In search of an English translation of the Egyptian Book Of The Dead. Especially something by scholars who have respect for the people and material, not by people with an agenda to debunk/discredit the work. Hard copy preferred.
Any suggestions?
The Book of the Dead is the common modern term for the collection of Egyptian funerary texts used from the New Kingdom into the Roman period. We call it the Book of the Dead because most manuscripts have been found placed in the coffins or tombs of the deceased. This collection was fairly standardized, but since it was an anthology of various stories, rituals, and spells, its contents varied over time and place. There are hundreds of extant manuscripts, but not all have been edited (that is, transcribed, analyzed, and translated) and no complete collation of manuscripts has been attempted. This is all to say that there is no single Book of the Dead.
Modern translations are based off earlier scholarly editions, which will be noted in the translation's introduction. The following English translation are used by scholars (but perhaps an Egyptologist will have further opinions):
Allen, T. George. The Book of the Dead or Going Forth by Day: Ideas of the Ancient Egyptians Concerning the Hereafter as Expressed in Their Own Terms. Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization, 37. Chicago, 1974.
Faulkner, Raymond O. The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, rev. ed. London, 1985.
Source: The Oxford encyclopedia of ancient Egypt, ed. Donald B. Redford (2001).