Eleanor Dobson's Writing the Sphinx: Literature, Culture and Egyptology throws open the doors of recent scholarship on the literary and cultural reception of ancient Egypt in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and adds a significant number of cross references and context to previous work. Building on literary analyses of Egyptianizing works of fiction and historical sources, Dobson pays close attention to the strangely indeterminable space between fiction and nonfiction. She considers works and concepts that inhabit both modes at the same time, oscillating between mere imaginary depictions of Egypt and Egyptian characters and artifacts, spiritual belief systems, ironic reflections, and scientific treatises on Egyptological findings.

Writing the Sphinx is organized into five parts, each considering a specific vantage point from which the analyzed corpus of works can be viewed and dissected. At the same time, each chapter weaves into and builds on the others, stressing the “symbiotic relationship between a variety of Egyptological writings and literary cultural production” (5). For example, the transmedial narrative of the discovery and public reception of the tomb of Tutankhamun by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon in 1922 builds on public interest garnered through adventurous descriptions of Egyptological work in fiction and nonfiction throughout the nineteenth century. Similarly, Marie Corelli's belief in her own reincarnation ties her to authors like Rider Haggard, who shared her belief in a former life as an Egyptian as well as her heavy references to works of Egyptology in her writings. Overall, Dobson focuses on the “indivisibility of literary and material culture” (8) within the discourse.

Starting off with “‘Wonderful Things’: Howard Carter, Literary Genre and Material Intertextuality,” Dobson analyzes the different versions and gradients of the narrative surrounding the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in the official reports as well as the private notes taken by those involved, outlining convincingly how aware Carter was of the potential behind adventurous storytelling in order to gather a wider public interest. In this chapter, Dobson introduces and loosely defines as a trend several such instances of an intermingling of Egyptological discoveries and campaigns and an overlap of academic reporting and literary framing, among them the conscious production of book covers of both fiction and academic works that feature popular Egyptian symbolism, turning the books into artifacts themselves.

In the second chapter, “‘Fairy Tales’ and ‘Bunkum’: Marie Corelli, Artefacts and Fabrications,” Dobson delves deeper into the overlap of fiction and nonfiction. In an attempt to show how thin the line between fact and fiction grows in the context of the cultural reception of ancient Egypt in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Dobson follows the frequent practice of “imagining ancient Egyptian objects in their original contexts” (59) and offers a survey of texts and objects that are linked to historical or fictional events. Artifacts are ascribed magical powers and apparent proof is drawn from Egyptological treatises. Marie Corelli's firm belief in her own reincarnation and access to secret knowledge is both criticized and nourished by Egyptologists, highlighting once again the oscillation between an academic interest and the projection of the supernatural onto the ancient Egyptian culture and religion by both amateur and established Egyptologists.

In chapter 3, “‘The Master-Key That Opens Every Door’: Hieroglyphs, Translations and Palimpsests,” Dobson examines the fascination the Egyptian language(s) held for the Victorians and how a growing interest of amateurs in hieroglyphics led to the inclusion of genuine and made-up Egyptian symbols and texts in fictional works and their illustrations and book covers, often hinting at inherent magical powers of the Egyptian hieroglyphs. The use of genuine text passages and symbols by authors led to a blurring of the lines between fact and fiction, adding a hint of the supernatural to Egyptological knowledge while simultaneously granting a degree of authenticity to the stories and popular texts that made use of hieroglyphs.

In chapter 4, “‘Drunk on the Dead’: Intoxication, Perfume and Mummy Dust,” Dobson takes a detailed look at descriptions of physical reactions to encounters with the ancient Egyptian. Dobson examines the inherently sexual undertones connected to the consumption or inhalation of Egyptian substances—be it the literal consumption of bodies in the form of ash or mummy dust or a more metaphorical consumption through spices or hallucinogenic substances. From literary texts such as De Quincey's Confessions to Oscar Wilde's smoking habit, Dobson shows the consumption of opiates and hallucinogens to play a surprisingly significant role in relation to nineteenth-century Egyptomania.

With the final chapter, “‘The Sphinx Will Speak at Last’: Visions, Communications and Esoteric Experience,” Dobson turns to esoteric and occult movements, such as the Order of the Golden Dawn or the Theosophical Society. Once again, genuine Egyptian artifacts and symbols were reinterpreted to feed into a narrative of secret and sacred knowledge; movements that included not only writers and artists but also many established Egyptologists. Dobson offers a multitude of examples and references to these developments in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, drawing attention to how closely intertwined Egyptology and esoteric cultures were.

Finally, “Coda” describes the end of this “complex, multifarious and collaborative culture” (223) of the 1930s through the oversaturation of the market with Egyptianizing products and texts, but Dobson points out that several elements still remain in our cultural consciousness, such as the mummy's curse and narratives of reincarnation.

Dobson has done extensive archival work for this book, and each chapter is a treasure trove of references and cross references to primary and secondary texts, many of which have been previously neglected in scholarship. Considered together, they offer a new perspective on the remarkable interest in ancient Egypt and its culture in a time when the academic subject of Egyptology was still very much in its formative stages and the fin de siècle anxiety and interest in the occult and supernatural was at its height.