The Linguist and the Emperor: Napoleon and Champollion's Quest to Decipher the Rosetta Stone

by Daniel Meyerson

The deciphering of the Rosetta stone was one of the great intellectual triumphs of all time, unlocking the secrets of thousands of years of Egypt’s ancient civilization. Yet in the past two centuries, the circumstances surrounding this bravura feat of translation have become shrouded in myth and mystery. Now in his spellbinding new book, Daniel Meyerson recounts the extraordinary true story of how the lives of two geniuses converged in a breakthrough that revolutionized our understanding of the past.

The emperor Napoleon and the linguist Jean-Francois Champollion were both blessed with the temperament of artists and damned with ferocious impatience—and both of them were obsessed with Egypt. In fact, it was Napoleon’s dazzling, disastrous Egyptian campaign that caught the attention of the young Champollion and forever changed his life. From the instant Champollion learned of Napoleon’s discovery of a stone inscribed with three sets of characters—Greek, Coptic, and hieroglyphic—he could not rest. He vowed to be the first to crack the mystery of what became known as the Rosetta stone.

In Daniel Meyerson’s sweeping narrative, the haunting story of the Rosetta stone—its discovery in a doomed battle, the intrigue to secure it, the agonizing race to unlock its secrets, and the pain it seemed to inflict on all who touched it—reads like the most engrossing fiction. Napoleon, despite his power and glory, suffered repeated betrayals . . . by his Empress Josephine, on the battlefield, and by history itself. Champollion, though he triumphed intellectually, ultimately endured his own terrible tragedy. As background and counterpoint to the stories of the brilliant linguist and the visionary emperor, Meyerson interweaves the ancient tales of love, intrigue, brutal death, and
miraculous rebirth that were hidden for centuries on the walls of Egyptian tombs—stories that Champollion finally made accessible to the world.

Blending history, politics, intellectual passion, and a deep understanding of the human heart, The Linguist and the Emperor is a stunning tapestry of breakthrough and ambition, grandeur and vanity, power and pain. Carrying on the tradition of The Professor and the Madman and Longitude , Meyerson has fashioned a masterpiece of meticulous history and astonishing storytelling.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Linguistics, Language, France, Egypt

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Regina Lindsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I selected this book because it appeared to be about the lives of two men, Napoleon and Cahmpollion, who were resposibe for the discovery of the Rosetta Stone and its eventual role in deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. The story is about the lives of these two men; however, the Rosetta Stone plays a minor role in the last two chapters.

The writing style gives many historical non-fiction readers heartburn. First, there are no notes and only a few sources listed. Secondly, the writing style is hyperbolic in nature with very odd metaphors chosen. The story is written in a very odd, disjointed manner that never really establishes a flow. Finally, the amount of exclamation marks on almost every page amost drove me insane.

There are some good point. Meyerson does provide an interesting psychological look at Napoleon building a case for influences that shaped his future. There are interesting vignettes of more obscure historical characters that contributed, even if often by accident, to events in the story. However, due to the writing style by the time you figured out the point of the disruption in the story you may feel a bit frustrated. Meyerson does an excellent job of bringing Champollion's passion for linguistics to life

[Andreas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Halva boken handlade om Napoleon, vilket i sig är intressant, men jag hade föredragit att det handlade mer om Champollion. Ändå en mycket intressant bok.

[Matt Buongiovanni · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Egypt will never give herself completely to Champollion or to Young, to Bonaparte and his scholars, or to those who come after. She will forever remain a mystery, half-revealed and half-hidden beneath her eternally shifting sand.”

Meyerson expertly tells the stories of two men whose obsessions with history took each of them to Egypt and spun their destinies together. The narrative takes on a dreamy, almost surreal quality at times, drifting between accounts of Napoleon and Champollion’s lives and the lives of others who have lived in Egypt throughout its history—from Pharaohs born hundreds of years before the birth of Christ to men living in the twentieth century. An engaging, and at times beautiful, read.

[Esther · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was so boring! And as a historical text poorly done, where were the sources??

[Anne]

Excellent story entertwining the lives of Bonaparte and Champollion. My only regret is there is no conclusion; the tale ends abruptly. The storytelling and snippets on people were entertaining. This could've been made into a larger story.

I would've liked more o the meeting between Champollion and Bonaparte, considering that is the title of the book.

[Ellie Franzmeier · Rating 2 out of 5]

Took an interesting story and made it impossible to follow. The author would take weird leaps in time and location, so I never fully understood where everyone was and what they were doing.

[Clint Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

And here we have another of the "let's cram these two things together and see if it makes a book" type books. It's not a bad thing necessarily, but it didn't pull it off quite like "The Professor and the Madman," for instance. You basically get a bit about Champollion and a bit about Bonaparte and since they were both alive in France at at the same time, you just have to accept that that is a strong enough connection.

Not that that's always bad. You get enough about Napoleon to have your interest piqued, and you learn about a guy who nobody could probably name off the top of their heads. Or at least, I know I personally have never been like, "Rosetta Stone? Oh yeah, Champollion." However, don't expect to walk away from this with a real strong grasp on either one.

