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Perduti in una piramide ovvero La maledizione della mummia
«Ma avete detto che una maledizione era stata predetta per il possessore di quei semi scarlatti» insistette la ragazza, la cui fantasia era eccitata dal racconto, e immaginava che non tutto fosse stato detto.
L’autrice di Piccole donne, Louisa May Alcott, pubblicò il racconto Lost in a Pyramid; or, the Mummy’s Curse sul numero del 16 gennaio 1869 di «The New World», firmandosi con le iniziali L.M.A. Dimenticato per oltre un secolo, venne riportato alla luce alla fine degli anni ’90 da un egittologo, Dominic Montserrat, nella Biblioteca del Congresso degli Stati Uniti. Da allora è considerato un non comune esempio di narrazione letteraria che ha come tema la maledizione di una mummia e che avrà un certo successo a partire dalla fine del XIX secolo. […] (dalla Nota introduttiva).
Preziosità editoriali a tiratura limitata e numerata, con interventi artigianali e confezionamento ricercato (disponibili esclusivamente sul nostro store).
L’autrice di Piccole donne, Louisa May Alcott, pubblicò il racconto Lost in a Pyramid; or, the Mummy’s Curse sul numero del 16 gennaio 1869 di «The New World», firmandosi con le iniziali L.M.A. Dimenticato per oltre un secolo, venne riportato alla luce alla fine degli anni ’90 da un egittologo, Dominic Montserrat, nella Biblioteca del Congresso degli Stati Uniti. Da allora è considerato un non comune esempio di narrazione letteraria che ha come tema la maledizione di una mummia e che avrà un certo successo a partire dalla fine del XIX secolo. […] (dalla Nota introduttiva).
Preziosità editoriali a tiratura limitata e numerata, con interventi artigianali e confezionamento ricercato (disponibili esclusivamente sul nostro store).
40 pages, Paperback
First published January 16, 1869
7 people are currently reading
289 people want to read
About the author
Louisa May Alcott
4,056 books10.6k followersLouisa May Alcott was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet best known for writing the novel Little Women (1868) and its sequels Good Wives (1869), Little Men (1871) and Jo's Boys (1886). Raised in New England by her transcendentalist parents, Abigail May Alcott and Amos Bronson Alcott, she grew up among many well-known intellectuals of the day, including Margaret Fuller, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Alcott's family suffered from financial difficulties, and while she worked to help support the family from an early age, she also sought an outlet in writing. She began to receive critical success for her writing in the 1860s. Early in her career, she sometimes used pen names such as A.M. Barnard, under which she wrote lurid short stories and sensation novels for adults that focused on passion and revenge.
Published in 1868, Little Women is set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts, and is loosely based on Alcott's childhood experiences with her three sisters, Abigail May Alcott Nieriker, Elizabeth Sewall Alcott, and Anna Bronson Alcott Pratt. The novel was well-received at the time and is still popular today among both children and adults. It has been adapted for stage plays, films, and television many times.
Alcott was an abolitionist and a feminist and remained unmarried throughout her life. She also spent her life active in reform movements such as temperance and women's suffrage. She died from a stroke in Boston on March 6, 1888, just two days after her father's death.
Alcott's family suffered from financial difficulties, and while she worked to help support the family from an early age, she also sought an outlet in writing. She began to receive critical success for her writing in the 1860s. Early in her career, she sometimes used pen names such as A.M. Barnard, under which she wrote lurid short stories and sensation novels for adults that focused on passion and revenge.
Published in 1868, Little Women is set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts, and is loosely based on Alcott's childhood experiences with her three sisters, Abigail May Alcott Nieriker, Elizabeth Sewall Alcott, and Anna Bronson Alcott Pratt. The novel was well-received at the time and is still popular today among both children and adults. It has been adapted for stage plays, films, and television many times.
Alcott was an abolitionist and a feminist and remained unmarried throughout her life. She also spent her life active in reform movements such as temperance and women's suffrage. She died from a stroke in Boston on March 6, 1888, just two days after her father's death.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 72 reviews
April 3, 2019
This is a tale about two explorers getting lost in a pyramid in Egypt. To alarm their guide they first burn the wooden coffin of a mummy and then the mummy itself. Well, it was the mummy of an Egyptian sorceress. Will her curse fall upon those desecrated her dead body? Paul's soon to be wife finds some seeds and plants them. Will those ancient seed turn into something? What about Niles, the other explorer, who already planted the seeds? Captivating eerie tale about an Egyptian sorceress and her curse. Highly enjoyed this uncanny read and can only recommend this classic revenge story.
