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The Mummy!: A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century
Long-awaited reprint of a rare nineteenth-century science fiction novel with a feminist perspective.
299 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1827
66 people are currently reading
1135 people want to read
About the author
Jane C. Webb Loudon
219 books17 followersJane C. Webb Loudon (August 19, 1807-July 13, 1858) was an English author and early pioneer of science fiction. She wrote before the term was invented, and was discussed for a century as if she wrote Gothic fiction or fantasy or horror. She also created the first popular gardening manuals, as opposed to specialist horticultural works, and contributed to the work of her husband, John Claudius Loudon.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
April 15, 2017
At points, it was laugh-out-loud funny. Of course, the best part of any old sci-fi is the attempt at predicting scientific advances. Her world has some doozies. Perpetual motion machines run glass dust fountains to wear on your head. International balloon travel is available for the English. There is a tunnel under the ocean. Of course, it was beyond her power to see some of our advancements such as indoor plumbing, modern weapons, and our lack of mob caps.
You could really call this book political fiction. Much of the book is devoted to the future of various political systems. Some of that is hilarious too. It was rather interesting to read what she feared would be the faults of democracy. Not that she was that far off…
Oh, parts of it were annoying. Especially the way she chose to illustrate her fear of universal education. Let me illustrate…
“...the haste I have made has impeded my respiration; and the blood, finding the pulmonary artery free, rushes with such force along the arterial canal to the aorta, that – that – I am in imminent danger of being suffocated...Besides a saline secretion distils from every pore of my skin, in a serous transudation, from the excessive exertions I have made use of.”
Everyone, below a certain social class, speaks this way, all the time. No matter the emotional stress of the moment, they kept the same speech pattern. Thankfully, they aren't part of the story very often after the beginning so forge ahead.
Have you noticed I haven’t said anything about the Mummy? He barely shows up. When he does he acts more like a ghost than a corporeal freak. I won’t spoil the ending by speaking of the ‘aid’ he renders everyone, but it was unusual, to say the least.
Unfortunately, the characters are completely unbelievable. There was more fainting, and running from the scene in fits of passion than I seen in any other book. There isn’t a character who doesn’t behave in the most inexplicably obstinate or impulsive fashion on most occasions. After a while, even that starts adding to the humor of the book.
The plot is interesting but is seriously hurt by the poor characters and lack of a realistic timetable.
I would still recommend you read it. It was very enjoyable. The different perspective was interesting, amusing, and at times aggravating. Oh yes, you’ll never guess what new fabrics they have ‘discovered’ to make into clothes. That was really funny.
I received an ARC of this book for free from NetGalley and Dover Publications. No review was required, but it was my pleasure to write it.
You could really call this book political fiction. Much of the book is devoted to the future of various political systems. Some of that is hilarious too. It was rather interesting to read what she feared would be the faults of democracy. Not that she was that far off…
Oh, parts of it were annoying. Especially the way she chose to illustrate her fear of universal education. Let me illustrate…
“...the haste I have made has impeded my respiration; and the blood, finding the pulmonary artery free, rushes with such force along the arterial canal to the aorta, that – that – I am in imminent danger of being suffocated...Besides a saline secretion distils from every pore of my skin, in a serous transudation, from the excessive exertions I have made use of.”
Everyone, below a certain social class, speaks this way, all the time. No matter the emotional stress of the moment, they kept the same speech pattern. Thankfully, they aren't part of the story very often after the beginning so forge ahead.
Have you noticed I haven’t said anything about the Mummy? He barely shows up. When he does he acts more like a ghost than a corporeal freak. I won’t spoil the ending by speaking of the ‘aid’ he renders everyone, but it was unusual, to say the least.
Unfortunately, the characters are completely unbelievable. There was more fainting, and running from the scene in fits of passion than I seen in any other book. There isn’t a character who doesn’t behave in the most inexplicably obstinate or impulsive fashion on most occasions. After a while, even that starts adding to the humor of the book.
The plot is interesting but is seriously hurt by the poor characters and lack of a realistic timetable.
I would still recommend you read it. It was very enjoyable. The different perspective was interesting, amusing, and at times aggravating. Oh yes, you’ll never guess what new fabrics they have ‘discovered’ to make into clothes. That was really funny.
I received an ARC of this book for free from NetGalley and Dover Publications. No review was required, but it was my pleasure to write it.
June 4, 2013
"The ancient Egyptians you know, believed the souls of their mummies were chained to them in a torpid state till the final day of judgment, and supposing this hypotheses to be correct, there is every reason to imagine that by employing so powerful an agent as galvanism, re-animation may be produced."
The Mummy - A Tale Of The Twentieth Century, published in 1827, and written by a twenty year old woman, Jane Webb Louden. It was the first mummy book. The curse of the mummy premise is a purely Victorian, actually regency, creation. The Egyptians had no lore or myths of animated mummies walking around in all their wrappings. Though Jane Webb Loudon's book was the first, many Victorian authors wrote about them. The Victorians loved mummies like we love zombies.
