Eleanor Dobson Books

Exploring the dynamic interplay between literary culture and Egyptology, this work reveals a vibrant tradition marked by creativity and collaboration. It delves into how these two fields have influenced one another, highlighting significant contributions and interactions that have shaped both literary expression and the study of ancient Egypt. Through this lens, readers gain insight into the profound connections that enrich our understanding of both disciplines.

This book explores literary and Egyptological cultures from the closing decades of the nineteenth century to the opening decades of the twentieth, culminating in the aftermath of the high-profile discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922.

Victorian Alchemy explores nineteenth-century conceptions of ancient Egypt as this extant civilisation was being ?rediscovered? in the modern world. With its material remnants somewhat paradoxically symbolic of both antiquity and modernity (in the very currentness of Egyptological excavations), ancient Egypt was at once evocative of ancient magical power and of cutting-edge science, a tension that might be productively conceived of as ?alchemical?. Allusions to ancient Egypt simultaneously lent an air of legitimacy to depictions of the supernatural while projecting a sense of enchantment onto representations of cutting-edge science.0Examining literature and other cultural forms including art, photography and early film, Eleanor Dobson traces the myriad ways in which magic and science were perceived as entwined, and ancient Egypt evoked in parallel with various fields of study, from imaging technologies and astronomy, to investigations into the electromagnetic spectrum and the human mind itself. In so doing, counter to linear narratives of nineteenth-century progress, and demonstrating how ancient Egypt was more than a mere setting for Orientalist fantasies or nightmares, the book establishes how conceptions of modernity were inextricably bound up in the contemporary reception of the ancient world, and suggests how such ideas that took root and flourished in the Victorian era persist to this day.

Exploring the interplay between ancient Egypt and Victorian perceptions, the book delves into how this civilization symbolized both antiquity and modernity during the 19th century. It highlights the duality of ancient Egypt as a source of magical power and a reflection of contemporary scientific advancements. Through an analysis of literature, art, photography, and early film, the author reveals how magic and science were intertwined, challenging linear narratives of progress and illustrating the lasting impact of these Victorian conceptions on modern views of the ancient world.