The Rosetta Stone: The Story of the Decoding of Hieroglyphics

by Robert Solé, Dominique Valbelle

In July 1799, a French officer serving in Napoleon's Egyptian expedition unearthed a granite block bearing text in three different scripts — Greek, demotic Egyptian, and hieroglyphics. Following the discovery, a remarkable competition ensued for possession of the stone as well as for decoding its inscription. Using all the elements of a detective thriller, the authors, a well-known novelist and a leading Egyptologist, tell the story of international intrigue surrounding the intellectual quest to crack the stone's code — the key to reading ancient Egyptian texts for the first time in 14 centuries. Also included are reproductions of the stone and its inscriptions as well as portraits of the key figures involved in its translation.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Archaeology

192 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1999

About the author

Robert Solé is a French journalist and novelist of Egyptian origin. Born in Cairo in 1946, Solé moved to France at the age of 18. He has served as ombudsman of the Parisian newspaper Le Monde. His works of fiction include Le Tarbouche (winner of the Prix Mediterranée in 1992) and La Mamelouka.

Reviews

[Mark Dickson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is split into two sections.

The first takes up two thirds of the book's pages and deals with the discovery and the deciphering of the Rosetta Stone. It was originally written in French and has been translated into English for this book.

Unfortunately, it has been translated extremely poorly. There are paragraphs which border on unreadable and quotes are often misattributed due to an apparent confusion over the use of pronouns. It is also dripping with the bias of the writer, which results in some genuinely hilariously inflammatory and judgemental statements.

However, it is filled with a considerable amount of information and I do feel as though I've come away from the book significantly more informed about the origin of the Rosetta Stone. As it is simply a list of sequential events and a list of names, it requires you to have an already existing interest in the topic.

The second half of the book delves into the semantics and pronunciation of the language itself. It situates the language in its contemporary languages and cultures and begins the discussion about the limitations of the current analysis. This portion of the book admits how complex the situation and the analysis is and genuinely whet my appetite for more.

[Reid Burroughs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rather dry reading. The first part of the book is the history of finding and housing the Rosetta Stone. It also catalogues the research and competition amongst the first decipherers, scholars and linguists.

The second section describes the Egyptian written language of hieroglyphics and attempts drawing some linguistic connections with Coptic. It’s a massive time frame almost impossible to really embody in one sitting.

It’s good for history but a scholar or linguist would have a better idea if the grammars are relevant today.

[Tyska · Rating 4 out of 5]

Introduction to the discovery and process of deciphering of the Rosetta Stone.

Touches only briefly and very superficially on linguistic subjects.

However, has an extensive library for further studies / reading.

Great for beginners.

[June Ling · Rating 4 out of 5]

The beginning and middle of this book was rather enjoyable as it details the discovery of the Rosetta Stone. You can’t help but be pulled into the wonder that is of this artefact. However I did go into reading this thinking it would describe further in detail of the inscriptions rather than discovery; I was expecting to learn the contents of the inscriptions but it turned out to be more of an archaeological point, which is fine as I enjoy these. The end of the book was the decipherment but it wasn’t very complex or too detailed, and I felt it rushed, hence the 4 stars.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read.

[Shaliza Khan-Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

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[Hulkenmamman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting until the point where the author explains why Egyptian treasure should not be repatriated to Egypt.
If it hadn’t been the last chapter I would have rage quitted.

[Christopher Obert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Folio Society book is a beautiful keepsake of the story behind the discovery and deciphering of the world famous Rosetta Stone. The book details how the stone was found and how people soon realized the importance of its three language inscription. It then goes to explain how the engraved text led to clues in deciphering the Egyptian hieroglyphs. The book has three photo inserts to supplement the text. The volume ends with a second book that teaches the reader the basics on how to read those hieroglyphs.

[Randy Compton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Never having read anything about the Rosetta Stone before, I found most of the information here new. The history of the find in addition to the portions of the book detailing the decoding of the stone are interesting in spite of the dry writing style.

[Butrus · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book, especially in French.

[David R. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was a bit disappointed in this account of the discovery and translation of the "Rosetta Stone". It's a bit shallow in the area of how hieroglyphics were translated.

[Kari Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is for the general reader with little to no knowledge of linguistics. Someone like myself. If you are a linguist, I'm sure you will find the book shallow and disappointing.

[FranklinTV · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice summary about the Rosetta stone.

[Gordon Gravley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dry but fascinating account of a pivotal discovery in the science of linguistics.