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.

• 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

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.