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Some Words with a Mummy
When Professor Pononner invites his friends around one evening to unwrap a newly acquired Mummy, little do they realise the horror that awaits. The horror of reanimated corpses... ...falls from high windows... ....and an overwhelming sense of British embarrassment... This new adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's classic black comedy is ideal for a performance on a cold winter's night or to be read by the fireside with a glass of port.
74 pages, Paperback
First published October 23, 1845
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343 people want to read
About the author
Edgar Allan Poe
10.6kbooks27.8kfollowersThe name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. His works have been in print since 1827 and include such literary classics as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Fall of the House of Usher. This versatile writer’s oeuvre includes short stories, poetry, a novel, a textbook, a book of scientific theory, and hundreds of essays and book reviews. He is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the modern detective story and an innovator in the science fiction genre, but he made his living as America’s first great literary critic and theoretician. Poe’s reputation today rests primarily on his tales of terror as well as on his haunting lyric poetry.
Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.
The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls� school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.
For more information, please see
Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.
The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls� school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.
For more information, please see
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 112 reviews
August 12, 2022
Interesante relato.
Nuestro narrador se levanta de la cama a toda prisa porqué el doctor Ponnonner lo manda llamar porqué le han autorizado a destapar la momia que ha guardado durante tantos años.
En cuanto han quitado las primeras capas y le han aplicado corrientes eléctricas, la momia se despierta con toda naturalidad y empieza una conversación sobre las civilizaciones y los inventos de los últimos siglos.
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Interesting story.
Our narrator gets out of bed in a hurry because Dr. Ponnonner sends for him because he has been authorised to uncover the mummy he has kept for so many years.
As soon as the first layers have been removed and electric currents have been applied, the mummy wakes up quite naturally and begins a conversation about the civilisations and inventions of the last centuries.
Nuestro narrador se levanta de la cama a toda prisa porqué el doctor Ponnonner lo manda llamar porqué le han autorizado a destapar la momia que ha guardado durante tantos años.
En cuanto han quitado las primeras capas y le han aplicado corrientes eléctricas, la momia se despierta con toda naturalidad y empieza una conversación sobre las civilizaciones y los inventos de los últimos siglos.
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Interesting story.
Our narrator gets out of bed in a hurry because Dr. Ponnonner sends for him because he has been authorised to uncover the mummy he has kept for so many years.
As soon as the first layers have been removed and electric currents have been applied, the mummy wakes up quite naturally and begins a conversation about the civilisations and inventions of the last centuries.
November 6, 2016
HA! SOME WORDS WITH A MUMMY is a swell little satire!
An abrupt disturbance in the night leads our unnamed narrator to a rushed unveiling and dissection of an Egyptian mummy who comes back to life after 5,000 years sharing some interesting and surprising information......after kick-off, that is......Seems POE could write humor too! (loved it)
After our narrator takes his leave, he makes a creepy, but important decision about the rest of his life in the modern (Victorian) world.
HA! Great Ending!
October 24, 2022
An interesting yet rambling tale of conversing with a mummy and comparing ancient Egyptian beliefs with the present time of the author.
January 5, 2020
The narrator is invited to take part in the unwrapping and autopsy of a mummy. The scientists find the body in a surprisingly good condition. As the title suggests, the mummy is very much alive, due to his special genes and the unusual way he was embalmed.
But it is not a horror story! Actually, Allamistakeo is a very sophisticated and polite mummy, having a lofty conversation with the men gathered there.
The story starts hilarious, and it is overall quite funny, though I quickly got bored as the company tried to impress the mummy. The ending is great.
“This story is a satire of two things. First the popular interest in Egyptology and mummies during the time that this story was written. Secondly the prevailing thought that in the West humanity had reached the height of civilization and knowledge due to the scientific and industrial revolutions.� (Wikipedia)
But it is not a horror story! Actually, Allamistakeo is a very sophisticated and polite mummy, having a lofty conversation with the men gathered there.
The story starts hilarious, and it is overall quite funny, though I quickly got bored as the company tried to impress the mummy. The ending is great.
