The date when this story begins is a Saturday afternoon in June, 1900, about 3 p.m. The scene is the western room of a suite of offices on the fifth floor of a house in Chancery Lane, the offices of Fraser and Warren, Consultant Actuaries and Accountants. There is a long window facing west, the central part of which is open, affording a passage out on to a parapet. Through this window, and still better from the parapet outside, may be seen the picturesque spires and turrets of the Law Courts, a glimpse here and there of the mellow, red-brick, white-windowed houses of New Square, the tree-tops of Lincoln's Inn Fields, and the hint beyond a steepled and chimneyed horizon of the wooded heights of Highgate. All this outlook is flooded with the brilliant sunshine of June, scarcely dimmed by the city smoke and fumes. In the room itself there are on each of the tables vases of flowers and a bunch of dark red roses on the top of the many pigeon-holed bureau at which Vivien Warren is seated. The walls are mainly covered with book-shelves well filled with consultative works on many diverse subjects.

Originally published in 1913, this book contains a proposed universal alphabet for all forms of speech. Johnston includes sample sentences from a variety of languages spelled out in his phonetic alphabet at the conclusion of the text. This book will be of value for anyone with an interest in phonetics and the search for a universally applicable writing system.

Sir Harry Johnston (1858 1927), was a British artist, explorer and colonial administrator. He was a key figure in the so-called 'Scramble for Africa', the invasion and colonisation of Africa by major European powers in the late nineteenth century. This book, first published in 1903, is Johnston's wide-ranging history of Nile exploration, beginning with the Ancient Egyptians and the Greeks and continuing into the Victorian period. As well as charting the development of ancient civilisations in the Nile region, Johnston also discusses its wider role in world history and its appeal to powerful leaders from Alexander the Great to Napoleon. As a contemporary of many significant participants in nineteenth-century Nile exploration, Johnston was perfectly situated to provide detailed insights into the personalities and achievements of explorers such as Burton, Stanley and Speke. His absorbing and accessible account provides a fascinating late Victorian perspective on the subject.

This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature.