The Mummy (Valancourt 20th Century Classics)

Book excerpt: Dr. Armiston, middle-aged bachelor and general practitioner, has his quiet and routine life interrupted when he is called in to consult on the deaths of two young men. One case seems to be a tragic accident, the other the result of natural causes, but they have one strange thing in common: the presence of the same ancient Egyptian mummy case in both men's homes. When Armiston learns that the sarcophagus is inscribed with a terrible curse promising vengeance on anyone who disturbs the mummy's repose, and as the series of deaths continues, the doctor will risk his own life to unravel the mystery and find out whether the mummy - or something or someone else - is responsible. As Mark Valentine argues in his new introduction to this edition, Riccardo Stephens's exceedingly scarce "The Mummy" (1912) is a fine piece of storytelling, an inventive weird mystery that bears comparison with the works of Conan Doyle and Robert Louis Stevenson. This edition follows the text of the 1923 Hutchinson edition. "Belongs to that unusual type of book which not only propounds a riddle of remarkable ingenuity, but also is admirably written." - "Sydney Morning Herald" "A clever plot well handled and the mystery is sustained, even for the best picker of conclusions and reader of riddles ... extremely entertaining." - "Evening Post" (Wellington, N.Z.) "It reminds one very much of Wilkie Collins." - "Evening Standard"