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Ancient Evenings
Ancient Evenings is a 1983 historical novel by American author Norman Mailer. Set in ancient Egypt and dealing with the lives of the characters Menenhetet One and Meni, the novel received mixed reviews. Reviewers noted the historical research that went into writing it and considered Mailer successful at conveying the nature of ancient Egyptian life. However, they also criticized the novel's narration and questioned its literary merit. Ancient Evenings has been compared to the work of the poet James Merrill and the novelist Thomas Pynchon, as well as to Mailer's novel Harlot's Ghost (1991). Some have suggested that its opening passage is its strongest part. Ancient Evenings served as an inspiration for the artist Matthew Barney's operatic film River of Fundament (2014).
Most but not all of the novel takes place on one long evening in 1123 or 1122 BCE, during which the characters (including Ramesses IX) tell stories of the past. The majority of the book concerns the reign of Ramesses II, approximately 150 years before the night of the narrative; the Battle of Kadesh (1274 BCE) is in turn the central event of this sub-narrative.
Ancient Evenings is set in ancient Egypt. The novel opens with the reflections of a person who does not know who he is or what he was. Its characters include Menenhetet One and Meni living in the rule of Ramesses IX.
An unnamed narrator finds himself inexplicably and painfully thrust into the burial chambers of Pharaoh Khufu. He leaves the pharaoh's tomb, recognizes the tomb of Menenhetet Two, and enters to find it in disarray. In Menenhetet Two's chambers, he details the stages of death and names the seven lights and shadows: Ren, Sekhem, Khu, Ba, Ka, Khaibit, and Sekhu. Toward the end of this book, the unnamed narrator discovers he is Menenhetet Two (Meni), and his corpse occupies the very tomb he's exploring. His great-grandfather and the origin of his name, Menenhetet One (Menenhetet), appears. Not knowing his great grandfather in life, Meni initially fears the man who appears dressed as a High Priest. Menenhetet mentors and guides his grandson's journey into the afterlife.
Menenhetet and Meni continue their journey together in "The Book of the Gods", Menenhetet teaching Meni the history of the gods to prepare him for possible encounters in the Land of the Dead. Menenhetet starts with the marriage of Ra, his wife Nut, and Nut's lover Geb. Nut subsequently bore five children, who were all attributed to Ra: Osiris, Horus, Set, Isis and Nephthys. Menenhetet continues, detailing the lives and histories of Nut's five children, their unions, resulting children, travels, and encounters. All the while, Meni is discovering his great-grandfather. Throughout, the fluidity of the experiences shift from an earthly realm to a spiritual one. Meni receives these lessons through face-to-face discussions with Menenhetet and through Menenhetet's visits from within his thoughts. Others, like Ra, also add to the lessons through spiritual methods. The affair between Isis and Horus is absent from the lessons of this book, and Menenhetet and Meni continue their journey into the next book by transporting from the tomb to Necropolis.
Ancient Evenings was first published in the United Kingdom in 1983 by Macmillan London Limited.
Ancient Evenings was an inspiration for the writer William S. Burroughs's novel The Western Lands (1987) and for the artist Matthew Barney's operatic film River of Fundament. In an interview, Barney stated that when he read Ancient Evenings, following Mailer's encouragement, he found that it had "something in it structurally that appealed to me very much", and despite disliking aspects such as its emphasis on Egyptian mythology and sexuality, felt challenged to develop it into a film. Ancient Evenings has been praised by commentators such as the novelist Anthony Burgess and the critic Harold Bloom. Burgess considered the book one of the best English novels since 1939. Writing in 1984, he suggested that it was "perhaps the best reconstruction of the far past" since Gustave Flaubert's Salammbô (1862). He also described it as Mailer's best novel since The Naked and the Dead (1948). Bloom gave the novel a positive review in The New York Review of Books, where he compared it to the work of the poet James Merrill, noting that both were influenced by the poet W. B. Yeats. He believed that while the novel, "defies usual aesthetic standards", it had "spiritual power" as well as "a relevance to current reality in America that actually surpasses that of Mailer’s largest previous achievement, The Executioner’s Song" as "Mailer’s fantasies, now brutal and unpleasant, catch the precise accents of psychic realities within and between us." He considered it superior to Mailer's previous novel The Executioner's Song (1979) and believed that it rivaled the novelist Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow (1973) as an exercise in "monumental sado-anarchism." He suggested that it had an underlying motive similar to that of the writer D. H. Lawrence's The Plumed Serpent (1926). Bloom later described Ancient Evenings as "exuberantly inventive". He compared the nightmare that opens the novel to passages in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, and suggested that it was its strongest part. He argued that it is no longer possible for historical novels to become part of the Western canon of literature and that the work "could not survive its placement in the ancient Egypt of The Book of the Dead".
The novel also received a positive review from the critic George Stade in The New Republic. Stade praised its opening passage, writing that its language was "powerful and disorienting". He described the novel as "exhilarating" and credited Mailer with developing its narrative with "patient and masterful skill" and presenting "fully and rigorously a form of consciousness that will seem at once alien and familiar to the modern reader." He criticized some parts of the novel for their "unintentional comedy", but believed that they did not undermine the work as a whole. He considered it better in some respects than Lawrence's Women in Love (1920), and concluded that it was a "permanent contribution to the possibilities of fiction and our communal efforts at self-discovery." Time listed Ancient Evenings as a must-read. Philip Kuberski compared the novel to Merrill's The Changing Light at Sandover. He credited Mailer with demonstrating "the interdependence of the physical and the metaphysical, sexuality and death, critique and creation".