In The Mummy, A Tale of The Twenty-Second Century, two of Loudon's characters,Edwin and Dr. Entwerfen embark on an expedition to the tomb of Cheops, to shock him back to life with a galvanized battery. Their dialogue, of leaving for Egypt and realizing they have too much baggage for the balloon, touches on some of Loudon's interesting futuristic, fiction inventions.
"I beg your pardon," returned the doctor, "the cloaks are of asbestos, and will be necessary to protect us from ignition, if we should encounter any electric matter in the clouds. The hampers are filled with elastic plugs for our ears and noses and tubes and barrels of common air, for us to breathe when we get beyond the earth's atmosphere."
"Then, that box contains my portable galvanic battery. And that, my apparatus for making and collecting the inflammable air. And that, my machine for producing and concentrating the quicksilver vapor, which is to serve as the propelling power to urge us onwards in the place of steam. And those bladders are filled with laughing gas, for the sole purpose of keeping up our spirits."
Other inventions in the book are: a steam powered mower, houses that move on a track like a train (you don't have to go to your summer house - you just move your house to a summery spot, by a lake or the sea) and a fast mail system, (ball shaped containers for the mail that are shot out of cannons to the home of the person they are addressed to).
One of the futuristic depictions I love most is when Loudon's describing the queen's court in the 22nd century, all of the women wear trousers. For a twenty-year old woman in the regency period, that's pretty forward thinking.
There are patches of the book that are hard for me to get into. Loudon's Regency era writing is often not as tight or fast paced as the modern writing I'm used to. I still found the book remarkable in many regards and I'm so glad I read it. I highly recommend it.
The Mummy - A Tale Of The Twentieth Century, published in 1827, and written by a twenty year old woman, Jane Webb Louden. It was the first mummy book. The curse of the mummy premise is a purely Victorian, actually regency, creation. The Egyptians had no lore or myths of animated mummies walking around in all their wrappings. Though Jane Webb Loudon's book was the first, many Victorian authors wrote about them. The Victorians loved mummies like we love zombies.
In The Mummy, A Tale of The Twenty-Second Century, two of Loudon's characters,Edwin and Dr. Entwerfen embark on an expedition to the tomb of Cheops, to shock him back to life with a galvanized battery. Their dialogue, of leaving for Egypt and realizing they have too much baggage for the balloon, touches on some of Loudon's interesting futuristic, fiction inventions.
"I beg your pardon," returned the doctor, "the cloaks are of asbestos, and will be necessary to protect us from ignition, if we should encounter any electric matter in the clouds. The hampers are filled with elastic plugs for our ears and noses and tubes and barrels of common air, for us to breathe when we get beyond the earth's atmosphere."
"Then, that box contains my portable galvanic battery. And that, my apparatus for making and collecting the inflammable air. And that, my machine for producing and concentrating the quicksilver vapor, which is to serve as the propelling power to urge us onwards in the place of steam. And those bladders are filled with laughing gas, for the sole purpose of keeping up our spirits."
Other inventions in the book are: a steam powered mower, houses that move on a track like a train (you don't have to go to your summer house - you just move your house to a summery spot, by a lake or the sea) and a fast mail system, (ball shaped containers for the mail that are shot out of cannons to the home of the person they are addressed to).
One of the futuristic depictions I love most is when Loudon's describing the queen's court in the 22nd century, all of the women wear trousers. For a twenty-year old woman in the regency period, that's pretty forward thinking.
There are patches of the book that are hard for me to get into. Loudon's Regency era writing is often not as tight or fast paced as the modern writing I'm used to. I still found the book remarkable in many regards and I'm so glad I read it. I highly recommend it.
February 14, 2014
A rather odd little book about a Mad Scientist (sort of) who revives, at the start of the 22nd century, an ancient Egyptian mummy.
This book was written as an obvious reaction to Frankenstein, but, frankly, is quite a bit its inferior, though it chooses to portray the revived object in a benign - even heroic - light.
Despite the fact that many essayists point to Loudon as different from the run of the mill sci-fi and speculative authors of her day, because she chose to portray sweeping changes in technology and fashion as well as politics, the most amusing parts of the book were the ones where Loudon's politics or technology "froze" in her conception of the future. A long discussion between a country squire and his estate manager about the virtues of watering and harvesting corn, for example, implied that the men of the future would be able to drag down a cloud for raining on a specific field, but would still have country squires, estates, and growing corn.
Likewise, despite its feminist overtones, the novel assumes that the country is to be ruled by an unmarried queen, who is to be elected (note the change) by all men of the appropriate age. Oops.