“This story is a satire of two things. First the popular interest in Egyptology and mummies during the time that this story was written. Secondly the prevailing thought that in the West humanity had reached the height of civilization and knowledge due to the scientific and industrial revolutions.� (Wikipedia)
May 27, 2019
Interesting idea- mummifying oneself in order to see what life will be like in 1,000 years or so. This story was packed with Poe's dry wit.
September 20, 2020
A lot of critique of this story comes from the fact that Poe deviates from his writing style of the macabre and gothic romance to that of satire. This wasn't a mummy horror story. Allamistakeo wasn't at all scary which was so unlike his other stories. A humorous Poe? I however, applaud him for his dry wit and his innovative imagination concerning a form of time travel without the use of machinery which came later of course with H. G. Well's The Time Machine(1895).
"The Mummy!: Or a Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (1827) by Jane Webb is widely credited as the first “mummy� story. Inspired by mummy unwrapping and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), it is a breed apart � an idiosyncratic piece of science fiction horror that seems to have inspired few imitators beyond Edgar Allan Poe, who broke from his frantic prose for a short comic offering, Some Words with a Mummy (1845)." () Both of these ideas of mummy unwrapping and use of electricity to bring back to life were utilized.
Oh Poe! You were such a crafty genius using satire and ridicule to poke fun at Egyptomania, even naming the mummy All/a/mistake/o and the then pompous current beliefs of man's superiority in science and knowledge over the ancients. Well I guess you did prove current man's superiority when the doctor pointed out that ancient Egyptian's didn't have cough drops. Well I guess that showed them! know it all ancients. HA!
"Although fascinated with the advances in science and technology, Poe was doubtful of humanity's progress via science. Poe did not want creative intuition sacrificed in the name of scientific reasoning. He believed truly creative scientific thinking required the intuitive imagination of a poet. When a friend commented on mankind's advancement towards perfection, Poe responded that man is now only more active, not wiser, nor more happy than he was 6000 years ago." () Poe demonstrated this belief in the story with the back and forth discussion wth Dr. Ponnonner's friends and the mummy.
Egyptomania included among other things 'mummy unwrapping parties� which ". . . was a social event most commonly associated with the elites of Victorian England. As its name suggests, these parties involved the unwrapping of Egyptian mummies in front of an audience. Such parties were highly popular amongst the Victorian elite, and therefore were huge successes, as it blended three elements that the Victorians found irresistible � Egypt, science, and the macabre. Whilst the spectators had their entertainment, the mummies were damaged beyond repair, not to mention desecrated. Eventually, however, such parties lost favor with the elite, as the ‘preservation of the past� overtook ‘science� in popularity." () Well thank goodness for that!
"Poe enjoyed poking fun at celebrities of his day James Silk Buckingham (1786-1855) was an English writer whose entertaining travel stories about the Near East appeared in the 1820's. His critical writings on the American South had turned Poe against him. He didn't wear a wig in real life; his wig in Poe's story was a playful reference to the "Whig" political party. Some Words with a Mummy was first published in American Review: A Whig Journal. (Poe, Edgar Allan and Prunier, James. "Some Words with a Mummy," collected in The Pit and the Pendulum and Other Stories, Viking Juvenile, 1999: 88).
Early science fiction stories feature characters who sleep for years and awaken in a changed society, one of which was Rip Van Winkle (1819) by Washington Irving. In this story Poe uses Egyptian embalming techniques sans removing organs to travel to a future time to be revitalized. "Despite his ambivalence towards science, Poe's experimentation with the themes of space and time travel, scientific discoveries, and man's relationship to the universe clearly established him as one of the earliest science fiction writers." ()
"The Mummy!: Or a Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (1827) by Jane Webb is widely credited as the first “mummy� story. Inspired by mummy unwrapping and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), it is a breed apart � an idiosyncratic piece of science fiction horror that seems to have inspired few imitators beyond Edgar Allan Poe, who broke from his frantic prose for a short comic offering, Some Words with a Mummy (1845)." () Both of these ideas of mummy unwrapping and use of electricity to bring back to life were utilized.
