Most of you have encountered fictional horror stories involving mummies – either in literature or on film. But it is not a modern invention; the old Egyptians themselves wrote mummy stories. The fourth son of Ramses II, Setne Khamwas, a high priest at Memphis, was often a main character in those ancient stories.
But that is not what we will discuss now.
Napoleon's Egyptian campaign in the end of the 1700s, the subsequent advance in the interpretation of hieroglyphs, and archaeological findings during the 1800s, triggered an immense interest in Egypt: Egyptomania. Old Egyptian culture, as it was understood, came to influence European and North American art, design, literature and philosophy. However, at the centre of this we don't find hard facts, but a view of Egypt as the cradle of the occult, of magic and esoteric wisdom. Whether or not this view were true, it was that picture that penetrated fictional literature; especially speculative fiction. We find it in a varying degree in the literature of, for instance, H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Bloch, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Edgar Allan Poe. (They serve just as four examples of many possible, and I chose them because they have deeply influenced many other authors, even whole genres of literature.)
In literature, H. P. Lovecraft (American author, 1890-1937) was a leading figure of horror and speculative fiction. Lovecraft was fascinated by Egyptology, but it was the mystical Egypt. Nowhere is that as clear as in "Nyarlathotep", a story about a resurrected Egyptian sorcerer. The character occurs in a number of Lovecraft's stories, not only the one carrying his name.
Another author who came to write about the Lovecraftian universe of the Cthulhu Mythos, was Robert Bloch (1917-1994). In a series called Robert Bloch's Egyptian stories, he counts a number of old Egyptian deities to The Great Old Ones: Anubis, in "The Great Opener of the Way"; Bastet in "The Brood of Bubastis"; and Sebek, a figure corresponding to the old Egyptian crocodile god, Sobek.
In twelve stories by the grand old master of horror, Edgar Allan Poe (American author, 1809-1849), Egypt is mentioned. However, it is peripheral, superficial and quite meaningless. He creates no atmosphere of old Egyptian mystique and he lacks knowledge even of the limited results of Egyptology that were available at the time. My impression is that he completely lacks interest in Ancient Egypt, real or mythical, and just furnishes his stories with a few Egyptian accessories as a concession to the fashion of the time. On the whole, I like Poe, he is a great author, but his attempts to include Egypt in his works are just bad taste.
The only story built on an Egyptian theme, is “Some Words with a Mummy”, but it is really a satire, not a horror story. I think Poe felt contempt for Egyptomania, and I can respect that standpoint, but then it would have been better to leave it out from his production entirely.
The last author in this survey is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He is best known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, but that is just a small part of his production. Conan Doyle could not avoid Egyptomania, and, contrary to the other authors mentioned here, he actually visited Egypt. It was in 1846, and he never went there again. Being a typical British colonial imperialist, he frowned at everything Egyptian. For those British imperialists, only the British were civilized. Yet, he was fascinated by archaeological findings and mummies – and he contributed to the picture of the mysterious Egypt in the literature of the time. However, the magic of his stories is always malignant and evil. That is hardly surprising, given his contempt for Egypt.
Peculiarly, it is always objects from Egypt that figure in his stories, such as "The Mummy" and "The Ring of Thoth". The only story taking place in Egypt is "The Tragedy of the Korosko" from 1898, and its topic is rather Sudan than Egypt.
Resources:
The Complete Works of H. P. Lovecraft: https://archive.org/details/TheCompleteWorksOfHPLovecraft_201412/page/n1
Audiobooks: Lovecraft, Robert Bloch, and others... https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIvp_SM7UrKuFgR3W77fWcg/playlists
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lot No. 249: http://www.gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800291h.html#ch11
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Tragedy of the Korosko: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Tragedy_of_the_Korosko
Related articles:
Lovecraft was More than Horror
Also read Egyptian Mummies & Mummification, about real mummies.
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I am not an expert on the lives of these writers. What I can say is that when I was a teenager and read Poe's stories they fascinated me to such a degree that I imagined writing like him. Then as an adult I read some of Agatha's works and was impressed by the way she wrote her stories. I don't know their influences on my writing. Thank you for this information.