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lbrex's review against another edition
5.0
This very readable and immensely detailed academic book constructs a history for an idea that I didn't even realize I took for granted: the notion that Egyptian mummies were frightening, Gothic figures who brought terrible curses on those who unearthed or unwrapped them. Luckhurst opens the book by telling the story of Howard Carter and George Herbert's discovery of pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922-23. After Herbert dies, curse stories circulate, and Luckhurst begins to question where this idea--that Egyptian tombs brought about the doom of their discoverers--began.
Luckhurst follows the opening chapter with an exploration of the literary, architectural, and cultural place of mummies in the long nineteenth century. He clearly demonstrates that mummies were initially not discussed as cursed objects or even particularly frightening ones (people unwrapped them in public at rather spectacular events in the first half of the nineteenth century!!), but that developments in British imperial history, in class consciousness, and in different forms of communication brought about the idea of the mummy's curse.
This book touches on many interesting areas of Victorian studies, including material culture, supernatural fiction, and late Victorian occult movements. The reader is spirited from a discussion of early-Victorian Egyptian panoramas to the lurid interactions of W.B. Yeats, Florence Farr, and Aleister Crowley as part of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. This is in many ways a book that I wished I had written, but also something that will prove very valuable for future research. I strongly recommend it, and I think it would be of interest to academics and non-academics alike!
Luckhurst follows the opening chapter with an exploration of the literary, architectural, and cultural place of mummies in the long nineteenth century. He clearly demonstrates that mummies were initially not discussed as cursed objects or even particularly frightening ones (people unwrapped them in public at rather spectacular events in the first half of the nineteenth century!!), but that developments in British imperial history, in class consciousness, and in different forms of communication brought about the idea of the mummy's curse.
This book touches on many interesting areas of Victorian studies, including material culture, supernatural fiction, and late Victorian occult movements. The reader is spirited from a discussion of early-Victorian Egyptian panoramas to the lurid interactions of W.B. Yeats, Florence Farr, and Aleister Crowley as part of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. This is in many ways a book that I wished I had written, but also something that will prove very valuable for future research. I strongly recommend it, and I think it would be of interest to academics and non-academics alike!
lisa_setepenre's review against another edition
2.0
In truth, I found this more dull than not, limited in scope and certainly not what I thought I was getting. Going from the title and the blurb, I had thought I would be looking at various representations of "the mummy" or Ancient Egyptian curse stories from its beginnings to the common era. Roger Luckhurst instead present an intense view of the societal attitudes from which the "curse stories" sprung to the climax with Tutankhamun's infamous curse. Rather than spanning "centuries", Luckhurst's main focus is from the late 1800s to about 1930.
Parts of The Mummy's Curse are interesting and, indeed, insightful – particularly Luckhurst's conclusion and insight on the evil eye. But more often than not, I found the text a slog and found myself struggling to keep going. If the focus had not only been on the broader history of the mummy figure and not just the facets of British colonialism that spurred the advent of these curse stories, I would have found this far more interesting and relevant to me.
Parts of The Mummy's Curse are interesting and, indeed, insightful – particularly Luckhurst's conclusion and insight on the evil eye. But more often than not, I found the text a slog and found myself struggling to keep going. If the focus had not only been on the broader history of the mummy figure and not just the facets of British colonialism that spurred the advent of these curse stories, I would have found this far more interesting and relevant to me.
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