83.17

“Ancient Evenings.” Playboy, April, 78–82, 118, 124, 162, 164, 166, 168, 170, 172, 174. Excerpt from novel of same name (83.18); titled “A Soldier in the Harem” on the cover. Illustrated by Ivan Punchatz. Rpt: Appearing just before the novel, this excerpt is a very compressed version of chapters 1–7 of book 5, “The Book of Queens,” which deals with Menenhetet’s tenure as harem master to Ramses II. First of two installments.