Want to read
August 4, 2020Wow, Louisa May Alcott wrote a mummy-curse story? Will check it out.
November 16, 2020
4.5
No me suelen gustar los relatos pero este estuvo bueno, ágil, bien escrito y con un buen final xd
No me suelen gustar los relatos pero este estuvo bueno, ágil, bien escrito y con un buen final xd
January 20, 2021
It was good, as short as it is it's nothing too wonderful or anything, but it's ok.
October 23, 2019
Esa mezcla entre romance y maldición ha sido una buena combinación.
November 15, 2020
En un relato muy cortito que me ha gustado pero que no he disfrutado suficiente por la pésima calidad de la traducción que he leído.
No he leído mujercitas, así que, creo es buen momento para hacerlo :)
No he leído mujercitas, así que, creo es buen momento para hacerlo :)
October 24, 2019
Excelente relato!
March 14, 2022
Un relato corto de terror con una flor venenosa
October 23, 2019
Con romance y tragedia, así me gusta 😈
October 23, 2019
Pues... sin ser nada del otro mundo, me ha gustado más que los relatos de momias que he estado leyendo últimamente (uno de Poe y otro más moderno).
Nos habla de un hombre que se pierde en una pirámide y regresa con una caja con semillas y una maldición.
Es directo y aunque el final es predecible, cumple con su misión de entretener.
En fin 3 estrellas sobre 5, porque tampoco se le puede pedir más.
Nos habla de un hombre que se pierde en una pirámide y regresa con una caja con semillas y una maldición.
Es directo y aunque el final es predecible, cumple con su misión de entretener.
En fin 3 estrellas sobre 5, porque tampoco se le puede pedir más.
January 23, 2025
Louisa May Alcott wrote gothic fiction? Who knew?
Thinking of using this short story as the primary text for a research paper.
Thinking of using this short story as the primary text for a research paper.
March 26, 2025
A quick and punchy little story that has just the right amount of shock. I had sort of guessed the ending by the time it wrapped up, but it was still a chilling scene, and I really enjoyed the reading.
January 5, 2018
An interesting and creepy little tale about an Egyptologist. A tad predictable, but still enjoyable. If you like dark stories it's worth a read.
January 21, 2018
A nice little Victorian horror story. The hero, the dashing Victorian gentleman, rescues his professor from the doom of wandering eternally amongst the mummies. On impulse, he brings back a memento pried from long-dead fingers. The heroine, young and thoughtless as befits a Victorian maiden, then tampers with an ancient curse. But surely there is nothing in it?
This is where the sci-fi-ish part of the story starts. It’s really wild, but I’ll let you find out just how material or immaterial the horror really is.
This is where the sci-fi-ish part of the story starts. It’s really wild, but I’ll let you find out just how material or immaterial the horror really is.
November 1, 2020
I must admit in my ignorance I never knew that Alcott had written a horror story. This is a very quick read that one can handle in one sitting. "Lost in a Pyramid or the Mummy's Curse" deals with two explorers who are in an Egyptian pyramid who stumble upon a mummy who was an Egyptian sorceress. Within the story, there is an ancient curse and a bit of the supernatural.
This was probably more like a 3.5 stars for me. I actually did enjoy it but I just overall wish that there was more to the story and that it had been flushed out a bit more, and there are some events that are predictable. I think that in some ways there is quite a bit that is on the surface and that there could have been much more detail to account for events, especially toward the ends where we find out how things turn out.
I was reminded a bit of the old classic film The Mummy when I was reading. The setting of the story gives it sort a mysterious and suspenseful quality, and I think Alcott definitely creates a tension and atmosphere as we progress. If you are in the mood of a dark tale, this one has sort of a Poe-like vibe to it; I just wished it a little more detail to it.
This was probably more like a 3.5 stars for me. I actually did enjoy it but I just overall wish that there was more to the story and that it had been flushed out a bit more, and there are some events that are predictable. I think that in some ways there is quite a bit that is on the surface and that there could have been much more detail to account for events, especially toward the ends where we find out how things turn out.
I was reminded a bit of the old classic film The Mummy when I was reading. The setting of the story gives it sort a mysterious and suspenseful quality, and I think Alcott definitely creates a tension and atmosphere as we progress. If you are in the mood of a dark tale, this one has sort of a Poe-like vibe to it; I just wished it a little more detail to it.
