Jacq, Christian

▪ 2001

      “Life was so monotonous.” So begins Nefer the Silent, the first volume of The Stone of Light, a series of historical novels about the artists who created the legendary tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs and the soldiers who guarded the treasures stored there. Life, however, had been anything but monotonous for Christian Jacq, the book's best-selling French author, who launched the series La Pierre de lumière in March 2000 with Néfer le silencieux, which had an initial printing of 1.5 million copies; the book was available worldwide in 22 languages. The second volume, known in English as The Wise Woman, followed in September, and the concluding two installments were scheduled for publication in 2001.

      Earlier Jacq had created a sensation in the publishing industry with his five-volume biographical epic about Ramses II, the pharaoh who ruled Egypt from 1279 to 1213 BC. The Ramses books, which were first released in installments in France in 1995 and 1996, touched off a passion there for all things Egyptian. By 2000 the popular series had sold 11 million copies in 29 countries, and Jacq was crowned the “pharaoh of publishing.”

      Jacq was born in Paris in 1947 and became fascinated with Egyptology as a teenager after reading Jacques Pirenne's Histoire de la civilisation de l'Egypte ancienne. After earning his doctorate in Egyptian studies from the Sorbonne, Jacq pursued a career of scholarship. His first published works were serious, straightforward histories that earned him recognition from the French Academy. Jacq published his first successful novel, Champollion l'Egyptien, in 1987. His fiction did not receive much critical attention at first, and when it did, critics often dismissed his works as romantic potboilers, a blend of soap opera and fantasy, laced with a few historical details. Jacq persevered, however, determined to share the enthusiasm and awe he felt for Egypt with as wide an audience as possible. With the Ramses series—titled, in English, The Son of Light, The Eternal Temple, The Battle of Kadesh, The Lady of Abu Simbel, and Under the Western Acacia—he achieved just that. Millions of readers were enthralled by the work, an episodic story filled with battles, magic, sex, and adventure. Fans lined up outside bookstores as each new volume was released, and Jacq was given much of the credit for the 100% increase in the number of French tourists traveling to Egypt.

      Besides promoting Egypt's splendour, Jacq was dedicated to preserving the physical record of Egypt's past. To meet that challenge, he founded the Ramses Institute in Paris to register and photograph Egypt's endangered archaeological sites.

Amy R. Tao

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