''The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century'' is an 1827

three-volume novel The three-volume novel (sometimes three-decker or triple decker) was a standard form of publishing for British fiction during the nineteenth century. It was a significant stage in the development of the modern novel as a form of popular literatur ...

written by Jane Webb (later

Jane C. Loudon Jane Wells Webb Loudon (19 August 1807 – 13 July 1858) (also known as Jane C. Loudon) was an English author and early pioneer of science fiction. She wrote before the term was coined, and was discussed for a century as a writer of Gothic fic ...

). It concerns the Egyptian mummy of

Cheops Khufu or Cheops was an ancient Egyptian monarch who was the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty, in the first half of the Old Kingdom period (26th century BC). Khufu succeeded his father Sneferu as king. He is generally accepted as having com ...

, who is brought back to life in the year 2126. The novel describes a future filled with advanced technology, and was the first English-language story to feature a reanimated mummy. After her father's death, making her an orphan at the age of 17, Webb found that:Shigitatsu Antiquarian Books. Profile of Jane Webb Loudon (1807–1858)
Shigitatsu.com. Retrieved on 5 April 2012. She may have drawn inspiration from the general fashion for anything pharaonic, inspired by the French researches during the Napoleonic invasion of Egypt; the 1821 public unwrappings of Egyptian mummies in a theatre near

Piccadilly Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road that connects central London to Hammersmith, Earl's Court, ...

, which she may have attended as a girl; and, very likely, the 1818 novel by

Mary Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic fiction, Gothic novel ''Frankenstein, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an History of scie ...

, ''

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a Sapience, sapient Frankenstein's monster, creature ...

.''Lisa Hopkins, "Jane C. Loudon’s The Mummy!: Mary Shelley Meets George Orwell, and They Go in a Balloon to Egypt", in Cardiff Corvey: ''Reading the Romantic Text'', 10 (June 2003)
Retrieved on 16 December 2019. As Shelley had written of Frankenstein's creation, "A mummy again endued with animation could not be so hideous as that wretch," which may have triggered her later concept. In any case, at many points she deals in greater clarity with elements from the earlier book such as the loathing for the much-desired object and the immediate arrest for crime and attempt to lie one's way out of it. However, unlike the Frankenstein monster, the hideous revived Cheops is not shuffling around dealing out horror and death, but giving canny advice on politics and life to those who befriend him. In some ways ''The Mummy!'' may be seen as her reaction to themes in ''Frankenstein'': her mummy specifically says he is allowed life only by divine favour, rather than being indisputably vivified only by mortal science, and so on, as Hopkins' 2003 essay covers in detail. Unlike many early science fiction works (Shelley's ''

The Last Man ''The Last Man'' is an apocalyptic, dystopian science fiction novel by Mary Shelley, first published in 1826. The narrative concerns Europe in the late 21st century, ravaged by a mysterious plague pandemic that rapidly sweeps across the entire ...

'', and ''

The Reign of King George VI, 1900–1925 Samuel Madden (23 December 1686 – 31 December 1765) was an Irish author. His works include ''Themistocles; The Lover of His Country'', ''Reflections and Resolutions Proper for the Gentlemen of Ireland'', and ''Memoirs of the Twentieth Century' ...

'', written anonymously in 1763The reign of George VI. 1900–1925; a forecast written in the year 1763
ondonW. Niccoll, 1763, Published in 1899, Archive.org. Retrieved on 5 April 2012.), Loudon did not portray the future as her own day with only political changes. She filled her world with foreseeable changes in technology, society, and even fashion. The hero, Edric Montague, lived in a peaceful and Catholic England under the rule of Queen Claudia. Her court ladies wear trousers and hair ornaments of controlled flame. Surgeons and lawyers may be steam-powered

automaton An automaton (; plural: automata or automatons) is a relatively self-operating machine, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions.Automaton – Definition and More ...

s. Air travel, by balloon, is commonplace. A kind of Internet is predicted in it. Besides trying to account for the revivification of the mummy in scientific terms— galvanic shock rather than incantations—"she embodied ideas of scientific progress and discovery, that now read like prophecies" to those later in the 19th century. Many of the incidents in the book can be seen as satirical or humorous. Her social attitudes have resulted in this book being ranked among

feminist novel The following is a list of feminist literature, listed by year of first publication, then within the year alphabetically by title (using the English title rather than the foreign language title if available/applicable). Books and magazines are ...

s. ''The Mummy!: Or a Tale of the Twenty-Second Century'' was published anonymously in 1827 by

Henry Colburn Henry Colburn (1784 – 16 August 1855) was a British publisher. Life Virtually nothing is known about Henry Colburn's parentage or early life, and there is uncertainty over his year of birth. He was well-educated and fluent in French and h ...

in three volumes, as was usual in that day so that each small volume could be easily carried around. It drew many favourable reviews, including one in 1829 in ''

The Gardener's Magazine ''The Gardener's Magazine'' was the first British periodical devoted to horticulture. Full title was ''The gardener's magazine and register of rural & domestic improvement''. It was written, edited and published by John Claudius Loudon starti ...

'' on the inventions proposed in it. In 1830, the 46-year-old reviewer,

John Claudius Loudon John Claudius Loudon (8 April 1783 – 14 December 1843) was a Scottish botanist, garden designer and author. He was the first to use the term arboretum in writing to refer to a garden of plants, especially trees, collected for the purpose of ...

, sought out the 22-year-old Webb, and they married the next year.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mummy 1827 British novels 1820s science fiction novels British science fiction novels 1820s fantasy novels British fantasy novels Novels set in the 22nd century Fiction about mummies Novels set in ancient Egypt Three-volume novels British Gothic novels Works published anonymously Khufu Feminist books Works about robots