This book is written by E.A. Wallis Budge, who was fanatically interested in Ancient languages. Fatherless and leaving school at 12 he worked as a clerk for W.H. Smith and studied Hebrew and Syriac in his spare time. He became interested in learning the ancient Assyrian language, so spent his spare time in the British Museum where he was allowed to study cuneiformtablets in the office. He often walked to St Paul's Cathedral to study during his lunch break and when the organist noticed his passion for Assyrian he contacted Budge's employer, the Conservative Member of Parliament W.H. Smith, as well as the former Liberal Prime Minister W.E. Gladstone, and asked them to help Budge. They agreed to help him raise the money to attend Cambridge University, where Budge studied Semitic languages, including Hebrew, Syriac, Ethiopic and Arabic, continuing to study Assyrian on his own. Hence, this book is a work of passion, elucidating nine of the most fascinating and important Egyptian legends. These include The Legend of the Creation, The Legend of the Destruction of Mankind and The Legend of Isis and Osiris. This version comes complete with the nineteen original illustrations.