September 30, 2025
Un relato clásico sencillo y muy entretenido.
Siempre he sido fan de Egipto, de las momias y de las "maldiciones" que estas traen consigo.
En este relato se cuenta como dos eruditos se pierden en una pirámide y debido al pánico de morir ahi, deciden profanar una tumba y quemarla para ser encontrados gracias al humo que esta desprende.
Lo que parecía algo sin importancia resultó ser un acto condenatorio para ambas personas.
Aunque nuestro protagonista vivió años de paz, un acto simple hizo que su vida se troncara y la felicidad que un día tuvo fuese sustituida por una tristeza permanente.
Siempre he sido fan de Egipto, de las momias y de las "maldiciones" que estas traen consigo.
En este relato se cuenta como dos eruditos se pierden en una pirámide y debido al pánico de morir ahi, deciden profanar una tumba y quemarla para ser encontrados gracias al humo que esta desprende.
Lo que parecía algo sin importancia resultó ser un acto condenatorio para ambas personas.
Aunque nuestro protagonista vivió años de paz, un acto simple hizo que su vida se troncara y la felicidad que un día tuvo fuese sustituida por una tristeza permanente.
February 1, 2020
If beauty could kill...
The short story was beautifully written, but there was nothing out of the ordinary about it. I enjoyed it, but I would have preferred something darker.
The short story was beautifully written, but there was nothing out of the ordinary about it. I enjoyed it, but I would have preferred something darker.
February 2, 2021
Nö, fand ich doof, vor allem das Ende.
December 19, 2025
SLAY att hon också skrivit en kort bok om förbannelser och mumier och mystik?
October 5, 2020
Ricordate il famoso romanzo, Piccole Donne, che ha reso celebre L. M. Alcott? Ebbene, dimenticatelo! Questa è un'altra storia - una ghost story dai toni tetri e dall'ispirazione esotica, che vi farà fare un salto nel passato fino all'antico Egitto! Con riferimenti a una materia non usata solitamente nella trattazione di simili ghost story, ossia lo studio delle piramidi e delle mummie, Alcott invita il lettore a immergersi in una narrazione ricca di suspense che, grazie all'utilizzo di elementi fantastici, fa passare il lettore dal caldo delle piramidi al gelo della morte.
Una vera preziosità, tradotta e annotata con la solita cura che Enrico De Luca mette nello studio di ogni testo; una storia dimenticata, che prende probabilmente spunto da Le pied de momie (e più in generale anche da Le roman de la momie) di Théophile Gautier, e quindi da un gusto tutto ottocentesco per l'esotismo e il ritorno al passato.
Una vera preziosità, tradotta e annotata con la solita cura che Enrico De Luca mette nello studio di ogni testo; una storia dimenticata, che prende probabilmente spunto da Le pied de momie (e più in generale anche da Le roman de la momie) di Théophile Gautier, e quindi da un gusto tutto ottocentesco per l'esotismo e il ritorno al passato.
January 9, 2018
Listened to this on the Classic Tales Podcast today. It was an entertaining short story. It was predictable but that’s alright, especially when it’s an old story that may (or may not) pre-date tropes. It’s well written and a fun quick listen or read.
April 15, 2022
A short story by Louisa May Alcott.
It is an early example of Egyptianized horror stories. My favorite example is the Universal movie (with Boris Karloff as Imhotep): The Mummy.
I felt that the story itself could do with some additions, insofar as our author used vague terms when describing the pyramid and mummies themselves. "Strange aromatic odor" is not perhaps the most memorable way of putting things, even if our speaker (who may be a layman) would not know the smell as well as others. I cannot help but think that the descriptions that Bram Stoker furnishes in his novella The Jewel of the Seven Stars were far more distinctive than this. (One cannot forget the knickknacks nor the ever-present smell of bitumen.)
The story itself is tinged with a sense of the supernatural as well as of the rational. For, on the one hand, the mummy's curse (that those who disturb the rest of our mummified sorceress shall meet with a terrible fate) is consummated; however, on the other hand, the means by which this is done is through the machines of reality. (The poisonous flower slowly destroys Evelyn and Professor Niles.) In this sense, Alcott seems to leave the reader with the idea that the magic may be all huff and only a murder premediated by thousands of years, or that the extraordinary coincidences that allow for the murder to be effected (the two seeds remaining, for example) were really influenced by the curse.