Ancient Evenings
Ancient Evenings is a 1983 historical novel by American author Norman Mailer. Set in ancient Egypt and dealing with the lives of the characters Menenhetet One and Meni, the novel received mixed reviews. Reviewers noted the historical research that went into writing it and considered Mailer successful at conveying the nature of ancient Egyptian life. However, they also criticized the novel's narration and questioned its literary merit. Ancient Evenings has been compared to the work of the poet James Merrill and the novelist Thomas Pynchon, as well as to Mailer's novel Harlot's Ghost (1991). Some have suggested that its opening passage is its strongest part. Ancient Evenings served as an inspiration for the artist Matthew Barney's operatic film River of Fundament (2014).
Most but not all of the novel takes place on one long evening in 1123 or 1122 BCE, during which the characters (including Ramesses IX) tell stories of the past. The majority of the book concerns the reign of Ramesses II, approximately 150 years before the night of the narrative; the Battle of Kadesh (1274 BCE) is in turn the central event of this sub-narrative.
Ancient Evenings is set in ancient Egypt. The novel opens with the reflections of a person who does not know who he is or what he was. Its characters include Menenhetet One and Meni living in the rule of Ramesses IX.
An unnamed narrator finds himself inexplicably and painfully thrust into the burial chambers of Pharaoh Khufu. He leaves the pharaoh's tomb, recognizes the tomb of Menenhetet Two, and enters to find it in disarray. In Menenhetet Two's chambers, he details the stages of death and names the seven lights and shadows: Ren, Sekhem, Khu, Ba, Ka, Khaibit, and Sekhu. Toward the end of this book, the unnamed narrator discovers he is Menenhetet Two (Meni), and his corpse occupies the very tomb he's exploring. His great-grandfather and the origin of his name, Menenhetet One (Menenhetet), appears. Not knowing his great grandfather in life, Meni initially fears the man who appears dressed as a High Priest. Menenhetet mentors and guides his grandson's journey into the afterlife.
Menenhetet and Meni continue their journey together in "The Book of the Gods", Menenhetet teaching Meni the history of the gods to prepare him for possible encounters in the Land of the Dead. Menenhetet starts with the marriage of Ra, his wife Nut, and Nut's lover Geb. Nut subsequently bore five children, who were all attributed to Ra: Osiris, Horus, Set, Isis and Nephthys. Menenhetet continues, detailing the lives and histories of Nut's five children, their unions, resulting children, travels, and encounters. All the while, Meni is discovering his great-grandfather. Throughout, the fluidity of the experiences shift from an earthly realm to a spiritual one. Meni receives these lessons through face-to-face discussions with Menenhetet and through Menenhetet's visits from within his thoughts. Others, like Ra, also add to the lessons through spiritual methods. The affair between Isis and Horus is absent from the lessons of this book, and Menenhetet and Meni continue their journey into the next book by transporting from the tomb to Necropolis.
Ancient Evenings was first published in the United Kingdom in 1983 by Macmillan London Limited.
Ancient Evenings was an inspiration for the writer William S. Burroughs's novel The Western Lands (1987) and for the artist Matthew Barney's operatic film River of Fundament. In an interview, Barney stated that when he read Ancient Evenings, following Mailer's encouragement, he found that it had "something in it structurally that appealed to me very much", and despite disliking aspects such as its emphasis on Egyptian mythology and sexuality, felt challenged to develop it into a film. Ancient Evenings has been praised by commentators such as the novelist Anthony Burgess and the critic Harold Bloom. Burgess considered the book one of the best English novels since 1939. Writing in 1984, he suggested that it was "perhaps the best reconstruction of the far past" since Gustave Flaubert's Salammbô (1862). He also described it as Mailer's best novel since The Naked and the Dead (1948). Bloom gave the novel a positive review in The New York Review of Books, where he compared it to the work of the poet James Merrill, noting that both were influenced by the poet W. B. Yeats. He believed that while the novel, "defies usual aesthetic standards", it had "spiritual power" as well as "a relevance to current reality in America that actually surpasses that of Mailer’s largest previous achievement, The Executioner’s Song" as "Mailer’s fantasies, now brutal and unpleasant, catch the precise accents of psychic realities within and between us." He considered it superior to Mailer's previous novel The Executioner's Song (1979) and believed that it rivaled the novelist Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow (1973) as an exercise in "monumental sado-anarchism." He suggested that it had an underlying motive similar to that of the writer D. H. Lawrence's The Plumed Serpent (1926). Bloom later described Ancient Evenings as "exuberantly inventive". He compared the nightmare that opens the novel to passages in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, and suggested that it was its strongest part. He argued that it is no longer possible for historical novels to become part of the Western canon of literature and that the work "could not survive its placement in the ancient Egypt of The Book of the Dead".
The novel also received a positive review from the critic George Stade in The New Republic. Stade praised its opening passage, writing that its language was "powerful and disorienting". He described the novel as "exhilarating" and credited Mailer with developing its narrative with "patient and masterful skill" and presenting "fully and rigorously a form of consciousness that will seem at once alien and familiar to the modern reader." He criticized some parts of the novel for their "unintentional comedy", but believed that they did not undermine the work as a whole. He considered it better in some respects than Lawrence's Women in Love (1920), and concluded that it was a "permanent contribution to the possibilities of fiction and our communal efforts at self-discovery." Time listed Ancient Evenings as a must-read. Philip Kuberski compared the novel to Merrill's The Changing Light at Sandover. He credited Mailer with demonstrating "the interdependence of the physical and the metaphysical, sexuality and death, critique and creation".