Remarkably thorough and yet refreshingly readable, this action-packed history of Egyptology is driven by some extraordinary characters--mostly men but some notable women--who needed to learn everything they could about the culture, land, and language of ancient Egypt. As much a study of European colonialism in Egypt as a historiography of seventeenth- to nineteenth-century scholarship, this volume is an absolute necessity for anybody with an interest in pharaonic Egypt.
Wonderful Things is not only a definitive study of the early history of Egyptology, but an entrancing read. Thompson knows how to tell a story, and does so in vivid yet measured prose, which brings what could be a dull subject to life in memorable ways. He wears his scholarship lightly, which makes this beautifully crafted book a joy for the general reader
The discovery of ancient Egypt and the development of Egyptology are momentous events in intellectual and cultural history. The history of Egyptology is the story of the people, famous and obscure, who constructed the picture of ancient Egypt that we have today, recovered the Egyptian past while inventing it anew, and made a lost civilization comprehensible to generations of enchanted readers and viewers thousands of years later. This, the first of a three-volume survey of the history of Egyptology, follows the fascination with ancient Egypt from antiquity until 1881, tracing the recovery of ancient Egypt and its impact on the human imagination in a saga filled with intriguing mysteries, great discoveries, and scholarly creativity. Wonderful Things affirms that the history of ancient Egypt has proved continually fascinating, but it also demonstrates that the history of Egyptology is no less so. Only by understanding how Egyptology has developed can we truly understand the Egyptian past.
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