The Book Club of Dorian Gray

Théophile Gautier (see p. 19 of The Big Book of Monsters) was obsessed with mummies. He wrote a novel about ancient Egypt and titled it Romance of a Mummy (1856), and even when he was writing about something completely non-Egyptian, mummies sneak in. Describing a palace in his book of poetry Enamels and Cameos (1852), Gautier says:

Never did Pharaoh where the sad cliffs loom
Make for his mummy any darker tomb.

Not a very pleasant-sounding palace! Anyway, the reason I bring this book up is not...