There has been a recent revival of interest in the Mummy as a monster and this collection will be a welcomed addition to some of the great mummy short story anthologies published in the last thirty years. Here is a taste of what can be found inside . . .
Trooping up out of the foul subterranean darkness of the great square drainage hole at the bottom of the pit, came countless thousands of great white spiders! In an undulating tide of furry evilness they crept up from the lower chamber that had been their prison and from which the water had just driven them. The professor, too, saw the advancing horde of horror, and the two mens eyes met in unutterable terror. Carr, Spider-Bite.
For five minutes . . . we stood waiting, looking from each others faces to the mummy, and from the mummy to the hole, and all the time the shuffling sound, soft and stealthy, came gradually nearer. The tension, for me at least, was very near the breaking point when at last the cause of the disturbance reached the edge. . . . The next second, uttering a cry of curious quality, it came into view. And it was far more distressingly horrible than anything I had anticipated. For the sight of some Egyptian monster, some god of the tombs, or even of some demon of fire, I think I was already half prepared; but when, instead, I saw the white visage of Miss Wragge framed in that round opening of sand, followed by her body crawling on all-fours, her eyes bulging and reflecting the yellow glare of the candles, my first instinct was to turn and run like a frantic animal seeking a way of escape. Blackwood, The Nemesis of Fire.
And now a fearful spectacle met his horrified gaze. The immense marble scarabaeus on the floor of the gallery vibrated with incipient animation; then it stretched forth its huge feelers and opened its massy wings, like a newly born insect trying the properties of its novel limbs; and next, with the heavy cumbrous motion of a tortoise, it crept across the floor, throwing back the moonbeams from its polished surface, towards the principal entrance of the gallery. OBrien, Mr. Grubbes Night with Memnon.
And thats just the tip of the iceberg . . .
Three important events helped popularize interest in the Mummy as a monster. First, Napoleon Bonapartes campaign into Ottoman Egypt from 1798 - 181. The expedition led to the discovery of the Rosetta Stone and the creation of the field of Egyptology in Europe. This ultimately ended in the establishment of the Egyptian Institute and the publication of the Description de IEgypte from 189 - 1821. Second, the building of the Suez Canal, an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, constructed between 1859 and 1869. And third, the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun (ruler of Egypt from 1332 - 1323 B.C.), by Howard Carter in 1922. It sparked a renewed public interest in ancient Egypt, for which Tutankhamuns mask, now in the Egyptian Museum, remains one of the most popular symbols. These events helped popularize interest in Egypt in the West.
All the classic mummy stories have been included in this anthology (e.g., Gautier, Alcott, Poe, Doyle, Rohmer, Blackwood, Haggard, Smith, Quinn, and Lovecraft). However, the larger goal of the anthology is to broaden the canon by including minor and important works which have never been anthologized or published since their original publication. Stories like, Deaths Secret, Mr. Grubbes Night with Memnon, and The Wrath of Aman-Ra, for example, are rare gems. Brian J. Frost referred to Deaths Secret as one of the best and underrated mummy stories of all time. The meaning of mummy stories in this collection has been interpreted in the widest possible way, to include short stories, novelettes, and novellas. This will be the most inclusive collection of classic mummy stories ever published, containing almost fifty stories.
