My New Year's Eve Among the Mummies

by J. Arbuthnot Wilson (Pseudonym), Grant Allen

J. Arbuthnot Wilson (pseudonym of the real author, Grant Allen) tells this short story of his strange night spent inside "the great unopened Pyramid of Abu Yilla" in Egypt. On New Year's Eve, on the night before his group was to take a guided tour and climb the still sealed pyramid, he set out on his own to walk around the pyramid to relieve his boredom. He happened to find the secret entrance stone, which he pushed open. What he experienced deep inside the pyramid was a once-in-a-thousand-years event.

"Never as long as I live shall I forget the ecstasy of terror, astonishment, and blank dismay which seized upon me when I stepped into that seemingly enchanted chamber. ... I gazed fixedly at the strange picture before me, taking in all its details in a confused way, yet quite incapable of understanding or realizing any part of its true import."

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories

10 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1880

About the author

Pseudonym of Grant Allen

Reviews

[Yibbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun little adventure. It's also fairly stock. There are no great surprises. The 'hero' wanders off and discovers the secret of the pyramids; oh and that spoken Egyptian is surprising like English. He meets the princess and love follows.
That's where it starts getting fun. Allen starts giving fun little clues as to what's really going on, but in such a subtle way that I missed them completely. I only started catching on at the very end.
For a short sci-fi, spook story it wasn't too bad. The hero was a jerk though, so just read it for the situation/world he created.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Challenge: Twelve Days of Christmas 2020 - Three French Hens/another country/Egypt (10). Time: 1877. Place: Unexcavated tomb. Author Grant Allen created an unlikable main character - a condescending, colonial rogue steeped in the male gaze - in order to tell a tale that supports the theory of evolution and the longevity of the earth's geologic history. New Year's Eve was probably chosen to denote the cusp of a new era of thinking. Hard to read through today's lens, yet meaningful for the time; the son of a minister, the story reflects his turn to atheism.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun short story. It has a few plot twists.

[Matthew Moes]

I read the Feedbooks.com / gutenberg.org edition. Originally published 1878.

[Jeanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Diverting little short story. Didn't do much for me, but that was likely because most of the humor was in reference to British manners and customs with which I am not familiar.
(I read this in its entirety on February 22, 2021, but I am removing the finished date from my record, because I don't consider this to be worthy of counting as a BOOK toward my yearly goal. THIS IS A SHORT STORY. This is NOT A BOOK.)