It's a ponderous book, with lots of musings, philosophical dialogue, more philosophical dialogue, more musings, descriptions, tangents, etc'... I can't say it really comes together, and the story is not particularly interesting. But its merits are in the simple fact of its being an early precursor to modern sci-fi, its technological themes, and its look, not so much into the future, as into the past.
This book was written as an obvious reaction to Frankenstein, but, frankly, is quite a bit its inferior, though it chooses to portray the revived object in a benign - even heroic - light.
Despite the fact that many essayists point to Loudon as different from the run of the mill sci-fi and speculative authors of her day, because she chose to portray sweeping changes in technology and fashion as well as politics, the most amusing parts of the book were the ones where Loudon's politics or technology "froze" in her conception of the future. A long discussion between a country squire and his estate manager about the virtues of watering and harvesting corn, for example, implied that the men of the future would be able to drag down a cloud for raining on a specific field, but would still have country squires, estates, and growing corn.
Likewise, despite its feminist overtones, the novel assumes that the country is to be ruled by an unmarried queen, who is to be elected (note the change) by all men of the appropriate age. Oops.
It's a ponderous book, with lots of musings, philosophical dialogue, more philosophical dialogue, more musings, descriptions, tangents, etc'... I can't say it really comes together, and the story is not particularly interesting. But its merits are in the simple fact of its being an early precursor to modern sci-fi, its technological themes, and its look, not so much into the future, as into the past.
February 26, 2020
A seventeen year old author publishes a book and it's a best seller? An unlikely story, but it happened in 1827 to Jane Webb. And what a fabulous piece of junk it is! Set in 21st century England, the story includes flight by rubber balloon, asbestos capes and women wearing trousers, hovercraft that go at the thrilling speed of 15mph (hold on to your hats, ladies), airmail sent by cannon and a galvanized mummy who crash lands in England and helps stop some villainous plots in high society. Like all sci-fi, it misses the obvious: there's no indoor plumbing; mob caps and frock coats abound; America is a savage wilderness and there's no telegraph, phone or computers. But come on. This is the very first in what became a long and popular series of trash-lit (and movie) mummy stories. I give Miss Webb credit!
November 17, 2011
The introductory was plain and very offensive to Egyptians. Picturing the people of Egypt as ignorant, Goth-like race of shepherds was undermining and insulting. They weren't the ones who imagined structuring the pyramids but they were those God-playing Greek immigrants, true. But they are pure Egyptians' bare hands that built them and whom happens to be those Arabs' ancestors.
Though, I very much liked the idea of a certain advanced knowledge being buried for thousands of years inside the pyramids and long gone along with the first population that roamed Egypt for centuries, leaving the people to come after with nothing but massive building, astonished faces, and no practical benefit at all.
Though, I very much liked the idea of a certain advanced knowledge being buried for thousands of years inside the pyramids and long gone along with the first population that roamed Egypt for centuries, leaving the people to come after with nothing but massive building, astonished faces, and no practical benefit at all.
June 19, 2024
this book is soooooo funny because it dares to ask the question “what would happen if you brought a mummy back to life in the twenty second century and then dropped him off in england” and then the answer is “he would mostly be a very strange and haunting matchmaker, and also bring about the reunion of the united kingdom of great britain and ireland”
June 5, 2024
There are few true science fiction novels from this early (1827) so I was mainly curious what inventions she would predict. Jane Webb was only 17 when she wrote this, so it is quite badly written-- only published because she was orphaned and needed to support herself. The mummy plot (first time a reanimated mummy appears in literature) was probably stolen from Frankenstein, published 9 years earlier-- and which was written by a much more skilled author.
There are balloons for travel, plenty of steam machines, houses on rails, automata for judges and police, and so forth, giving it all a steampunk feel. Messages are sent by cannonball and caught in a net, or by home telegraph. The glassware is malleable and folds up. Her picture of Cairo as an advanced, modern city was refreshing. One of her cleverest ideas was that because of universal education, all the poor and servants in the novel speak entirely in Latinate scientific terms, kind of like Strange Planet or Coneheads or Mr. Spock. Like most novels of the future from the 1800s, she has speculation on future political forms.
There are balloons for travel, plenty of steam machines, houses on rails, automata for judges and police, and so forth, giving it all a steampunk feel. Messages are sent by cannonball and caught in a net, or by home telegraph. The glassware is malleable and folds up. Her picture of Cairo as an advanced, modern city was refreshing. One of her cleverest ideas was that because of universal education, all the poor and servants in the novel speak entirely in Latinate scientific terms, kind of like Strange Planet or Coneheads or Mr. Spock. Like most novels of the future from the 1800s, she has speculation on future political forms.
April 2, 2023
Our book club was so curious about this book -written by a woman in 1816!- when it figured in the plot of Bloomsbury Girls by Natalie Jenner, so we picked it for our March read. However, I DNF this book, which is unusual for me. But from the 40% I did read I can say it had humour I enjoyed. It was just too much of itself (~600 pages!) in the usual style of 1800's novels and I just lost interest.
