New Egypt

'To understand Egypt, to describe in a single volume its past glorious but in ruins, its present full of energy and work, its future of hope and promise, is humanly impossible. A New Egypt has not been written for my Egyptian friends, for those who know thoroughly this lovely land. Herein will be found only impressions, such as may strike the traveler as he makes his way from Alexandria to Fashoda, with here and there some remarks on matters political, financial, and religious, which I have been able to obtain from good sources. These sources are the highly placed personages in the Egyptian world, English, French, native and others; these men, keen and talented, who, in places, ministries, legations, schools, hospitals, banks or large industrial concerns, are working without ceasing for the regeneration of Egypt. I have knocked at all doors, rich and poor, high and low, and everywhere a warm welcome has awaited me. Enter, observe, criticize. Here are our attempts, and, alas! Here also are our failures.

My object will be attained if those who read these pages, and who have not already seen the Nile, will feel the desire to pass a few months in the land which, without doubt, for a winter holiday is a one of the most charming, agreeable, and interesting.' -- From the Introduction

Amedee (Amadeus in French) Baillot de Guerville was one of the most talented travel writer-journalists at the turn of the last century. His New Egypt, translated from French, is a remarkable record of Egyptian life (social, economic, and political) during that period. He was born Amedee Baillot to Paul-Louis-Amedee Baillot and Antoinette Luce in Paris on May 3, 1869. He died on May 21, 1921 and is buried in the Alphonse Karr cemetary in St. Raphael.