Writing the Sphinx: Literature, Culture and Egyptology

by Eleanor Dobson

Unearths a rich tradition of creative flexibility, collaboration and mutual influence between literary culture and Egyptology

The first monograph study to bring literature into conversation with Egyptological culture
Incorporates a number of archival primary sources which have, until now, escaped critical attention
Analyses canonical literature alongside works by lesser-known authors
Combines literary criticism with book history, the history of science, and reception studies

This book explores literary and Egyptological cultures from the closing decades of the nineteenth century to the opening decades of the twentieth, culminating in the aftermath of the high-profile discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922. Analysing the works of Egyptologists including Howard Carter, Arthur Weigall and E. A. Wallis Budge alongside those of their literary contemporaries such as H. Rider Haggard, Marie Corelli and Oscar Wilde, it investigates the textual, cultural and material exchanges between literature, Egyptology and visual and material culture across this period.

272 pages, Hardcover

Published November 1, 2020

About the author

Eleanor Dobson is Lecturer in Nineteenth Century Literature at the University of Birmingham.