Read
February 26, 2024read for my lit class about egyptomania
June 2, 2025
الترجمة بها اخطاء كثيرة
الرواية طويلة وبها اسهاب كتيييير
البطل الرئيسي المومياء لم لم يكن له دور الا انه بيوسوس مثل الشيطان فقط
الرواية طويلة وبها اسهاب كتيييير
البطل الرئيسي المومياء لم لم يكن له دور الا انه بيوسوس مثل الشيطان فقط
February 29, 2020
You know how in the year 2126, all Englishmen are universal linguists? Oh, you weren't aware that the ground under the streets of London are so thoroughly excavated and somehow buoyant to make way for sewers that people harmlessly bounce on them when falling from hot air balloons? And that's another cool feature--Montgolfier balloons are the express form of travel. Streets have pipes of hot air in them, so they are consistently warm. Asbestos outfits—what a high-tech, great idea! Little balls of modified gunpowder that can destroy a large fraction of an entire city.
In this book, Jane Loudon takes crack shots at what the twenty-second century looks like. Steam power is the way of the future. There are new innovations, like a house that folds up to fit into a man’s pocket. Other houses can roll on rails out to the country if you want to get away from the city for the weekend. Not a bad guess on Loudon's part at how cars in the next century would transport people from urban to rural settings in hours, in fact. Automata--the word "robot" would not be invented for well over a century--serve as judges, lawyers, and guards.
And you'll be happy to know that absolute monarchies are alive and well. People still use horses to travel and wear perrywigs in court. Some of her hypotheses are laughable: the nobility is unblemished as the reigning power brokers in the world. But she does correctly predict the Irish-English Chunnel. I mean, we still have a hundred years to make that happen. The story takes place in 2126—a full three centuries after Loudon writes the novel. It also has the distinction of being the very first Mummy novel.
Oh, the plot? That's the least interesting part... it is a contest between two women for the queendom of England, with many supporting characters on desperate quests for a plot device. Rather avant guard for its time—it written before Victoria was queen, so the only sole monarch Loudon could use as a model was Elizabeth I. Yet in her tale, only a young woman could be crowned the monarch and only men could vote for her. And women wore trousers in court.
And don't be fooled: Despite the exclamation point, King Cheops is a minimalist title character. In spite of the silly antics of her characters, I really enjoyed it and was sorry this amazing time capsule was finished when it did.
In this book, Jane Loudon takes crack shots at what the twenty-second century looks like. Steam power is the way of the future. There are new innovations, like a house that folds up to fit into a man’s pocket. Other houses can roll on rails out to the country if you want to get away from the city for the weekend. Not a bad guess on Loudon's part at how cars in the next century would transport people from urban to rural settings in hours, in fact. Automata--the word "robot" would not be invented for well over a century--serve as judges, lawyers, and guards.
And you'll be happy to know that absolute monarchies are alive and well. People still use horses to travel and wear perrywigs in court. Some of her hypotheses are laughable: the nobility is unblemished as the reigning power brokers in the world. But she does correctly predict the Irish-English Chunnel. I mean, we still have a hundred years to make that happen. The story takes place in 2126—a full three centuries after Loudon writes the novel. It also has the distinction of being the very first Mummy novel.
Oh, the plot? That's the least interesting part... it is a contest between two women for the queendom of England, with many supporting characters on desperate quests for a plot device. Rather avant guard for its time—it written before Victoria was queen, so the only sole monarch Loudon could use as a model was Elizabeth I. Yet in her tale, only a young woman could be crowned the monarch and only men could vote for her. And women wore trousers in court.
And don't be fooled: Despite the exclamation point, King Cheops is a minimalist title character. In spite of the silly antics of her characters, I really enjoyed it and was sorry this amazing time capsule was finished when it did.
October 23, 2022
This steampunk Game of Thrones is one of the funniest books I've ever read, and a sadly neglected sci-fi trailblazer. It's one of the very first pieces of fiction to include a resurrected mummy as a central character, and it is clearly inspired by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, published nine years prior.
A wonderfully zany blend of Jane Austenian romantic labyrinths, court drama, Gothic horror, futuristic satire, Medieval Romance and slapstick humour, the novel portrays Britain and Europe in the year 2126, as a young romantic and his friend, a bonkers scientist, set off in a balloon to Egypt in order to revive Cheops through electricity. The mummy escapes in their high-tech balloon and flies back to England, where he plops down right on top of the young queen, whose sister is rivalling for the throne. He sneaks off into the shadows, and then becomes something of a spin doctor, dealing out political advice to those that befriend him in the ongoing Game of Thrones at the English court. Meanwhile, the young romantic and the scientist escape from an Egyptian prison, and try to make their way back through a Europe embroiled in war...