One major theme in the text is that of sacrilege. The mummy is thought by Paul to have a sacred quality, and Evelyn reacts in verbal shock when she realizes that the case Paul took was originally situated on the nude breast of the sorceress. The desecration of her tomb, the destruction of her body, and the robbery of the box can all be seen as desecrations, and are things which Paul regrets doing (somewhat). The curse, then, is in a sense the punishment for the crimes they committed (indeed, this was the express purpose of the curse itself), and this punishment leaves open to the reader numerous questions. What is the meaning of such a punishment to someone who is at least somewhat sorry for what he did? And, further, why must this punishment effect more than those who offended? (Evelyn becomes a vegetable, but she had nothing to do with the invasion of the tomb.) The punishment is both tragic in outcome and horribly unjust in any measure, even if we assume revenge is at any time moral. One can only think that Alcott's meaning was rather to critique the curse, or to show it as faulty, rather than to say that what came upon the explorer and scientist was just. It may even be said that the story's villain (if there is one) is deontological, for her curse assumes that all desecration of the tomb is evil and must be punished, but our story is teleological, for Alcott clearly shows sympathy and humanizes Niles, Evelyn, and Paul, and by showing the flaw in the curse (that even necessary desecrations, like burning the body to escape the tomb, are deemed evil by it) we can see a marker that points toward the opposite conclusion: that things ought be done by virtue of whether they bring human happiness. This may be stretching the interpretation too far, however.
I liked this story tremendously and shall read some other of Alcott's lurid works.
It is an early example of Egyptianized horror stories. My favorite example is the Universal movie (with Boris Karloff as Imhotep): The Mummy.
I felt that the story itself could do with some additions, insofar as our author used vague terms when describing the pyramid and mummies themselves. "Strange aromatic odor" is not perhaps the most memorable way of putting things, even if our speaker (who may be a layman) would not know the smell as well as others. I cannot help but think that the descriptions that Bram Stoker furnishes in his novella The Jewel of the Seven Stars were far more distinctive than this. (One cannot forget the knickknacks nor the ever-present smell of bitumen.)
The story itself is tinged with a sense of the supernatural as well as of the rational. For, on the one hand, the mummy's curse (that those who disturb the rest of our mummified sorceress shall meet with a terrible fate) is consummated; however, on the other hand, the means by which this is done is through the machines of reality. (The poisonous flower slowly destroys Evelyn and Professor Niles.) In this sense, Alcott seems to leave the reader with the idea that the magic may be all huff and only a murder premediated by thousands of years, or that the extraordinary coincidences that allow for the murder to be effected (the two seeds remaining, for example) were really influenced by the curse.
One major theme in the text is that of sacrilege. The mummy is thought by Paul to have a sacred quality, and Evelyn reacts in verbal shock when she realizes that the case Paul took was originally situated on the nude breast of the sorceress. The desecration of her tomb, the destruction of her body, and the robbery of the box can all be seen as desecrations, and are things which Paul regrets doing (somewhat). The curse, then, is in a sense the punishment for the crimes they committed (indeed, this was the express purpose of the curse itself), and this punishment leaves open to the reader numerous questions. What is the meaning of such a punishment to someone who is at least somewhat sorry for what he did? And, further, why must this punishment effect more than those who offended? (Evelyn becomes a vegetable, but she had nothing to do with the invasion of the tomb.) The punishment is both tragic in outcome and horribly unjust in any measure, even if we assume revenge is at any time moral. One can only think that Alcott's meaning was rather to critique the curse, or to show it as faulty, rather than to say that what came upon the explorer and scientist was just. It may even be said that the story's villain (if there is one) is deontological, for her curse assumes that all desecration of the tomb is evil and must be punished, but our story is teleological, for Alcott clearly shows sympathy and humanizes Niles, Evelyn, and Paul, and by showing the flaw in the curse (that even necessary desecrations, like burning the body to escape the tomb, are deemed evil by it) we can see a marker that points toward the opposite conclusion: that things ought be done by virtue of whether they bring human happiness. This may be stretching the interpretation too far, however.
I liked this story tremendously and shall read some other of Alcott's lurid works.
November 22, 2024
I wanted to revisit some of Alcott's thrillers after finishing Little Women. I know Alcott regretted writing "sensationalist" stories for the financial stability they provided, but she certainly could weave a scary tale! As a horror, this gets five stars.
