An Unprotected Female at the Pyramids

This entertaining short story of 31 pages in print or 431 locations on a Kindle tells the story of Miss Dawkins, who is travelling throught Egypt. She is the 'unprotected female' from the title because she is travelling on her own. She is not not alone most of the time, she joins other travellers. In this story she joins a British family, Mr. and Mrs. Damer and their three children, the Frenchman Mr. Delabordeau and the American Mr. Jefferson Ingram. As they travel along the reader starts to wonder whether the unprotected female needs protecting or whether her fellow travellers need to be protected from her.

This story has some hilarious scenes that everyone who has ever travelled to exotic destinations will recognise: the haggling over prizes, the tips, the uncomfortable journeys and the fellow-travellers who really should have stayed at home, where they have all the comforts they so long for during this trip. This is an entertaining story that can be read well within an hour. I did enjoy reading it. The character of Mrs. Dawkins is interesting and, as I have already said, there are some really funny bits in it.

Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) was one of the most important writers of Great Brittain in the Victorian Age. This story was first published in Cassell's Illustrated Family Paper on the 6th of October 1860. This Kindle version is the 1864 Chapman & Hall "Tales of all Countries" edition.

An amusing short story by Anthony Trollope about a woman traveling alone in Egypt. Although she has no male companion to protect her, it's really the males of the families she latches onto in her travels that are the ones who need protecting.