The Mummy or Ramses the Damned [Mass Market Paperback]

Anne Rice (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 13, 1991

"The reader is held captive, and, ultimately, seduced."
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Ramses the Great has awakened in Edwardian London. Having drunk the elixir of life, he is now Ramses the Damned, doomed forever to wander the earth, desperate to quell hungers that can never be satisfied. Although he pursues voluptuous aristocrat Julie Stratford, the woman for whom he desperately longs is Cleopatra. And his intense longing for her, undiminished over the centuries, will force him to commit an act that will place everyone around him in the gravest danger....

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

InThe Mummy Anne Rice weaves the same magic for the world and history of mummies that she previously did for the worlds and mythologies of vampires and witches. Ramses the Great lives, but having drunk the elixir of life, he is now Ramses the Damned, doomed forever to wander the earth, desperate to quell certain mummy hungers that can never be satisfied! --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Library Journal

With this kick-off to a new series, Vampire Chronicler Rice abandons her troupe of nocturnals for the living dead of another kind. In a tale that's part horror and part romance, Egyptian King Ramses, made immortal in his youth, is awakened from self-imposed dormancy and deposited in 1914 London. Ramses's introduction to modern times is charming but slow. The plot, however, revs up a bit when he returns to Cairo and runs into an old girlfriend. Much in this book will be familiar to Rice's fans, except in this case it doesn't work. The characters are mostly boring and the conflict is flimsy. You know nothing bad is going to happen to anybody--and nothing does. You're also cheated out of a genuine conclusion, which is both dissatisfying and unfair. Stick to those blood drinkers, Anne, and let the sleeping mummies lie.
- Michael Rogers, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; paperback / softback edition (September 13, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345369947
• ISBN-13: 978-0345369949
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1 x 6.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (231 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #328,829 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Anne Rice was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. She holds a Master of Arts Degree in English and Creative Writing from San Francisco State University, as well as a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science. Anne has spent more of her life in California than in New Orleans, but New Orleans is her true home and provides the back drop for many of her famous novels. The French Quarter provided the setting for her first novel, Interview with the Vampire. And her ante-bellum house in the Garden District was the fictional home of her imaginary Mayfair Witches.

She is the author of over 30 books, most recently the Toby O'Dare novels Of Love and Evil, and Angel Time; the memoir, Called Out of Darkness;and her two novels about Jesus, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt and Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana. (Anne regards Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana as her best novel.)

Anne publicly broke with organized religion in July of 2010 on moral grounds, affirming her faith in God, but refusing any longer to be called "Christian." The story attracted surprising media attention, with Rice's remarks being quoted in stories all over the world.

Anne is very active on her FaceBook Fan Page and has over 745,000 followers. She answers questions every day on the page, and also posts on a variety of topics, including literature, film, music, politics, religion, and her own writings. She welcomes discussion there on numerous topics.

Her latest novel, The Wolves of Midwinter, a sequel to The Wolf Gift and part of a werewolf series set in Northern California in the present time, will be published on October 15, 2013. In these books --- The Wolf Gift Chronicles -- Anne returns to the classic monsters and themes of supernatural literature, similar to those she explored in her Vampire Chronicles, and tales of the Mayfair Witches. Her new "man wolf" hero, Reuben Golding, is a talented young man in his twenties who suddenly discovers himself in possession of werewolf powers that catapult him into the life of a comic book style super hero. How Reuben learns to control what he is, how he discovers others who possess the same mysterious "wolf gift," and how he learns to live with what he has become --- is the main focus of the series.

Her first novel, Interview with the Vampire, was published in 1976 and has gone on to become one of the best-selling novels of all time. She continued her saga of the Vampire Lestat in a series of books, collectively known as The Vampire Chronicles, which have had both great mainstream and cult followings.

Interview with the Vampire was made into a motion picture in 1994, directed by Neil Jordan, and starring Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Kirsten Dunst and Antonio Banderas. Anne's novel, Feast of All Saints about the free people of color of ante-bellum New Orleans became a Showtime mini series in 2001 and is available now on dvd. The script for the mini series by John Wilder was a faithful adaptation of the novel.

