J.G. Keely's Reviews > Into the Mummy's Tomb

A nice collection, including some stories I haven't come across anywhere else. Particularly intriguing is a travelogue by H.P. Lovecraft originally ghostwritten for Harry Houdini.

That story, along with Doyle, Haggard, Kipling, Stoker, and archaeologist Howard Carter provide a view of the mysterious Egypt which lured the English of the Victorian age. The Poe, Twain, and Bradbury provide more absurd and amusing views of the mummy myth.

The inclusion of an original Egyptian myth gives another useful insight, as does Elizabeth Peter's well-researched period piece, though it was not as culturally intriguing as the actual myth.

The Rohmer is amusing, though as unpolished as one expects from the pulps. I could have done without this particular Anne Rice piece, which pales in such close quarters with masters of structure, humor, and especially tone.

It's a good introduction to a once-rich setting for stories and myths which has now been mostly boiled down into action movie fodder. Most interesting is how it recalls a time when Egypt and its mummies were filled with a promise of mysteries; a sense that each stone unearthed might rewrite history, yet again.

Today, the myth has become a cliche, the magic has been codified, and the mummy is more likely to invoke Scooby Doo and Brendan Frasier rather than an alien and unknown threat from a time long dead. It was nice to be reintroduced to the myth as it once was.