Loudon's future Britain is full of wild new technology and fashion, and the nobility is pestered by an educated working class who speak in such a stilted, academic manner that no-one understands what they are saying. Kings are abolished, and queens are sort of elected, even though democracy as such has been abandoned. The story is convoluted, with dozens of characters who all have their own political schemes and romantic dramas, not to speak of the wars and adventures going on in Europe where our Romantic and his scientist friend try to find their way back home. All the plotting make for a sometimes exhausting read, but it is brilliantly counter-weighted by the marvellous humour and pointed, satirical feminism.
Loudon published only one more work of fiction, but is best known as Britain's foremost horticulturalist.
A wonderfully zany blend of Jane Austenian romantic labyrinths, court drama, Gothic horror, futuristic satire, Medieval Romance and slapstick humour, the novel portrays Britain and Europe in the year 2126, as a young romantic and his friend, a bonkers scientist, set off in a balloon to Egypt in order to revive Cheops through electricity. The mummy escapes in their high-tech balloon and flies back to England, where he plops down right on top of the young queen, whose sister is rivalling for the throne. He sneaks off into the shadows, and then becomes something of a spin doctor, dealing out political advice to those that befriend him in the ongoing Game of Thrones at the English court. Meanwhile, the young romantic and the scientist escape from an Egyptian prison, and try to make their way back through a Europe embroiled in war...
Loudon's future Britain is full of wild new technology and fashion, and the nobility is pestered by an educated working class who speak in such a stilted, academic manner that no-one understands what they are saying. Kings are abolished, and queens are sort of elected, even though democracy as such has been abandoned. The story is convoluted, with dozens of characters who all have their own political schemes and romantic dramas, not to speak of the wars and adventures going on in Europe where our Romantic and his scientist friend try to find their way back home. All the plotting make for a sometimes exhausting read, but it is brilliantly counter-weighted by the marvellous humour and pointed, satirical feminism.
Loudon published only one more work of fiction, but is best known as Britain's foremost horticulturalist.
July 8, 2020
this was a lot different than i thought it was going to be - i thought it would be a traveller type story, but instead it feels like parts of frankenstein, jane austen and the historical romances of walter scott thrown together in a blender. most of the insane worldbuilding and ridiculous future tech is confined to the first volume, and while this isn't a "good" novel by any means, its certainly a lot of fun and very entertaining. it almost reads like fanfiction how a lot of the characters find themselves in absurd situations where their motivations don't make sense, lots of insane dialog, especially amongst the lower classes, where it comes off more as incredibly scientifically precise technobabble. most of the future tech and the mummy itself serves as a bit of windowdressing to a story that reads more like ivanhoe than any sort of science fiction. as silly as it was, it really has a certain kind of charm that i enjoyed, and despite its length, never really got boring, and parts of it are very funny, both intentionally and not. the edition listed on goodreads is an abridged one so just go for gutenberg
June 6, 2011
My expectations for this book were high. I had hoped for a marvel of Victorian imagination like Verne's 'Paris in the 20th Century,' but aside from a few small asides, the "sci-fi" in this book was as thin as wallpaper pasted on a very different story. The circumstances surrounding this book and Jane Loudon are interesting for the enthusiast of Victorian architecture history, but the book itself starts out promisingly and rapidly dwindles into a second-rate drama. It takes a fantastic premise and fails to deliver. Nevertheless, it was an interesting, but not unpredictable, glimpse into one Victorian woman's imagining of the 22nd century. It's amusing to see how little society has changed, and what technologies were and were not envisioned.
April 11, 2023
Aah! The mummy!
Its kind of fun to read a book from the past about the future. That being said this book was fun. It follows Edric in his journey to find out what happens to a persons soul when they die. A question a lot of us have. His smart friend the Dr mentions how about reviving a mummy. Kind of with something that shocks it with electricity.
The mummy does get revived. Its hard to tell if he is evil or good. You find out in the end who is really the evil one of the characters in this book. In the mean time Edric goes through many trials of bravery and falls in love. Through these adventures he grows and gains experience and wisdom.
I just liked this story. It was fun and had many plots that came together at the end.
Its kind of fun to read a book from the past about the future. That being said this book was fun. It follows Edric in his journey to find out what happens to a persons soul when they die. A question a lot of us have. His smart friend the Dr mentions how about reviving a mummy. Kind of with something that shocks it with electricity.
The mummy does get revived. Its hard to tell if he is evil or good. You find out in the end who is really the evil one of the characters in this book. In the mean time Edric goes through many trials of bravery and falls in love. Through these adventures he grows and gains experience and wisdom.
I just liked this story. It was fun and had many plots that came together at the end.
June 24, 2018
This book is ridiculously brilliant.
Written by a woman when the last female monarch was three centuries before she was born, this book is both somehow a Gothic horror and a romantic comedy in one.
