Writing the Sphinx

Unearths a rich tradition of creative flexibility, collaboration and mutual influence between literary culture and Egyptology - The first monograph study to bring literature into conversation with Egyptological culture - Incorporates a number of archival primary sources which have, until now, escaped critical attention - Analyses canonical literature alongside works by lesser-known authors - Combines literary criticism with book history, the history of science, and reception studies This book explores literary and Egyptological cultures from the closing decades of the nineteenth century to the opening decades of the twentieth, culminating in the aftermath of the high-profile discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922. Analysing the works of Egyptologists including Howard Carter, Arthur Weigall and E. A. Wallis Budge alongside those of their literary contemporaries such as H. Rider Haggard, Marie Corelli and Oscar Wilde, it investigates the textual, cultural and material exchanges between literature, Egyptology and visual and material culture across this period.

Eleanor Dobson is Lecturer in Nineteenth Century Literature at the University of Birmingham. Her most recent publications include Dobson, E 2019, ''The most magical of mirrors': Oscar Wilde, photography, and cultures of spiritualism', English Literature in Transition 1880-1920, Dobson, E & Banks, G 2018, Excavating Modernity: Physical, Temporal and Psychological Strata in Literature, 1900-1930. in E Dobson & G Banks (eds), Excavating Modernity: Physical, Temporal and Psychological Strata in Literature, 1900-1930. Routledge, and 'A Tomb with a View: Supernatural Experiences in the Late Nineteenth Century's Egyptian Hotels,' in M Elbert & S Schmid (eds), Anglo-American Travelers and the Hotel Experience in Nineteenth Century Literature: Nation, Hospitality, Travel Writing. Routledge, pp. 89-105.

Introduction; 1. 'Wonderful Things': Howard Carter, Literary Genre & Material Intertextuality; 2. 'Fairy Tales' and 'Bunkum': Marie Corelli, Artefacts & Fabrications; 3. 'The Master-Key that Opens Every Door': Hieroglyphs, Translations & Palimpsests; 4. 'Drunk on the Dead': Intoxication, Perfume & Mummy Dust; 5. 'The Sphinx Will Speak at Last': Visions, Communications & Spiritual Experience; Coda; Appendix 1: 'Story of an Egyptian Necklace'; Index.