It is in many ways a cautionary story, about how passion without respect for the subject of your study can lead to tragedy. The sad conclusion to this tale could have been avoided if the three main characters had greater respect for the unknown.
Definitely an unexpectedly terrifying tale!
It is in many ways a cautionary story, about how passion without respect for the subject of your study can lead to tragedy. The sad conclusion to this tale could have been avoided if the three main characters had greater respect for the unknown.
Definitely an unexpectedly terrifying tale!
September 19, 2024
Lost in a Pyramid is one of the very first horror stories about Egyptian curses. There’s no reanimated mummy in this one (sadly), but it does have a truly gnarly ending that wouldn’t feel out of place in Tales from the Crypt.
I love how dark this gets, and while future horror stories would take this template and run with it in scarier and more interesting ways, you gotta give props to the story that does it first, especially since this came out decades before the King Tut-inspired mummy craze. And the fact that this was written by the author of Little Women… Well, that blows my mind.
I’d say this is a very readable 3-star story (never scary but never boring) with an extra star added because, again, this is a morbid horror story written by the author of Little Women! How cool is that?
I love how dark this gets, and while future horror stories would take this template and run with it in scarier and more interesting ways, you gotta give props to the story that does it first, especially since this came out decades before the King Tut-inspired mummy craze. And the fact that this was written by the author of Little Women… Well, that blows my mind.
I’d say this is a very readable 3-star story (never scary but never boring) with an extra star added because, again, this is a morbid horror story written by the author of Little Women! How cool is that?
June 1, 2020
Redescubierto a finales de los años 90, este relato de la célebre autora de "Mujercitas" tiene sobre todo el valor de hablar de maldiciones, momias, pirámides en 1869 cuando el tema no había eclosionado literariamente -que sí, social y artisticamente dándose una egiptomanía- y que sería un pistoletazo de salida ya definitivo para los innumerables relatos que proliferarían sobre momias en el último tercio del siglo XIX.
El relato fuera de eso no tiene gran interés, parece un precursor de los libros juveniles de "Elige tu propia aventura", y todo resulta bastante previsible, todavía más a los ojos de un lector actual que anda resabiado.
Más valor histórico que literario sin duda.
Nota: 5
El relato fuera de eso no tiene gran interés, parece un precursor de los libros juveniles de "Elige tu propia aventura", y todo resulta bastante previsible, todavía más a los ojos de un lector actual que anda resabiado.
Más valor histórico que literario sin duda.
Nota: 5
October 30, 2025
It's pretty good! I have to say that the first part of this story was much more exciting and enriching than the second. The scenes of them being lost in the pyramid and the making of the fire had me on the edge of my seat in the same manner that it had Evelyn—too bad she had to die, though. There isn't much for me to say about it other than the fact that it's a cute horror story, but I definitely thought it was a little bit convoluted to have him with a seed and her with a seed and this whole complicated seed-ception to have her die. I would definitely recommend this as a cute, short Halloween read!
April 26, 2021
In struggling to fall asleep yet again last night, my mind flitted from one place to another, as it always does. At some point, I wound up thinking, "Huh. I wonder how mummies have the typical, pop-culture depiction that they do?" Amazingly, I remembered to look it up this morning, and that's how I learned that Louisa May Alcott wrote a short story about the curse of a mummy. Obviously the book I was about to start has to wait until tomorrow. This was a little disappointing (especially when I think back to how much I loved 'Little Women'), but it fits the time period, I suppose.
December 30, 2023
Reading this story as part of the anthology Weird Horror Short Stories Look for my review will in that overall read.
August 6, 2020
A classic mummy story. If you've ever seen a mummy movie, you should know never to disturb their rest - and certainly never to take their treasures. Of course, these characters were blissfully unaware of such a danger as they had no such resources to fall back on. Instead, they desecrated a sorceress's wooden casket, stole her treasure, and even burnt her remains for firewood until they were to be rescued. This story is a study in why you should respect the dead, especially in a tomb.
April 6, 2021
Enjoyable tale of a mummy's curse. I can't recall another such tale where the mummy was specifically female (though I haven't read widely in the subgenre). It's the sort of tale where you know doom is coming, you're just not sure of the exact form.
One detail annoyed me:
One detail annoyed me:
Displaying 1 - 30 of 72 reviews