The subject of "The Romance of a Mummy" was possibly suggested to
Theophile Gautier by Ernest Feydeau, the author of "Fanny" and other
works of purely light literature, who published in 1858 a "General
History of Funeral Customs and Burials among the Ancients." This book
was reviewed by Gautier when it appeared, and it is most likely that he
had been previously made acquainted with its contents and had discussed
Egyptian funeral rites and modes of sepulture with the author, for it
was to Feydeau that he dedicated his novel when it was published in book
form by Hachette in 1858. An omnivorous reader, Gautier had no doubt
also perused the far more important works of Champollion, the decipherer
of the inscriptions on the Rosetta stone, who first gave the learned
world the key to the mysterious Egyptian hieroglyphic alphabet.
Champollion's "Monuments of Egypt and Nubia" had appeared in four
volumes from 1835 to 1845, and a continuation by himself and the Vicomte
Emmanuel de Rouge was completed in 1872. Champollion-Figeac's "Ancient
Egypt" had been published in 1840, having been preceded by Lenormant's
"The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in the Louvre," in 1830, and
followed by Prisse d'Avennes' "Monuments of Egypt" in 1847. The
explorations and discoveries of Mariette, summed up in that writer's
"Selected Monuments and Drawings," issued in 1856, and the steady growth
of the Egyptian Museum in the Louvre, to which was added in 1852 the
magnificent Clot-Bey collection, must have attracted the attention of
Gautier, always keenly interested in art, literature, and erudition.
The account he gives, in his novel, of the ancient city of Thebes, of
the great necropolis in the valley of Biban el Moluk, of the
subterranean tombs, of the precautions taken by the designers to baffle
curiosity, of the form and ornamentation of the sarcophagi, of the
mummy-cases, of the mummy itself, of the manners, customs, dress, and
beliefs of the ancient Egyptians, are marvellously accurate. Nothing is
easier than to verify his descriptions by reference to the works of
Champollion, Mariette, Wilkinson, Rawlinson, Erman, Edwards, and
Maspero. Scarcely here and there will the reader find a possible error
in his statements. It is evident that he has not trusted alone to what
Feydeau told him, or to what he read in his book or in the works of
Egyptologists; he examined the antiquities in the Louvre for himself; he
noted carefully the scenes depicted on monuments and sarcophagi; he
traced the ornamentation in all its details; he studied the poses, the
attitudes, the expressions; he marked the costumes, the accessories; in
a word, he mastered his subject, and then only did he, with that
facility and certainty that amazed Balzac, write in swift succession the
chapters of the novel which appeared in the numbers of the "Moniteur
Universel" from March 11 to May 6, 1857.
His remark on Feydeau's book, "Picturesqueness in no wise detracts from
accuracy," might well be applied to his own "Romance," which fascinates
the reader with its evocation of a long vanished past and its
representation of a civilisation buried for centuries in mystery. The
weaving in of the wonders wrought by Moses and Aaron, of the
overwhelming of the Pharaoh, whether Thotmes or Rameses, is skilfully
managed, and imparts to the portions of the Biblical narrative used by
him a verisimilitude and a sensation of actuality highly artistic. The
purely erudite part of the work would probably not have interested the
general public, indifferent to the discoveries of archaeology, but the
introduction of the human element of love at once captivated it; the
erudite appreciated the accuracy of the restoration of ancient times and
manners; the merely curious were pleased with a well told story,
cleverly set in a framework whose strangeness appealed to their love of
exoticism and novelty.
There have been added by the editor, as bearing upon the subject of the
"Romance of a Mummy," two or three chapters from the volume entitled
"The Orient," which is made up of a collection of sketches and letters
of travel written at different times, and of reviews of books upon
Eastern subjects, whether modern or ancient. The chapter describing a
trip to Egypt was the result of a flying visit paid to that country on
the occasion of the official opening of the Suez Canal in November,
1869. Gautier embarked on board the steamship "Moeris," of the
Messageries Imperiales, at Marseilles. The very first night out he
slipped and fell down the companion steps, and broke his left arm above
the elbow. This painful accident did not prevent his fulfilling his
promise to keep the "Journal Officiel," with which he was then
connected, fully supplied with accounts of the land and the inauguration
ceremonies.
_The Romance of a Mummy_