King Cheops, the mummy himself, is wise and articulate, and rather terrifying. All of the characters are fully fleshed out with their own plots... and if you want to attempt to convince me that Lords Noodle and Doodle were not dating, feel free, but I'm not sure you could come up with an argument strong enough.
This book is incredible.
Written by a woman when the last female monarch was three centuries before she was born, this book is both somehow a Gothic horror and a romantic comedy in one.
King Cheops, the mummy himself, is wise and articulate, and rather terrifying. All of the characters are fully fleshed out with their own plots... and if you want to attempt to convince me that Lords Noodle and Doodle were not dating, feel free, but I'm not sure you could come up with an argument strong enough.
This book is incredible.
June 26, 2022
I'm so glad that a recent reprinting made me aware of this hidden gem. An absolute delight, full of political intrigue, insightful commentary, clever speculations about the future, and a great deal of humor. The titular mummy appears less than one might expect, but that is a cavil. It's a book that includes a long middle section heavily indebted to Walter Scott, which is nonetheless much more engaging than anything in Waverly.
August 10, 2021
One of my favourite books ever, it's really just madness. It's wacky and funny, and weird. It's not anchored in any sort of realism, and is more of a criticism of the upper echelons of society of Webb's time, than a accurate cultural representation of an ancient Egyptian. Cheops is an icon, and the first re-animated mummy character in literature.
Read
December 5, 2017Got through the Nancy Pearl minimum and found it quite typically 19th century long winded. I don't have the patience for that sort of writing at this time.
July 22, 2018
More interesting in premise than in execution, this book would have greatly benefited from an editor.
May 27, 2023
I did try to cut this book as much slack as possible because of the author's age and the long time ago it was written, but good God, this was a drag and a veritable task to read. I literally heaved a sigh of relief once it was finally over.
To give it some credit for an author that age the author took on quite the task. It does have a wealth of characters and plot lines, and it does showcase a very creative imagination of the future - to me it doesn't matter that much how ridiculous those ideas might seem to us future dwellers in hindsight. It's still nice to get a glimpse into what people back them might have imagined the future like. What they could imagine, and what they couldn't fathom. For this effort alone I'd like to give a 2.5 rating if possible.
The two points which made the book close to unreadable to me were, for one, the inability of the author to decide what genre she's trying to tackle - successfully tying in sci-fi, romance, politics, horror and adventure in one novel would be challenging even to any seasoned author, but this just felt disjointed and breaking it's own style every other page - and second, and to me the biggest offender, naming the very novel after a character that barely plays any role other than when its appearance is necessary as a deus ex machina to keep the plot moving forward or save characters from situations without apparent way out.
There was no real need for 'The Mummy' to be a mummy, it might just as well have been the ghost of an ancestor, a fairy or puff the magic dragon. It being a mummy had zero bearings on the actual plot. It serves nothing other than driving the plot forward by its omniscient nature when the author I guess didn't know how else to achieve this. It's almost as if she first wrote a draft of the plot and just added in the Mummy after the fact to stitch up plot holes and build bridges for characters where there weren't any before. And again, this could have been any magical creature. There was no story telling need for it to be a Mummy.
And tbh I do feel a bit - to use a modern term - click-baited by the very title of the book. I picked something up called 'The Mummy' expecting a lot of 'mummy' related creeps and hopefully even more Egyptian lore. What I ended up getting was fanciful ideas of romance and politics by a teenager with a mummy just occasionally popping up as a useful prop for some extra spice and solution to pesky story telling issues.
One of the classics I wouldn't have minded to skip.
To give it some credit for an author that age the author took on quite the task. It does have a wealth of characters and plot lines, and it does showcase a very creative imagination of the future - to me it doesn't matter that much how ridiculous those ideas might seem to us future dwellers in hindsight. It's still nice to get a glimpse into what people back them might have imagined the future like. What they could imagine, and what they couldn't fathom. For this effort alone I'd like to give a 2.5 rating if possible.
The two points which made the book close to unreadable to me were, for one, the inability of the author to decide what genre she's trying to tackle - successfully tying in sci-fi, romance, politics, horror and adventure in one novel would be challenging even to any seasoned author, but this just felt disjointed and breaking it's own style every other page - and second, and to me the biggest offender, naming the very novel after a character that barely plays any role other than when its appearance is necessary as a deus ex machina to keep the plot moving forward or save characters from situations without apparent way out.
There was no real need for 'The Mummy' to be a mummy, it might just as well have been the ghost of an ancestor, a fairy or puff the magic dragon. It being a mummy had zero bearings on the actual plot. It serves nothing other than driving the plot forward by its omniscient nature when the author I guess didn't know how else to achieve this. It's almost as if she first wrote a draft of the plot and just added in the Mummy after the fact to stitch up plot holes and build bridges for characters where there weren't any before. And again, this could have been any magical creature. There was no story telling need for it to be a Mummy.
