RAMESES; AN EGYPTIAN TALE: With Historical Notes, of the Era of the Pharaohs.

First edition. Three volumes. Handsomely bound in contemporary full olive-green morocco, the boards with elaborate gilt borders, the spines with four raised bands, compartments richly decorated in gilt, and with titles in gilt. Speckled page edges. Marbled endpapers. Silk ribbon page marker to each volume. Engraved armorial bookplate to the front pastedown of each volume. A near fine set, the bindings square and tight with a couple of very minor scruffs to the spine of the first volume and a touch of rubbing to the extremities. The contents with some faint occasional spotting are otherwise clean and bright throughout. An excellent set.

The first novel by the English bookseller, antiquarian and orientalist Edward Upham (1776-1834), forming an exoticised, and occasionally fantastical, tale of life in ancient Egypt, tracing the fortunes of the brothers Sabacon and Rameses, sons of the Egyptian general Sosis, during the reign of Amenophis. Upham was well-respected for his non-fiction works concerning the histories of Buddhism, China, the Ottoman Empire, and Ceylon, and the present novel also reflects his scholarly inclinations, containing extensive historical detail within the text and offering copious footnotes on all manner of aspects of ancient Egyptian history, focussing in particular upon the theory that the ancient Egyptians were, in fact, well in advance of the modern period in various branches of science and learning.