Writing the Sphinx

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.

This magnificent book investigates the startlingly complex ways in which literature, art and Egyptology have influenced each other. With an impressive range of textual and material forms, Dobson provides a vivid, authoritative and revelatory analysis of cultural engagements with the idea of ancient Egypt in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Once read, Egyptology will never seem the same again.

• Introduction 1. ‘Wonderful Things’: Howard Carter, Literary Genre & Material Intertextuality2. ‘Fairy Tales’ and ‘Bunkum’: Marie Corelli, Artefacts & Fabrications3. ‘The Master-Key that Opens Every Door’: Hieroglyphs, Translations & Palimpsests4. ‘Drunk on the Dead’: Intoxication, Perfume & Mummy Dust5. ‘The Sphinx Will Speak at Last’: Visions, Communications & Spiritual Experience Coda Appendix 1: ‘Story of an Egyptian Necklace’Index