Personally, this felt like an appetizer type book, and given it's length and language and readability to the uninitiated (raises hand), it's a decent read. I will note, though, that the whole "deciphering of the Rosetta Stone" gets about a page's worth of coverage. I don't know if I like that or not. When you're talking about how one guy mastered a bunch of ancient languages and then pieced together a theory of hieroglyphics, I suppose it is difficult to write it in a way dumb people will understand (raises hand again).

So, really, it was a tough spot and Meyerson did a decent job of putting something together. It's light, pretty much in every top listed in the title and subtitle, but then again, that's to be assumed by a book on these topics that is under 300 pages.

[Jeffrey Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author weaves several tales together, dramatizing the life journeys of Napoleon and Jean-Francois Champollion. Both characters are portrayed as crazed geniuses -- though with quite different temperaments and goals. I trust the basic historical foundations of the stories as presented, and it makes me even more want to see the latest film about Napoleon. Note that only the last chapter delves in detail into the actual deciphering of hieroglyphs; the drama provides the backdrop, the foundation of the result, demonstrating that it could only have been done by such a fanatic genius as Champollion. Napoleon is presented as a complex contradictory figure of destruction and creation applying brutal logic to his rule. The author opens the book with a mysterious story of Napoleon's Josephine, her fantastic attractiveness and her ability to thrive in that masculine revolutionary world.
However, I found myself yearning for a dry historical presentation to accompany this hyper-dramatized narrative.

[Amber Scaife · Rating 2 out of 5]

This microhistory follows the lives of Napoleon and Jean-Francois Champollion as they converge at the deciphering of the Rosetta Stone.

Sounds interesting? It did to me, too, but it sadly falls short of expectations. Poorly organized, the narrative seems to flit here and there, giving random details of both lives and often seeming to forget its purpose, since the Rosetta Stone barely makes an appearance. I mean, you'd think it would at least end with some treatment of how Napoleon and Champollion are explicitly tied to one another through the discovery of the Stone, but we don't really even get a treatment of Napoleon's men *finding* the Stone at all! Champollion's life seems interesting from what I can cobble together here, but the structure and the needed details are badly lacking. Also, points off for not understanding what a hapax legomenon is (he doesn't just use it incorrectly, he actually gives an incorrect definition). So, overall, disappointing.

[Gemma · Rating 4 out of 5]

i would not call this book historical non fiction. it is poetically written. telling the stories and goals and passion of Napoleon and Champollion. mixed feels. i like the writting, very casual, 4th wall and poetic. and thankfully including the good and the horrible. However, it is not very clear with fact and timeline and event driven. the rosetta stone is like 1 of 57 (or something) stones with both hieroglyphics, demotic, and Greek on it. Then the novel is how such a 3/4 ton 2-3ft wide stone was a key moment in history.

i did up and put down this book maybe 2 times before finishing it. i enjoy when reading and want to know how it ends, but it is not gripping. the history and influence already happened. (ok i have 1/3rd to go, but i was sad to see both library counties near me have no mention of this book).

[Kristoffer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Convoluted writing and weird skipping back and forth make the book tiresome to read. I constantly wanted to go over each page with red ink. At first I thought it might in part be a translation issue, but based on reviews here it seems to be the case with the original English as well. The book offers some interesting insight into the mentality of post-revolution France, but it could have been better written and structured and there wasn't enough focus on Champollion actually dealing with the hieroglyphs, in my opinion.

[Leif · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finely researched and expertly written but not enough of what I wanted. The sections on Bonaparte's Egyptian campaign seemed largely out of place for a book that I thought was going to be about the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone. And the book IS about that, but not enough of it to please this reviewer.

The sections on Champollion were great but they were only about half of the text. The rest of the book was taken up by the Napoleonic wars in Africa, a subject that really deserves its own book (of which I am sure there are many).

Too much Napoleon, not enough Champollion.

[Robert Swanson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Picked up from the exchange shelf on the Aggressor II in Palau.

An interesting idea and approach buried under many layers of obfuscation, non-linear telling, rumors and uninteresting tangents. Only in the final chapter tells about the hieroglyphs. There isn't even a picture or diagram of the Rosetta Stone (or even much of a description).

A waste of time and paper. If it was a digital book it would have been a waste of bits.

[Emily Davis-Hale · Rating 1 out of 5]

Seriously underwhelming. The whole thing feels like a weak buildup to a nonexistent climax, which is really a shame given how exciting the whole endeavor — from the conquest of Egypt to the hieroglyphs’ decipherment — could be with the right authorial touch.

[LRKK · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd, idiosyncratic and unreliable entry. Written with poetic fervour there are moving sections but definitely not the place to turn to for an understanding of Champollion and the Rosetta Stone (Andrew Robinson is much better).

[Wojtek Mach · Rating 1 out of 5]

Slabo napisane, malo naukowe, zbyt duzo historyczno-politycznych przekonan autora

[Lorri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting topic, incredibly boring and pedantic writing.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

My dad bought me this for Christmas, very interesting if you’re into the history of translation In Europe.

