Emmeline Lott

Who is Emmeline Lott?

Emmeline Lott was the author of The English Governess in Egypt: Harem Life in Egypt and Constantinople an account of her employment as governess to the young son of Isma'il Pasha, Viceroy of Egypt. Lott believed that her position as a "humble individual" and member of the household provided her with a more authentic perspective than that of aristocratic visitors such as Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, for whom the harem was tidied up for public viewing. Lott's tone towards Egyptian women is often contemptuous - she claims that far from being Oriental beauties of European fantasy, they are "hideous and hag-like". Lott believed herself to be superior to Egyptians by virtue of her race; it was a shock to find that as a governess, she was treated as a servant and a social inferior.