I bought this book so long ago that I don't remember where it came from. For the past few weeks, I've been working on one of longest books (maybe THE longest) I've ever read. It's 1700+ pages, but I decided to take a break once I got about halfway through and read something a little lighter. This book is a collection of stories, both fiction and nonfiction, about mummies and Egypt.
I'll leave my overall impression here in case the individual reviews are a bit much. My favorite stories were written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (I enjoyed both of his), Tennessee Williams, Sir H. Rider Haggard, Ray Bradbury, Elizabeth Peters and Sax Rohmer. The rest of them were not all bad, but they were varied levels of enjoyment. Most of them I wouldn't remember, but the ones listed above, I would recommend and read again in the future.
The Malevolence of Ancient Egyptian Spirits by Arthur Weigall (nonfiction) - Written by an Egyptologist, this entry goes over some of the strange occurrences that give rise to the belief in mummy's curses. He has plenty to share, but he stays unbiased. Unsurprisingly, he'd heard a lot of nonsense about malevolent spirits, but he doesn't judge and tries to keep an open mind. An interesting read.
Lost in a Pyramid or, the Mummy's Curse by Louisa May Alcott (fiction) - Alcott is best known for books like Little Women, but here I read something much different. It's a very short story about cursed seeds. I didn't know Alcott could write like this, and I enjoyed the writing. The story itself is on the sad side, but what do you expect when someone dabbles with sorceress's seeds?
Raiding Mummies' Tombs by Amelia Edwards/Theodore Davis/Arthur Weigall/Giovanni Belzoni (nonfiction) - This is a brief collection of impressions made by Egyptologists. It mostly covers tombs, but there is some background information about mummification. Overall, this wasn't too bad, but Belzoni's descriptions of embalming were a bit much for me. It just makes sense that the richer you were, the nicer you were treated when you died. Some things don't change.
The Ring of Thoth by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (fiction) - In this story, a man falls asleep in the Louvre and awakens to find a strange occurrence. An Egyptian has taken down a mummy and unwrapped her. Then he goes through the rings and takes one out. The student is very confused, but Sosra explains the whole thing. He had done some research into extending lifespans only to become a victim of his own making. The ring was the key to his release. This was a good story, and I really enjoyed it. I knew Doyle was interested in the supernatural, but this is the first thing I've read that he's written related to the topic.
The Vengeance of Nitocris by Tennessee Williams (fiction) - Apparently this is one of the author's first works, written when he was sixteen and based on a true story. Queen Nitocris takes the throne when her brother is murdered by a mob. He defiled the temple of Osiris, and the people were afraid they would be punished for the pharaoh's act if they didn't do something to correct the act. Nitocris was devoted to her brother, so when she begins a building project, the people think she's making up for what her brother did. In reality, she's planning an elaborate revenge plot. The writing in this one was really engaging, and I was drawn in from the beginning. The addition at the end of what happened later was a bit sad.
Under the Pyramids by H. P. Lovecraft (fiction) - According to the blurb at the beginning, Lovecraft ghostwrote this story for Harry Houdini. By the end of it, the story has gone full Lovecraft, and I'm not sure how anyone would mistake it for anything else. The first half of this was so slow. It was like a quick class on basic Egyptian knowledge. Then, Houdini's "guide" and friends tie up Houdini and lower him into a shaft. After that, strange things happen, but it's all chalked up as a dream. It was a weird one, and I wasn't a huge fan of it.
Opening King Tutankhamen's Tomb by Howard Carter with A. C. Mace (nonfiction) - This is a summary of the emotions and actions of opening one of the greatest Egyptian finds. It covers the emotions and describes some of the larger artifacts. Not much more to say about it.
The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb by Agatha Christie (fiction) - This is a short story with Poirot as our detective. It involves the deaths of people involved in the excavation of the tomb of Men-her-Ra. It moves quickly, and the murderer is revealed just before he takes his own life. This one went by so fast that there was no time to get to know any characters, and Poirot just explains his thoughts at the end. No clues are given to the reader, so no use trying to solve this one on your own. It was okay, but I prefer Christie's longer works. I am drawn to characters, and they just weren't present here.
