- 11-01-21
Great listen
I love books of Napoleon's amazing travels. This book has great detail on Napoleon's time in Egypt and what happened with his scientists and infantry men still there once he went back to France. Glad I found this book! Great narration too so that is always a plus. A recommended read for sure, AA++!! :)
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- Thomas
- 11-12-12
Great combination of history, science and culture
What made the experience of listening to Mirage the most enjoyable?
The very rich, multi-layered intellectual experience. Many of the current West vs. East issues are seen in this book.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
Understanding how Napolean was the rock star of his day.
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- Ethan Pope
- 10-26-21
Poor Representation of Interesting Topic
I was left unimpressed. Seems like quite an interesting topic and time in history. However, the author focuses on the logistics of the occupancy. I expected to learn about the topics the scientists and engineers explored.
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Overall
- —-
- 01-05-10
A lesson in history
The perspective of this novel is fascinating. It contains an encyclopedia of information woven together well. Little cumbersome at times but definately worth the trouble.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Sebastian
- 09-08-12
Listened to it twice.
Where does Mirage rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
This is the best book I have come across on the scientists that accompanied Napoleon on the French adventure in Egypt.
Any additional comments?
The narrator Cassandra Campbell while obviously an American speaker did a creditable job in pronouncing the French names and words which is always appreciated.
There is a freshness of tone in Nina Burleigh, perhaps due to the fact that she is a young journalist rather than a grizzled Historian. She has an obvious affection for Egypt, the Scientists and though she has reservations about Napoleon and the soldiers, but she does not have the usual hostility towards Napoleon found among Anglos.
A good read.
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1 person found this helpful