Uarda

Thebes under Rameses II: a paraschites' granddaughter, a young priest, a princess, and the temple politics of a state where the priesthood outranks the throne. Ebers found the medical papyrus that bears his name and dug in Egypt for years; this 1877 novel made his reputation, and its rituals, titles and streets are drawn from the monuments and papyri he knew as a scholar. Fifty-eight plates of Roman ruins and capriccios, from Panini and Lanfranco to the Colosseum and Forum, echo the monumental world Ebers knew firsthand.