Oh Poe! You were such a crafty genius using satire and ridicule to poke fun at Egyptomania, even naming the mummy All/a/mistake/o and the then pompous current beliefs of man's superiority in science and knowledge over the ancients. Well I guess you did prove current man's superiority when the doctor pointed out that ancient Egyptian's didn't have cough drops. Well I guess that showed them! know it all ancients. HA!
"Although fascinated with the advances in science and technology, Poe was doubtful of humanity's progress via science. Poe did not want creative intuition sacrificed in the name of scientific reasoning. He believed truly creative scientific thinking required the intuitive imagination of a poet. When a friend commented on mankind's advancement towards perfection, Poe responded that man is now only more active, not wiser, nor more happy than he was 6000 years ago." () Poe demonstrated this belief in the story with the back and forth discussion wth Dr. Ponnonner's friends and the mummy.
Egyptomania included among other things 'mummy unwrapping parties� which ". . . was a social event most commonly associated with the elites of Victorian England. As its name suggests, these parties involved the unwrapping of Egyptian mummies in front of an audience. Such parties were highly popular amongst the Victorian elite, and therefore were huge successes, as it blended three elements that the Victorians found irresistible � Egypt, science, and the macabre. Whilst the spectators had their entertainment, the mummies were damaged beyond repair, not to mention desecrated. Eventually, however, such parties lost favor with the elite, as the ‘preservation of the past� overtook ‘science� in popularity." () Well thank goodness for that!
"Poe enjoyed poking fun at celebrities of his day James Silk Buckingham (1786-1855) was an English writer whose entertaining travel stories about the Near East appeared in the 1820's. His critical writings on the American South had turned Poe against him. He didn't wear a wig in real life; his wig in Poe's story was a playful reference to the "Whig" political party. Some Words with a Mummy was first published in American Review: A Whig Journal. (Poe, Edgar Allan and Prunier, James. "Some Words with a Mummy," collected in The Pit and the Pendulum and Other Stories, Viking Juvenile, 1999: 88).
Early science fiction stories feature characters who sleep for years and awaken in a changed society, one of which was Rip Van Winkle (1819) by Washington Irving. In this story Poe uses Egyptian embalming techniques sans removing organs to travel to a future time to be revitalized. "Despite his ambivalence towards science, Poe's experimentation with the themes of space and time travel, scientific discoveries, and man's relationship to the universe clearly established him as one of the earliest science fiction writers." ()
November 22, 2024
is a classic short story by . The author is known famously for his horror and macabre genre but this book is not horror. More like a quick and fun read. However it wasn't up to my expectation.
Since this is a short story, I didn't want to get into details. If you like satire, then you should read this story.
Since this is a short story, I didn't want to get into details. If you like satire, then you should read this story.
January 19, 2012
I always celebrate Poe's birthday with cupcakes a reading or two of his work. I opted to forgo my usual picks and my favorites and instead chose a short story often overlooked: Some Words With a Mummy. Some Words With a Mummy is among Poe's latter works, this one being published in 1845, just a few years before his death. One thing I love about the Victorian era is what was considered a fun hobby: the occult and mysticism (as mentioned in my review of ) as well as Egypt. I love the idea of socialites and other well-to-do members of society all gathered around someone's living room to poke and prod at mummies. I. Love. It.
The application of electricity to a mummy three or four thousand years old at the least, was an idea, if not very sage, still sufficiently original, and we all caught it at once. About one-tenth in earnest and nine-tenths in jest, we arranged a battery in the Doctor's study, and conveyed thither the Egyptian.
From what I've seen, people who don't read Poe outside class immediately write him off as a horror writer. While it's obviously true he wrote extensively for the genre, he also had a penchant for satire and humor and Some Words With a Mummy is the best of both.
Our narrator wakes up one morning and receives a letter from Doctor Ponnonner expressing excitement over having received permission to unwrap a mummy. Said narrator is one of the few special guests invited to attend the unwrapping.
Once the mummy is indeed unwrapped, Ponnonner begins his experimentation: attaching a battery to it! First the experiment with the forehead. After a few moments of...nothing, the men decide to head home for the night. However, our narrator then realizes the mummy's eyes are nearly closed (when they had previously been wide open).
