The Mummy!
Within a decade of the 1818 publication of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, another Englishwoman invented a foundational work of science fiction. Seventeen-year-old Jane Webb Loudon took up the theme of reanimation, moved it three hundred years into the future, and applied it to Cheops, an ancient Egyptian mummy. Unlike Shelley's horrifying, death-dealing monster, this revivified creature bears the wisdom of the ages and is eager to share his insights with humanity. Cheops boards a hot-air balloon and travels to 22nd-century England, where he sets about remedying the ills of a corrupt government. In recounting Cheops' attempts to put the futuristic society to rights, the young author offers a fascinating portrait of the preoccupations of her own era as well as some remarkably prescient predictions of technological advances. The Mummy! envisions a world in which automatons perform surgery, undersea tunnels connect England and Ireland, weather-control devices provide crop irrigation, and messages are transmitted with the speed of cannonball fire. The first novel to feature the concept of a living mummy, this pioneering tale offers an engaging mix of comedy, politics, and science fiction.
English & College SuccessEnglishFiction
RELEASED2017
PUBLISHERDover Publications
LENGTH416
LANGUAGEENGLISH
An early pioneer of science fiction, long before the term was invented, so that she was discussed for a century as a writer of Gothic fiction or fantasy or horror, though she did none of these things as we now categorize fiction. She is better known for her work in creating the first popular gardening manuals, providing an alternative to the specialist horticultural tomes of her time, and for her contributions to the work of her husband, [John Claudius Loudon][1]. [1]: http://openlibrary.org/authors/OL2554279A/John_Claudius_Loudon
The Mummy!
Within a decade of the 1818 publication of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, another Englishwoman invented a foundational work of science fiction. Seventeen-year-old Jane Webb Loudon took up the theme of reanimation, moved it three hundred years into the future, and applied it to Cheops, an ancient Egyptian mummy. Unlike Shelley's horrifying, death-dealing monster, this revivified creature bears the wisdom of the ages and is eager to share his insights with humanity. Cheops boards a hot-air balloon and travels to 22nd-century England, where he sets about remedying the ills of a corrupt government. In recounting Cheops' attempts to put the futuristic society to rights, the young author offers a fascinating portrait of the preoccupations of her own era as well as some remarkably prescient predictions of technological advances. The Mummy! envisions a world in which automatons perform surgery, undersea tunnels connect England and Ireland, weather-control devices provide crop irrigation, and messages are transmitted with the speed of cannonball fire. The first novel to feature the concept of a living mummy, this pioneering tale offers an engaging mix of comedy, politics, and science fiction.
English & College SuccessEnglishFiction
RELEASED2017
PUBLISHERDover Publications
LENGTH416
LANGUAGEENGLISH
An early pioneer of science fiction, long before the term was invented, so that she was discussed for a century as a writer of Gothic fiction or fantasy or horror, though she did none of these things as we now categorize fiction. She is better known for her work in creating the first popular gardening manuals, providing an alternative to the specialist horticultural tomes of her time, and for her contributions to the work of her husband, [John Claudius Loudon][1]. [1]: http://openlibrary.org/authors/OL2554279A/John_Claudius_Loudon
