Lucie Duff-Gordon

Lucie, Lady Duff-Gordon (1821–1869) was an English author and translator who wrote under the name Lucie Gordon. She is best known for her Letters from Egypt, 1863–1865 (1865) and Last Letters from Egypt (1875).

After moving in a circle of some of the most prominent authors and poets of her day in London, she contracted tuberculosis and in 1861, and went to South Africa for the "climate", which she hoped would help her health, living near the Cape of Good Hope for several years before travelling to Egypt in 1862.

In Egypt, she settled in Luxor, where she learned Arabic and wrote many letters to her husband and her mother about her observations of Egyptian culture, religion and customs. Many critics regard her as being "progressive" and tolerant, although she also held problematic views on various racial groups. Her letters home are celebrated for their humour, her outrage at the ruling Ottomans, and many personal stories gleaned from the people around her. In many ways they are also typical of Orientalist travellers' tales of that time.

Most of the letters are addressed to her husband, Alexander Duff-Gordon and her mother, Mrs Sarah Austin.

Lucie was the only child of John Austin (1790–1859), a jurist, and his wife Sarah Austin, a translator. She was born in Queen Square, Westminster on 24 June 1821, where her chief playfellows were her first cousin Henry Reeve, and John Stuart Mill. As she grew in vigour and in sense, she developed a strong tinge of originality and independence, with a marked love of animals.

In 1826 she went with her parents to Bonn on the Rhine, and stayed sufficiently long to return speaking German as if it were her own language. She had scant regular instruction, but was for a short time at a mixed school of boys and girls kept by George Edward Biber at Hampstead, where she learnt Latin. In 1836, while her parents were in Malta, she was at Miss Shepherd's school at Bromley. Her father and mother were Unitarians, but at the age of 16 she was baptised and confirmed as a member of the Church of England.

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