I cannot say that I was alarmed at the phenomenon, because "alarmed" is, in my case, not exactly the word. It is possible, however, that, but for the Brown Stout, I might have been a little nervous. As for the rest of the company, they really made no attempt at concealing the downright fright which possessed them. Doctor Ponnonner was a man to be pitied. Mr. Gliddon, by some peculiar process, rendered himself invisible. Mr. Silk Buckingham, I fancy, will scarcely be so bold as to deny that he made his way, upon all fours, under the table.
In a flurry of excitement, the group tests the mummy's foot. The mummy promptly rears back and delivers a swift kick to Ponnonner's stomach. The assault actually sends the poor man through the window and down to the streets below. Hee!
The rest of the men immediately rush outside, fully convinced they'll find Ponnonner's mangled corpse lying in the street. However, they wind up meeting him on the staircase full of vigor and very eager to proceed with the experiments.
When the men return to the room, they discover the mummy is very much alive:
Morally and physically -- figuratively and literally -- was the effect electric. In the first place, the corpse opened its eyes and winked very rapidly for several minutes, as does Mr. Barnes in the pantomime, in the second place, it sneezed; in the third, it sat upon end; in the fourth, it shook its fist in Doctor Ponnonner's face; in the fifth, turning to Messieurs Gliddon and Buckingham, it addressed them, in very capital Egyptian, thus:
"I must say, gentlemen, that I am as much surprised as I am mortified at your behaviour. Of Doctor Ponnonner nothing better was to be expected. He is a poor little fat fool who knows no better. I pity and forgive him. But you, Mr. Gliddon- and you, Silk -- who have travelled and resided in Egypt until one might imagine you to the manner born -- you, I say who have been so much among us that you speak Egyptian fully as well, I think, as you write your mother tongue -- you, whom I have always been led to regard as the firm friend of the mummies -- I really did anticipate more gentlemanly conduct from you. What am I to think of your standing quietly by and seeing me thus unhandsomely used? What am I to suppose by your permitting Tom, Dick, and Harry to strip me of my coffins, and my clothes, in this wretchedly cold climate? In what light (to come to the point) am I to regard your aiding and abetting that miserable little villain, Doctor Ponnonner, in pulling me by the nose?"
Oh. Snap.
From then on, it's really nothing but a lovely sit-down with the mummy (Count Allamistakeo - haha!). The men ask Allamistakeo about his world and try to impress him with theirs (steam? BAH! Fancy machines? POO!) It's pretty cute, really. Allamistakeo reminded me of a lovely, wizened father figure humoring these supposed modern men.
At the end of the night the narrator returns home and climbs into bed. After only a few short hours, he pens his thoughts (which eerily hold true today):
The truth is, I am heartily sick of this life and of the nineteenth century in general. I am convinced that every thing is going wrong. Besides, I am anxious to know who will be President in 2045. As soon, therefore, as I shave and swallow a cup of coffee, I shall just step over to Ponnonner's and get embalmed for a couple of hundred years.
Some Words With a Mummy is a super quick and very fun read and highlight's Poe's strength as a writer of humor.
Favorite Quotes:
A light supper of course. I am exceedingly fond of Welsh rabbit. More than a pound at once, however, may not at all times be advisable. Still, there can be no material objection to two. And really between two and three, there is merely a single unit of difference. I ventured, perhaps, upon four. My wife will have it five; -- but, clearly, she has confounded two very distinct affairs.
"Why, it is the general custom in Egypt to deprive a corpse, before embalmment, of its bowels and brains; the race of the Scarabaei alone did not coincide with the custom. Had I not been a Scarabeus, therefore, I should have been without bowels and brains; and without either it is inconvenient to live."
September 11, 2019
Pretty cute short story, I read this years and years ago so I'm a bit fuzzy on the details, I will admit. But I enjoyed the story nonetheless, and Count Allamistakeo is featured briefly in Alan Moore's LXG comics.
August 1, 2022
Not my favourite Poe, and I appreciated it less the second time around, after at least a thirty year gap.
Some of it has stood the test of time less well than his other work.
The narrator, is awoken from his bed to attend a mummy unwrapping. The mummy becomes revived and discusses Ancient Egypt and nineteenth century America with the narrator and three other men.
