The last mummy in Britain to be unwrapped in 1898 under scientific conditions, at Manchester University, led by Dr Murray (3rd left), the first Egyptologist and her deputy Winnifred Crompton (Image: © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

The relationship of Victorians to mummies is one of fascination.  Mummies were taken from the Middle East to Europe as exotic collectables as far back as 1500. In his paper, “That Obscure Object of Desire: Victorian Commodity Culture and Fictions of the Mummy,” Nicholas Daly discusses Victorians relationship with mummies and argues that mummies became a commodity of Victorian culture. In the early part of the 19th century, mummy unwrapping was an activity for both classroom and dinner parties. Many times these corpses were obtained in auctions where mummies were given distinguishing numbers, becoming more like objects than the bodies of past humans. Sometimes Victorian homes would become more like museums as artifacts from other parts of the world, including mummies, became all the rage.

As the Victorian Era continued, unwrapping mummies went out of vogue, but mummies started to become a recognizable part of literature, the mummy-come-to-life becoming a common trope. Interestingly, the gender of the mummies in these stories often dictated the genre of the story. Male mummies were reanimated creatures who were the monsters of their stories, seeking revenge on those who had disturbed their final rest. On the other hand, female mummies often had undertones of sexual appeal. European Egyptologist in these stories would fall in love with Egyptology after seeing some depiction of a long dead Egyptian queen or fall in love with an actual reanimated female mummy.  Braum Stoker’s Jewel of Seven Stars is one of the most popular works with themes of a feminine mummy. 

Conversely, Michael Field’s poem “The Mummy Invokes His Soul” takes neither of these approaches and instead humanizes the embalmed man at the center of the piece.  The poem is written from the point of view of the mummy, allowing the reader to be sympathetic to the deceased.  It is a piece about imprisonment and the wish to break free of constraints that uses the mummy as a symbol.  It is an uncommon yet refreshing look at mummies in Victorian literature.

Works Cited.

Daly, Nicholas. “That Obscure Object of Desire: Victorian Commodity Culture and Fictions of the Mummy.” NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction, vol. 28, no. 1, 1994, pp. 24–51. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1345912.  Accessed 19 Sept. 2023.

Further Reading:

Corriou, Nolwenn.  “‘A Woman is a Woman, if She had been Dead Five Thousand Centuries!': Mummy Fiction, Imperialism and the Politics of Gender.’” 2023.   https://journals.openedition.org/miranda/6899.

Daly, Nicholas. “That Obscure Object of Desire: Victorian Commodity Culture and Fictions of the Mummy.” NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction, vol. 28, no. 1, 1994, pp. 24–51. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1345912.  Accessed 19 Sept. 2023.

Pasquini, Elaine. "Mummy Unwrapping Parties: Victorian Views of the Middle East." The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, vol. 39, no. 3, 05, 2020, pp. 63. ProQuest, https://er.lib.k-state.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/magazines/mummy-unwrapping-parties-victorian-views-middle/docview/2394539311/se-2.