Table of Contents

PART ONE: CURSE STORIES 1: King Tut and the dead Earl Opening the Tomb First Interpretations 2: Precursor Stories I: Thomas Douglas Murray and 22542 (The Unlucky Mummy) 3: Precursor Stories II: Walter Ingram and the Coffin of Nesmin PART TWO: CONTEXTS 4: Egypt in London I: Immersive-Exotic Spaces The Egyptian Hall, Belzoni's Tomb and Mummy Pettigrew The Exotic Panorama and the Theatrical Extravaganza Bazaars, West End Shopping, and Exotic Consumption 5: Egypt in London II: The Exhibitionary Universe Egypt at the World's Fairs The British Museum in the Empire of Shadows 6: The Curse Tale and the Egyptian Gothic Learning to Curse Plagues, Scarabs, and the Nuclear Option: The Golden Age of Egyptian Curse Stories The Museum Gothic Algernon Blackwood: Egypt Introjected 7: Rider Haggard Among the Mummies Rider Haggard's Encounters with Egypt Lieutenant-Colonel Andrew Haggard and Major E. Arthur Haggard in Egypt Rider Haggard's Artefactual Fictions 8: Evil Eyes, Punitive Currents and the Late Victorian Magic Revival Late Victorian Hermeticism: Blavatsky's Theosophical Society The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn: Haute Magie and Low Comedy Magical Thinking and Curse Logic Closing in: The Evil Eye Looks Back Afterword

About the Author

Roger Luckhurst has written and broadcast widely on popular culture, specialising in science fiction and the Gothic. He is interested in the odd spaces between science and popular supernatural beliefs. He has previously written a history of how the notion of 'telepathy' emerged in the late Victorian period, and has published editions of Jekyll and Hyde and Dracula. He is also a regular radio reviewer of terrible science fiction films. He teaches horror and the occasional respectable novel by Henry James at Birkbeck College, University of London.

Reviews

`The Mummy's Curse is a thoughtful and thorough exegesis of an enduring popular myth.' Irish Times `A fascinating account ... There are some absolutely laugh-out-loud moments in this consistently insightful and well-written study ... This is the kind of academic volume which impresses you with the ideas found on each page, and at the same time sparks off new ideas in the reader.' Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman `Here is a topic with a variety of themes, some farcical, some darkly serious, some complex, and others which are beyond silly. It takes a particular skill to balance such a range of ideas, and Roger Luckhurst possesses this skill.' John Ray, Times Literary Supplement