The Cat of Bubastes

By: G. A. Henty

Narrated by: John Bolen

The sacred cat of Bubastes has accidentally been slain; now young Chebron must pay for the offense with his own life, as this is the law of the Pagans in Egypt, 1250 BC. Chebron, the son of a high Egyptian priest, flees for his life taking his sister Mysa, one of the household slaves, Amuba, and several companions with him. They escape through closely guarded Egyptian exits only to find themselves in unfamiliar and dangerous lands inhabited by a very different culture of people. Along the way, the roving band of refugees encounters and befriends a Hebrew girl, who exposes them to very strange ideas including the worship of "one true God".

This arduous journey through time, customs and religion provides an adventurous and accurate insight into the ancient people of Egyptian history.

©2002 Tantor Media, Inc. (P)2002 Tantor Media, Inc.

The Cat of Bubastes

This is one of GA Henty's finest novels! He manages to keep the story engaging the exciting while remaining realistic and historically accurite to the times and culture.

(*Contains minor spoilers* )
After his father, the king of the Rebu people is killed in war with the Egyptians, young prince Amuba and his friend and mentor Jethro are carried off in captivity to Egypt. They are taken in by Ameres, the high priest of Osiris and live with him and his family as companions to his children. For several years they lead a quiet life in Egypt until one day Amuba is hunting with Ameres' son, Chebron who accidentally kills the sacred cat of Bubastes. Since killing a cat is considered a high crime in Egypt, Chebron and Amuba become fugitives and flee their home with Jethro. After a terrible tragedy hits his family and his sister his kidnapped, Chebron and his friends set out to rescue her and leave Egypt permenantly and go to the land of the Rebu. They travel through the deserts and forests of the surrounding land disguised as merchants and have many exciting adventures on they way. They find that the Rebu nation is now under the control of a tyrannical ruler aided by the egyptian army and Amuba and Jethro rally the oppressed people to rise up and restore freedom to their land. Amuba becomes the rightful king of the Rebu and the country flourishes under his rule.

As with all of Henty's novels, The Cat of Bubastes is a historical adventure based on real people and events. Although the characters and happenings are completely fictional in this story, they're nonetheless believable and altogether possible to have happened in ancient Egypt and the Mediterranean area. Amuba, Chebron, Jethro and all the other people have a real depth and individual personality to them, (something lacking in many characters of modern fiction) and it's hard not to feel a connection to them. You feel the sadness with them in their struggles and misfortunes and the joy in the triumphs and friendships.The story is simple enough for young people to understand yet detailed and exciting enough for adults to enjoy. GA Henty is one of my favorite authors and he is a treasure of the literary world to be cherished.

Disappointed - refund

I have just ordered a copy read by another narrator. I ploughed through about 4 chapters but really struggled with the narration and voices he uses to portray some of the characters.

great listening

My children (11 & 6) and myself listened to this book as part of our ancient egypt history unit. We all really enjoyed the book and learned alot, I highly recommend it.

Good story but...

The one reading was not very engaging. Since we were following along in the book several times paragraphs were skipped.

Good lesson in Philosophy

This is a good listen. Though not an exciting read, it is enlightening, and mindful. Highly recommends this book for the wisdom in the message of the story.

Great Henty!

Awesome story. All ages can enjoy Henty's historically-astute romp through Golden-Age ancient Egypt and The Levant.

good book highly recommend it

The story is the best part however the person who did the reading did a great job aswell.

great story telling with interesting history

a great story with enough action to keep up the listeners interest while constantly dropping in bits of history and geography.

Great Historical novel

My two boys 10 & 11 enjoyed listening to this immensely and learned much about Egypt.

Great Story. Not So Great Narration

The story of the Cat of Bubastes is a wonderful way to learn about Ancient Egypt. However the narration was somewhat distracting. The narrator’s attempt to differentiate the voices of the different characters seemed unnatural and affected. The ends of many words, especially at the ends of sentences were elongated and followed by a long pause. At first I found it so annoying I could only listen for 15-20 minutes at a time, but when the story picked up it became so riveting that I forgot about the strange attempts at ancient accents.