It’s played for laughs, and humour does struggle when aged in literature.
When next revisiting Poe, I need to get weirder..
Some of it has stood the test of time less well than his other work.
The narrator, is awoken from his bed to attend a mummy unwrapping. The mummy becomes revived and discusses Ancient Egypt and nineteenth century America with the narrator and three other men.
It’s played for laughs, and humour does struggle when aged in literature.
When next revisiting Poe, I need to get weirder..
August 31, 2017
This is a funny little story. I wasn't expecting much but I was happily surprised from these 78 pages. I would love to read it again but I can't give it more than 2 stars because the luck of plot always get on my nerves!
January 16, 2021
“Upon getting home I found it past four o’clock and went immediately to bed. It is now ten AM. I have been up since seven, penning these memoranda for the benefit of family and of mankind. The former I shall behold no more. My wife is shrew. The truth is, I am heartily sick of this life and of the nineteenth century in general. I am convinced that everything is going wrong. Besides, I am anxious to know who will be President in 2045. As soon, therefore, as I shave and swallow a cup of coffee, I shall just step over to Ponnonner’s and get embalmed for a couple of hundred years.�
same Poe, same.
this one was great. imagine being able to talk to a mummy that’s come back to life. what would you ask it?
same Poe, same.
this one was great. imagine being able to talk to a mummy that’s come back to life. what would you ask it?
December 9, 2018
Some Words with a Mummy is another quick read from Poe. In my quest to read all of Poe, I’ve found I’m not crazy about quite a few of his short stories, yet I rather enjoyed this one. In truth, it wasn’t quite a full three-star rating, but I enjoyed it enough to round my rating up.
As the title would have you expecting, this story covers a conversation with an Egyptian mummy, but what makes it exciting is that we’re given something different. It wasn’t at all what I’d been anticipating, and I’m always open to surprises.
Sure, I would have liked a little bit more from this, but it was entertaining for a quick read.
As the title would have you expecting, this story covers a conversation with an Egyptian mummy, but what makes it exciting is that we’re given something different. It wasn’t at all what I’d been anticipating, and I’m always open to surprises.
Sure, I would have liked a little bit more from this, but it was entertaining for a quick read.
May 5, 2013
Funny and extremely clever- especially the fact that in the story, the modern people (in the 19th century at the time) could only find one superiority when compared to the ancient Egyptians: cough drops. This actually has a lot of truth. Ancient peoples were more advanced than most people give them credit for.
August 29, 2019
A group of friends is excited to be opening up an ancient mummy. They merrily decide to run some experiments on it and are startled when said mummy comes to life and is heartily disappointed in what he finds 5,000 years after being entombed. The human race is quite disappointing.
One of Poe's more enjoyable stories. It wasn't overburdened with lengthy descriptions and orations.
One of Poe's more enjoyable stories. It wasn't overburdened with lengthy descriptions and orations.
January 16, 2024
This short story by Edgar Allan Poe is about a man who brings a mummy back to life with a group of people. They talk to the mummy about their own civilization. The mmmy is 600 years old and talks about his way of living. The group ends up arguing about who's is better. You would think that this would be creepy, but the conversation is satire. They argue about who's civilization is better and after the group wins against the mummy, the conversation ends and the narrator goes home. I won't spoil the ending because it is pretty funny, but I reccomend this if you like Poe's writing style, but you don't like his scary stuff.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 9, 2016
Having got permission to examine a mummy, a group of men open the sarcophagus and find the engraved name of the mummy, Allamistakeo. Word play! Well, they proceed, find the mummy has all its organs intact, and decide to jolt it with electricity, which awakens it! Being that it's Edgar Allan Poe you might think he'd describe in gruesome detail something about the mummy's desiccated body or the terror the men feel. No, instead when electric charge is applied to its foot, the mummy rears back its leg and kicks a man so hard that he goes flying backwards, falling comically out of a window. The Marx Brothers could have made this into a movie.
Having revived the mummy, they proceed to have a conversation with it.
A pleasant little read, and a reminder that the ancients knew more than we give them credit for and that we're more ignorant than we recognize.
Having revived the mummy, they proceed to have a conversation with it.