The Demon-Possessed Princess by An Egyptian Priest (fiction) - Very short story written in ancient times and updated by the editor. It tells the tale of a ruler asking Ramses II for help with his daughter and then refusing to allow the god that got rid of the demon to return to Egypt.
The Majestic Sphinx by Mark Twain (nonfiction) - Another short entry. Sounds like some random ramblings of a man gazing upon the sphinx. It was a bit fanciful before it basically just turned into a narration of what was in front of him.
Smith and the Pharaohs by Sir H. Rider Haggard (fiction) - J. E. Smith sees a cast of a beautiful Egyptian queen and is obsessed. He decides to travel to Egypt and see if he can find her. When he does, it's in the most unusual way imaginable. I enjoyed this one a great deal. It reminded me a bit of the movie Somewhere in Time. I won't say more than that, but this was one of the better ones in the book.
Some Words with a Mummy by Edgar Allen Poe (fiction) - This one was weird. I mean, it is Poe, so a bit of the supernatural is expected. A man goes to a mummy unwrapping, and when they zap the mummy with electricity, they discover that he wasn't really dead after all. The whole thing just struck me as weird, but the end gave me a smile. "My wife is a shrew." HA!
Colonel Stonesteel's Genuine Home-Made Truly Egyptian Mummy by Ray Bradbury (fiction) - In this story, the Colonel and Charlie are bored. They head up to the attic and create a mummy to stir up the town. It works well, and they have an eventful day. I really enjoyed this one. I loved the Colonel's explanation of the mummy and his advice to Charlie on what to do with him in the future. Definitely one of my favorite stories so far.
Dead Kings (Excerpt) by Rudyard Kipling (nonfiction) - This was a couple pages of rambling that I had trouble following. Pass.
Lot No. 249 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (fiction) - Smith is studying to be a doctor, but below him are a few men who he's warned to stay away from. One night, he's summoned to the room of the man below him where he finds a strange sight. The occupant is in a stupor, and he has a mummy in his room! What follows is unbelievable, but Smith is the only one who is brave enough to accept what is happening and face the evil with the intent to stop it. This was another story I really enjoyed. The writing style and the plot were unique enough that I wasn't desperate for it to end.
The Locked Tomb Mystery by Elizabeth Peters (fiction) - This is one of my favorite authors as an entire row on my bookshelf is dedicated to her books. They're almost all paperbacks, so I have them filed two deep. The editor states it didn't seem right to exclude Peters (Mertz) from the anthology, so with the help of her assistant, they found this short story. It appears to be the only Egyptian short story she wrote, and according to the editor, the most historically accurate included in the anthology. This story reminds me of an Egyptian Sherlock Holmes story. Amenhotep Sa Hapu was actually a real person, and if he could solve mysteries the way he did in this story, he was a marvel! Another one I really enjoyed. Not surprising considering the author.
The Death-Ring of Sneferu by Sax Rohmer (fiction) - This one started out a bit strange for me but picked up toward the end. A man is on the trail of a valuable ring, but anyone who comes into contact with it comes to a bad end. The man isn't afraid until he's trapped in a pyramid. After that, it's a matter of finding the ring to keep it from harming anyone else. It was a pretty good story. The end brought it up for me into one of the better ones of the anthology.
The Mummy or Ramses the Damned (excerpt) by Anne Rice (fiction) - An excerpt is dangerous for me, because if I like it, I'm going to want to read more. And so I discovered I wanted to read Anne Rice. I always associate her with vampires, but this is a mummy's curse story. The thing is, it's also a murder mystery. Now, there were hints of the supernatural surrounding the mummy, but I didn't get far enough to make a definitive decision. I'm definitely going to look into reading more of this one in the future.
The Jewel of Seven Stars (abridged) by Bram Stoker (fiction) - The final story is another person I associate with vampires. The original vampire to be specific. In this, a man has found the mummy of a woman. She's a queen with a supernatural history. There's significance to the number seven in this story. The cat has seven digits on one paw. The Queen has seven fingers and seven toes, and so she considers it a magical number. Even though this was abridged, I felt like it was overly wordy. It went on for too long, and I wasn't super invested in what was happening. It had potential but ended up being a pass for me.