And tbh I do feel a bit - to use a modern term - click-baited by the very title of the book. I picked something up called 'The Mummy' expecting a lot of 'mummy' related creeps and hopefully even more Egyptian lore. What I ended up getting was fanciful ideas of romance and politics by a teenager with a mummy just occasionally popping up as a useful prop for some extra spice and solution to pesky story telling issues.
One of the classics I wouldn't have minded to skip.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 27, 2020
So. Edric and his physician friend fly in a balloon to Egypt in the year 2126 (300 years into the future for Jane Webb), to reanimate The Mummy!
But the story soon develops into a romance involving dukes and friars, secrets and society - and we forget all about that silly mummy - until the author needs a plot device. Then he's lurking around in the bushes.
Webb does occasionally try to include some sci-fi elements in her story, but it's as if she was furiously writing about who loved whom and who betrayed whom, when she suddenly remembered: Oh! This is the year 2126! I must put in a steam-engine coffee maker. 300 years into the future, Loudon can only imagine hot air balloons having been adopted as the universal mode of transportation, and America is still overrun with cut-throats and bow hunters. And she totally misses the opportunity to reanimate one of the characters towards the end of the story. It does get a little racy at the end, so there's that.
Many summaries of this story claim it is the "feminist Frankenstein". No. No it is not. To wit:
Woman naturally seems to want support; she is to man, what the clinging ivy is to the majestic oak, - its loveliest ornament; but take away the standard tree, and she falls forlorn and unsupported to the dust.
and...
It has often been allowed, that a beautiful woman never looks so well, as when in affliction; there being something in the appearance of a timid helpless female, looking up to man for protection and support, that rouses every generous and manly bosom in her behalf.
So, anyway. Do yourself a favor and just go read Frankenstein. You won't regret it.
But the story soon develops into a romance involving dukes and friars, secrets and society - and we forget all about that silly mummy - until the author needs a plot device. Then he's lurking around in the bushes.
Webb does occasionally try to include some sci-fi elements in her story, but it's as if she was furiously writing about who loved whom and who betrayed whom, when she suddenly remembered: Oh! This is the year 2126! I must put in a steam-engine coffee maker. 300 years into the future, Loudon can only imagine hot air balloons having been adopted as the universal mode of transportation, and America is still overrun with cut-throats and bow hunters. And she totally misses the opportunity to reanimate one of the characters towards the end of the story. It does get a little racy at the end, so there's that.
Many summaries of this story claim it is the "feminist Frankenstein". No. No it is not. To wit:
Woman naturally seems to want support; she is to man, what the clinging ivy is to the majestic oak, - its loveliest ornament; but take away the standard tree, and she falls forlorn and unsupported to the dust.
and...
It has often been allowed, that a beautiful woman never looks so well, as when in affliction; there being something in the appearance of a timid helpless female, looking up to man for protection and support, that rouses every generous and manly bosom in her behalf.
So, anyway. Do yourself a favor and just go read Frankenstein. You won't regret it.
October 30, 2022
I read this book because it is the first English-language story to feature a reanimated mummy, and thus an important point in the history of science fiction. A "scientist" travels by balloon with his assistant, a member of the English royalty who is on the outs with the queen, to Egypt, walks unimpeded into Cheops' unguarded pyramid tomb, and revives old Cheops with a burst of electricity, the mysterious miracle force of the early Nineteenth Century. Cheops promptly steals their balloon and returns to almost their exact starting point in England, somehow against the prevailing easterly winds (one of many "interesting" scientific facts and extrapolations in the book). And somehow, Cheops is able to speak English, doling out advice to members of the royal family. But lest you think this is a book about a walking, talking mummy, let me warn you that Cheops appears only infrequently throughout the book. Instead, this is mostly a soap-opera-ish romance and political satire featuring the members of the English monarchy, with a special appearance by the king of Ireland. Notwithstanding the occasional outlandish technology prediction, the events and mores in the book seem to be rooted firmly in 19th Century. The prose is overwritten and dull; I barely managed to slog my way to the end (this has to be the longest two-hundred-page book I've ever read!).
I read the Project Gutenberg version, available at The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century by Mrs. Loudon
I read the Project Gutenberg version, available at The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century by Mrs. Loudon
January 19, 2022
The Mummy! is what you get when you blend Mary Shelley’s sci fi with Jane Austen’s social commentary and the Brontës’ melodrama. While Jane Webb Loudon doesn’t quite have the stylistic panache of her more famous sister novelists, I thoroughly enjoyed this strange, romping story, even as it occasionally wandered off into Shakespearean identity-swap comedy and Gothic excess. But the year 2126 is presented as neither true utopia nor true dystopia, and that is frankly very refreshing in a genre that often goes to extremes. Some reviewers have complained of flat characterization, but while none of the protagonists beyond the truly delightful and mysterious Cheops really grabbed me either, I don’t think it’s entirely fair to charge Webb Loudon with flatness. All of the characters have serious flaws and it’s these flaws that kept me guessing as to whom we should be rooting for until nearly the end of the book. In short, I had much more fun reading this than many of the other more widely-known steampunk, LXG-era stories from this period and I think The Mummy! deserves to be much more widely read than it is.