A pleasant little read, and a reminder that the ancients knew more than we give them credit for and that we're more ignorant than we recognize.
March 26, 2025
This was an absolutely charming story, and quite light-hearted for Edgar Allan Poe. "Some Words with a Mummy" is the story of a doctor and his friends, who get together to unwrap a mummy, and it turns out that the mummy is still alive. The assembled group then spend their time asking him questions and learning about ancient Egyptian culture. All in all, very interesting, easily readable, and a lot of fun.
I've come to expect my Poe to be dark, and I expected this story to be scary, but I'm glad it was exactly as it was.
I've come to expect my Poe to be dark, and I expected this story to be scary, but I'm glad it was exactly as it was.
April 15, 2013
SOME WORDS WITH A MUMMY is a creative, well written short story. Poe is amazing, though he wrote in the Victorian age his stories have such a fresh, modern out look to them. He is so talented at satire and this story has an incredible funny ending with his sarcastic touch. If you like satire, I highly recomend this short story.
August 26, 2019
I have arranged my takeaway thoughts into a haiku:
"Someone'll be put out,
When he sees mummy parties
Replaced by board games."
"Someone'll be put out,
When he sees mummy parties
Replaced by board games."
July 10, 2022
Se trata de una sátira de la época victoriana, pero no me ha parecido particularmente interesante ni entretenida.
December 7, 2018
Of the Intellectual Kind
7 December 2018 � Sydney
I wonder whether this is the original animated mummy story. Well, probably except the problem is that it is pretty tongue in cheek. Sure, there is that Frankensteinien element where they reanimate the mummy by shocking it with a jolt of electricity, but it doesn’t end up running riot around New York City Brendan Fraser style or anything. In fact, it turns out that this particular mummy is a rather passive type who is also somewhat of an intellectual. Mind you, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it won’t end up rampaging around New York City, but Poe doesn’t seem to be all that concerned with that part of the story.
Basically, these Egyptologists find a rather remarkably preserved mummy, and when they unwrap it, they discovered that it certainly is very well preserved, and it even seems to have all of its organs. So, after poking and prodding it as scientists are want to do, they decide that it might be a really good idea to send a bolt of electricity through it. Well, that certainly does the trick because the mummy proceeds to wake up.
Now, if this was some sort of Boris Karloff type film (he was the original mummy, wasn’t he?) then the mummy would probably be quite annoyed at being poked and prodded and all that (I know I would be), but this one doesn’t seem to be all that concerned. Rather, instead of killing all the scientists for daring to desecrate his tomb, the mummy decides to have a conversation with them, and then explain to them how they pretty much have got everything wrong.
As I suggested, this is basically satire, and in a way it is making mockery of this idea that we have become this really, really advanced civilisation. Mind you, this was written back in the early 19th Century, so the ironic thing is that what Poe is suggesting here is probably much, much more relevant today than it was back then. Then again, with the enlightenment and all that having just kicked off, we did get to this point when we literally believed that science had solved all of our problems and that we were on the verge of a new age of peace and prosperity � and then World War I happened.
Poe is also making fun of this whole Egypt craze, but then again that is something that is still happening today. I don’t know how many people I have met who claim to have been Queen Nefertiti in their past lives. Mind you, back when Poe had written this they, well, had just got their hands on the Rosetta Stone, so all of a sudden we were now able to read hieroglyphics. It sort of opened up a whole new world to us. Yet, Poe seems to be making a mockery of this, once again, by having the mummy explain to them that pretty much everything they thought they knew is actually wrong.
Oh, and the mummy isn’t all that impressed with our level of technology. Then again, I am surprised that the mummy didn’t look at us, think ‘puny mortals� and proceed to destroy us. Well, I guess we would have to wait about a hundred years for Boris Karloff to come around and start teaching us a lesson.
7 December 2018 � Sydney
I wonder whether this is the original animated mummy story. Well, probably except the problem is that it is pretty tongue in cheek. Sure, there is that Frankensteinien element where they reanimate the mummy by shocking it with a jolt of electricity, but it doesn’t end up running riot around New York City Brendan Fraser style or anything. In fact, it turns out that this particular mummy is a rather passive type who is also somewhat of an intellectual. Mind you, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it won’t end up rampaging around New York City, but Poe doesn’t seem to be all that concerned with that part of the story.