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book tells the story of how the Rosetta Stone was de-coded and how Napoleon brought it from Egypt.

[Zosia Dziuganowska · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth reading for everyone fascinated by the story of the discovery of ancient Egypt.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author is a good storyteller and he has some really interesting details to work with. But, I'm not sure his argument about the eternity of these two men and the characters they embody holds up.

[Rachel Mills · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting story but details were so jumbled that the main plot was completely obscured. It felt like reading the research paper of a. ADHD kidd off their meds.

[Sergey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didnt finish the book...

[Rebecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF'd at page 50...too much detail about the sordid and not enough about the decipherment

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pleasant narrative journey into the intertwined lives and work of Napoleon and Champollion during the rebirth of Egyptian exploration.

[Peter Goggins · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oddly structured, relying mostly on overly dramatized narrative. No citations or notes in the text to indicate sources.

I suppose interesting enough as entertainment, but the utility ends there.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a disservice. This book's subject matter had a chance to be really interesting and compelling - it was little of the first, less of the second.

The title and back-cover synopsis lead the potential reader to think that this will be a story about how Champollion and Napoleon have some sort of interaction about, along with a common desire to, decipher the Rosetta Stone. More than 200+ pages in, we get a brief two page interaction between the two; we don't get a lot of background about the Rosetta Stone; we don't get any description/detail if/when Champollion reviewed the Stone; and we don't get any real sense that Napoleon knew of the Stone, or his thoughts on the Stone and its significance. So the title, like the cake, is a lie.

The writing was too cute, and tried to be clever. The writing acted like it was trying to prop up and make interesting a boring story - which it wasn't. If Meyerson had just let the story and the facts and characters speak for themselves, if he didn't try to dress it all up in this cutesy prose, it could been a much better read. The whole time reading, it felt like the story was aware of its own cleverness and style, and so into itself for being so cute and clever. What a waste. The telescoping narrative didn't help it - we spent as much time away from the title "characters" as we did with them - so the book read quickly but really disjointed at the same time. There was no progression, we were tossed around in time and story for the same reasons that the prose was like it was - to be cute and clever.

I came across this book at a local library book sale. At he time, I had just finished reading a similarly themed book, _The Professor and the Madman_ by Winchester. The history of language is a pet topic of mine in literature, so when I stumbled across _The Linguist and the Emperor_ I was excited and thought I found a gem. I was wrong. Where Winchester's work is all solid, Meyerson's is all puffery. The gap in quality between those two books is astoundingly great.

[Philip · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked a lot of things about this book. And I wanted to like this book. But in the end I couldn't manage to.

I find the topic fascinating, and I really like how he weaves together the lives of Champollion and Napoleon, showing their connected threads through history, and tying both to the distant path as well. The book seemed well-researched, too, turning up facts I'd not encountered in several other books on similar topics.

But in the end, I found the writing style was too much got me. It seemed overblown, excessively dramatic, and left me with the sense that the division between real events and the fictional isle was a blurry one at best. But more than anything, it was just obnoxious. I found it exhausting to read. I read much of this book on a plane to Mexico, and when I customs official per used the book as he searched my bag, I offered it to him, because I didn't feel like ever seeing it again (he turned it down). I've still got about 20% left, but I haven't gotten up the ambition to tackle it again. Too bad for a book that seemed to have a lot of promise and clearly is the product of a lot of research.

(I also accidentally posted this same review for the same book with the author's name misspelled)

[Philip · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked a lot of things about this book. And I wanted to like this book. But in the end I couldn't manage to.

I find the topic fascinating, and I really like how he weaves together the lives of Champollion and Napoleon, showing their connected threads through history, and tying both to the distant path as well. The book seemed well-researched, too, turning up facts I'd not encountered in several other books on similar topics.

But in the end, I found the writing style was too much got me. It seemed overblown, excessively dramatic, and left me with the sense that the division between real events and the fictional isle was a blurry one at best. But more than anything, it was just obnoxious. I found it exhausting to read. I read much of this book on a plane to Mexico, and when I customs official per used the book as he searched my bag, I offered it to him, because I didn't feel like ever seeing it again (he turned it down). I've still got about 20% left! but I haven't gotten up the ambition to tackle it again. Too bad for a book that seemed to have a lot of promise and clearly is the product of a lot of research.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I enjoyed the dramatic details of the major characters, the historian in me was left asking questions, "Where was he, what was he doing, where is the chronological detail?" It needed maps, schematics, pictures to illustrate better the story as it unfolded. Documentation from literary sources would have been a great help. Perhaps if the descriptions had been better developed?
It gave us tantalizing points of interest on the characters that were never fulfilled, yet this limited view has enticed me further. The pedestrian discussion of hieroglyphs in the final chapter were the best moments of the book-they should have been the major items. Even the moments of discovery of the Rosetta Stone were disappointing-wow, this should have been the CLIMAX! The fact that there was no picture of the stone was crushing. What about a few pictures of Champollion's notes? If the book had settled on whether it was a character study, historical recount or linguistic study (or had tried harder at all three) it would have better met the goal.