November 12, 2025
Jane Austen wrote fiction in the 19th century that reads today because of its real insight and well-drawn characters. Jane Loudon is no Austen.
It's so silly, to be honest, and so packed full of things, though I do admire her originality - a mummy, water beds, automaton-guards and lawyers, "stage balloons" - she even predicts gentrification and mobile homes (sort of.)
This is up against her unfailing conservatism. It seems the main thing she wants to rail against as a danger in society is universal education - rendering many loquacious servants who want to argue the efficacy of various philosophies while they burn the pudding. I think this backfires on her, because the dear loyal poet-butler Abelard is by far the most likable character, and her polysyllabic renderings among the more amusing parts of her prose.
Also, alas, she makes women SO WEAK. They can barely stand to make decisions, yet she paradoxically has a queen-run government as a panacea for continual war.
Given all the moving parts, the plot ties together nicely at the end, though the characters were flat enough that i had to flip back to remember who was in love with whom a few times.
It's so silly, to be honest, and so packed full of things, though I do admire her originality - a mummy, water beds, automaton-guards and lawyers, "stage balloons" - she even predicts gentrification and mobile homes (sort of.)
This is up against her unfailing conservatism. It seems the main thing she wants to rail against as a danger in society is universal education - rendering many loquacious servants who want to argue the efficacy of various philosophies while they burn the pudding. I think this backfires on her, because the dear loyal poet-butler Abelard is by far the most likable character, and her polysyllabic renderings among the more amusing parts of her prose.
Also, alas, she makes women SO WEAK. They can barely stand to make decisions, yet she paradoxically has a queen-run government as a panacea for continual war.
Given all the moving parts, the plot ties together nicely at the end, though the characters were flat enough that i had to flip back to remember who was in love with whom a few times.
November 15, 2023
2,5 stars rounded down
Completely forgot to review. Definitely one of the more odd books I've read, but also definitely not a favourite. Sometimes the plot goes too slow and other times it rushes like no tomorrow (like the revolution happening in mere pages) I do think the silly premise is silly enough to be entertaining but there's a lot to weigh it down. I found the way England was spoken about vs any other country to be very odd, same with the pro monarchy stance. But it was kind of funny how Webb accidentally made her male characters rather gay, like what do you mean "My love for you surpasses even the devoted love of woman; and whilst I breathe neither peril nor pleasure shall tear me from your side" but overall, i didnt love it
Completely forgot to review. Definitely one of the more odd books I've read, but also definitely not a favourite. Sometimes the plot goes too slow and other times it rushes like no tomorrow (like the revolution happening in mere pages) I do think the silly premise is silly enough to be entertaining but there's a lot to weigh it down. I found the way England was spoken about vs any other country to be very odd, same with the pro monarchy stance. But it was kind of funny how Webb accidentally made her male characters rather gay, like what do you mean "My love for you surpasses even the devoted love of woman; and whilst I breathe neither peril nor pleasure shall tear me from your side" but overall, i didnt love it
April 8, 2023
What a wild ride of a novel. This was fantasy sci-fi meets steampunk with horror, satire, and antiquated European thrills political thrills. This book was originally published in 1827 and set to take place in 2126. Written by a 17-year-old author Jane Webb, she packed so much into these future-views of the world. Go into this with an open mind certainly! Great presentation by the editors and publishers in this edition, (Haunted Library Horror Classics) with annotations, biographies, reading list, discussion questions, and an intro written by Lisa Tuttle.
October 28, 2021
I was hoping for a scary novel about the mummy itself. Instead the book was mostly about kings and queens fighting for the throne and the romances between them. I would have given this book a 2 but I found it interesting that the book was written in the early 19th century with futuristic predictions on what life would be like in the year 2126 in the examples of technology, transportation, and politics.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 8, 2018
A rather wonderful piece of classic science fiction. Not at all what I would expect from something so early, if it was published today would be seen as a great steampunk political thriller, where the resurrected Cheops gets involved in the factions around the possible new queens of England in the 22nd Century.
Well worth checking out.
Well worth checking out.
December 15, 2020
Considering this was published in 1827 and written by a twenty year old woman, not too bad. That Jane Loudon was able to come up with the combination of both horror and science fiction amid the chaos of a future history is, to my mind, one heck of an accomplishment.
And, the best part is the last dozen pages, giving a virtual soap-opera style finish, just to add another genre.
And, the best part is the last dozen pages, giving a virtual soap-opera style finish, just to add another genre.
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