Anne Rice is also the author of other novels, including The Witching Hour, Servant of the Bones, Merrick, Blackwood Farm, Blood Canticle, Violin, and Cry to Heaven. She lives in Palm Desert, California, but misses her home in New Orleans. She hopes to obtain a pied a terre in the French Quarter there some time in the near future.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#35 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Horror

#65 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Erotica

#90 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy

#35 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Horror

#65 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Erotica

#90 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The mummy walks! July 9, 2004

By E. A Solinas HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Sexy immortals with angst to spare are the cornerstones of Anne Rice's fiction. "The Mummy or Ramses the Damned" takes a different direction, mixing romance with horror and supernatural thrills. It has its flaws, but the raw energy of the book keeps it roaring up to the finale.

Lawrence Stratford uncovers the mummy of Ramses the Second, or "Ramses the Damned." But before he can unravel the mysteries around the mummy, he's murdered by his amoral nephew Henry, and the mummy is shipped to England. Lawrence's daughter Julie takes possession both of the family fortune and the mummy -- only to have the mummy revive when exposed to sunlight, and try to kill the murderous Henry. He's Ramses, an Egyptian king who drank an elixir of eternal life taken from a Hittite priestess.

Long ago, he faked his own death and wandered the world, eventually returning to Egypt and becoming the mentor/lover of the legendary Cleopatra -- only to lose her first to Antony, then to death. At first, Ramses is thrilled by the early-twentieth-century England, and he and Julie start to fall in love. But on a trip to Egypt, he comes across the mummy of Cleopatra, and revives her with a vial of the elixir. Except that this Cleopatra is mad, murderous, torn by her old loves and hates -- and unkillable.

This is not your parents' "Mummy" story. Except for one mildly funny scene where Rameses first revives, there are no stumbling mummies covered in bandages. Instead we have a tortured immortal who wakes up into a new world, while still being rooted in the Egypt of three thousand years ago.

Rice's lush prose is well-suited to the splendor of early twentieth-century England, when Egyptology was the fad -- she has lots of fun with the lace, pearl buttons, and opera houses. Her most awkward points are when Rameses is marveling at/criticizing 1914 England. At the same time, she gives new twists to the tale of the mummy, such as having him romance Cleopatra.

Ramses gives a slightly new twist to the tormented, lonely immortal, by having his almost childlike response to things like faucets and shoes. Julie falls for him a bit too quickly (yes, he's gorgeous, but what else?), but a good love interest. The other characters -- the youth-craving Elliott, his clueless but sweet son Alex, and the money-hungry, evil Henry -- are all intriguing and fully explored. But Cleopatra is what makes the book -- she's seductive but mad, tormented but still loving. Dislike her, but Rice will make you pity her too.

"The Mummy or Ramses the Damned" gives new twists to the story of a mummy come to life. Rather than an undercooked horror novel, Rice gives a thrilling, chilling look at immortality, and how what you want is not what you get.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Mummy--Ramses the Damned January 6, 2013

By M.A. Walton

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have read this book before. It is probably one of Anne Rice's best books. The story of Ramses the Damned is told with a new twist. The Egytians beloved in immortality and this book addresses that belief, but also shows the dark side. Would you want to be immortal knowing everyone you loved was not? What would you do if unscrupulous people secured the formula for immortality?
As for pure entertainment, The Mummy does just that. It is nothing like the movies seen today. Well worth the read! I have read it several times and get something out of it each time.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Not your atypical Mummy story October 7, 2004

By Erica Anderson

Format:Mass Market Paperback

I rarely read any books of Anne Rice's that isn't part of the Vampire Chronicles sereis. I've tried but they never captivated me like her popular vampire books have. The one book by Anne Rice that I do like that has nothing to do with vampires is "The Mummy or Ramses the Dead". This time Anne explores another legendary monster...the mummy but in her book, she makes the mummy, or Ramses as he is called, the hero not the monster we have seen in old horror movies. In a similiar vein to her vampire characters, Anne has Ramses the second immortal. He had drunk the elixir of life making him wander the planet for all eternity. Ramses who had been asleep for thousands of years is excavated in the early 1900s by Lawrence Stratford. Ramses witnesses Lawrence's unexpected passing. Later he finally awakens to save Lawrence's daughter from being murdered by her greedy cousin. In the vein of the vampire chronicles, Anne mixes horror and romance which I actually enjoyed. Critics may have panned this book but I loved it. I especially enjoyed it when Ramses makes the mistake of reawakening an old love only to realize what a mistake that was and the one person he does love is Julie Stratford. Even though the storyline is pretty cheesy and is just a Harlequin novel with a horror twist, "The Mummy" is a good book. It's a different take on the myth of the mummy.