Three Princes
Summary
Lord Scott Oken, a prince of Albion, and Professor-Prince Mikel Mabruke live in a world where the sun never set on the Egyptian Empire. In the year 1877 of Our Lord Julius Caesar, Pharaoh Djoser-George governs a sprawling realm that spans Europe, Africa, and much of Asia. When the European terrorist Otto von Bismarck touches off an international conspiracy, Scott and Mik are charged with exposing the plot against the Empire.
Their adventure takes them from the sands of Memphis to a lush New World, home of the Incan Tawantinsuyu, a rival empire across the glittering Atlantic Ocean. Encompassing Quetzal airships, operas, blood sacrifice and high diplomacy, Three Princes is a richly imagined, cinematic vision of a modern Egyptian Empire. (Goodreads)
Egyptomania narratives or motifs
This novel is set in an imagined 19th century CE, in which the Egyptian Empire happens to be one of the major political stakeholders in the world. Egypt is facing two main political and economic threats to its power. On the one hand, the province of Oesterreich is rebelling against the central Egyptian authority, instigating a civil war. On the other, the land of Tawantinsuyu, which spans South and Central America, is trying to advance its technological command of flying in order to reach the moon. Lord Scott Oken and Professor-Prince Mikel Mabruke are sent to investigate the truth behind these claims, and, through their journeys, the readers are introduced to the vastness as well as to the strange familiarity of this counterfactual world.
Egypt is depicted by means of its monumental architecture, which is presented as colossal and unchanging. For instance, the temples of Luxor and the imperial palace are described with all manner of detail, highlighting the precious materials used in their construction and the massive dimensions of the architecture. Overall, this 19th century Egypt is very similar to the ancient Egypt that dwells in popular imagination, hence perpetuating the notion of an ‘eternal Egypt’ that resists change. Despite the fact that in Wheeler’s novel Egypt is presented in a position of apparent political dominance, we see how Orientalist tropes of difference still contribute to a characterisation of Egypt as the Other.
Egypt is depicted by means of its monumental architecture, which is presented as colossal and unchanging. For instance, the temples of Luxor and the imperial palace are described with all manner of detail, highlighting the precious materials used in their construction and the massive dimensions of the architecture. Overall, this 19th century Egypt is very similar to the ancient Egypt that dwells in popular imagination, hence perpetuating the notion of an ‘eternal Egypt’ that resists change. Despite the fact that in Wheeler’s novel Egypt is presented in a position of apparent political dominance, we see how Orientalist tropes of difference still contribute to a characterisation of Egypt as the Other.
Author: Leire Olabarría
Other information
Olabarria, L. (2024). How place creates time: imagined architecture as an expression of identity in Ramona Wheeler’s Three Princes, in A.J. Quiroga Puertas and L. Olabarria (eds.) The ancient world in alternative history and counterfactual fictions. Bloomsbury Publishing (in press).
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