Her translation has been hailed by peer reviewed journals as "a poetry unmatched anywhere in the literature so far," and "as close to an appreciation of the themes. as any modern interpretation." This translation is clearly geared not at the mere student of Egyptian culture, but at the mystic who wishes to approach the ancient texts as sacred scriptures by which they will be touched, moved, and inspired. .

             This approach to the Books of Coming Forth by Day is far more historically apt, for in Egypt these works were meant to be personalized, meditated upon, and used as a literal guide to enlightenment which would provide ultimate salvation from death. The texts were not only inscribed on the walls of the tombs of priests and rulers, and not only studied by the great scribes and mystics -- they were also mass produced, with blank spaces on the scrolls where the reader could insert their own name, and distributed widely to the populace -- much like any holy scripture today -- so that all the people could seek the wisdom that leads to enlightenment. .

             Normandi Ellis' version, far more than any previous translation, approaches this text not merely as an arcane view of life after death or as a set of "spells" of which the repetition allows one to secure eternal life, but rather as a guide to daily faith, life, and work in the living and breathing world. Considering the great scope of Egyptian civilization, and the degree to which their ideas positively influenced all the cultures around them (for Hebrew, Greek, Roman, and African traditions all show significant influence from the Egyptians, and arguments can even be made on their influence on faith as far away as India), one is led to believe that they were not merely the sober, death-fearing and life-denying aesthetes that has commonly been imagined by those who today can only view their tombs. Like many faiths which focused on living the good life as a way of assuring that they would be prepared to face death, the Egyptians appear to have been a life-embracing people who had great faith that the beauty of life continued after death.