Basically, these Egyptologists find a rather remarkably preserved mummy, and when they unwrap it, they discovered that it certainly is very well preserved, and it even seems to have all of its organs. So, after poking and prodding it as scientists are want to do, they decide that it might be a really good idea to send a bolt of electricity through it. Well, that certainly does the trick because the mummy proceeds to wake up.
Now, if this was some sort of Boris Karloff type film (he was the original mummy, wasn’t he?) then the mummy would probably be quite annoyed at being poked and prodded and all that (I know I would be), but this one doesn’t seem to be all that concerned. Rather, instead of killing all the scientists for daring to desecrate his tomb, the mummy decides to have a conversation with them, and then explain to them how they pretty much have got everything wrong.
As I suggested, this is basically satire, and in a way it is making mockery of this idea that we have become this really, really advanced civilisation. Mind you, this was written back in the early 19th Century, so the ironic thing is that what Poe is suggesting here is probably much, much more relevant today than it was back then. Then again, with the enlightenment and all that having just kicked off, we did get to this point when we literally believed that science had solved all of our problems and that we were on the verge of a new age of peace and prosperity � and then World War I happened.
Poe is also making fun of this whole Egypt craze, but then again that is something that is still happening today. I don’t know how many people I have met who claim to have been Queen Nefertiti in their past lives. Mind you, back when Poe had written this they, well, had just got their hands on the Rosetta Stone, so all of a sudden we were now able to read hieroglyphics. It sort of opened up a whole new world to us. Yet, Poe seems to be making a mockery of this, once again, by having the mummy explain to them that pretty much everything they thought they knew is actually wrong.
Oh, and the mummy isn’t all that impressed with our level of technology. Then again, I am surprised that the mummy didn’t look at us, think ‘puny mortals� and proceed to destroy us. Well, I guess we would have to wait about a hundred years for Boris Karloff to come around and start teaching us a lesson.
January 9, 2014
It was a pleasant read. I even laughed at many places,which I rarely do when reading Poe. An Egyptian mummy is revived,quite accidentally,by a group of friends to whom it was lent by the museum for study. They try to gather details of life at that time and ask him if life was as developed as in the present time. They point out few important inventions of the present time and ask him to comment on that. The mummy,who was a Count,shame them by pointing out the marvels of his time. In a subtle way,he even predicts what might happen to the United States of America in the future. It can be said to be satirical in a way. An enjoyable read.
February 23, 2018
Poe was a funny dude, but they say the line between humor and horror is pretty thin. Or something like that. If you dig satire, and old drunk antiquarians having a debate with a mummified corpse, then you'll like this. The ending is a hoot. I wish we could all just embalm ourselves when we get bored with our current state of affairs and then wake up every hundred years or so and see what's up.
February 13, 2012
A great satire joke on modern life, asking the question, are we even better then the Egyptians at that point of time? Quite entertaining......Timothy~
October 13, 2023
Awesome! Quick read, fun, original, and the always-appreciated plot twist from Poe. Really enjoyed it.
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October 6, 2020This delightful tale by Mr. Poe unfolds in which the narrator of this story and his comrades disinter an Egyptian mummy and bring it back to life and then try to inform him of the marvels of the 19th century. Imagine then their surprise when they learn that the Egyptians had all these marvels and more in their day! The story ends with the narrator, being utterly sick of the 19th century (of which it is a total bore), and seeking to himself entombed, so that he might be brought back to life in the year 2045, the marvels of which have yet to be discovered by this reviewer and others. Now, I have already given away the beginning and end of this story but I have not given away the middle whose details may still excite you. I suggest that you, Dear Reader, now go ahead and download this tale on your newfangled computing gadget, so that you may see them yourself. There is much still to know in this old world, is there not?
July 26, 2021
Ahkmenrah?!� a wonderfully witty satire!
June 17, 2023
3.5 ⭐️ rounded up
a silly little poe story for the egyptology girlies
a silly little poe story for the egyptology girlies
October 21, 2020
A fun short story that possesses subtle humor.
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