The Mummy! or, A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century
Jane Webb (later known as Jane C. Loudon, her married name) wrote The Mummy! in her late teens, much like her inspiration, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, author of Frankenstein. In fact, The Mummy! recalls Frankenstein in a myriad of ways. Like Frankenstein, Webb’s novel features a misguided, male scientist protagonist, Edric Montagu, who transgresses boundaries by bringing a mummy, Cheops, to life. Unlike Frankenstein’s creature, though, Cheops helps Montagu figure out the error of his ways by rationally speaking to him instead of terrorizing him. Cheops also carries on deep conversations about politics, religion, and philosophy with those around him. In another odd twist, Webb sets her novel in the year 2126. Webb’s futuristic England has a female ruler, Queen Claudia, and her society is quite egalitarian; notably, women have eschewed feminine dress in favor of pants. Webb also envisions a technologically and scientifically advanced society, including, notably, a sort of communication technology that anticipates the internet.
Lehigh University Catalog Record: https://asa.lib.lehigh.edu/Record/10765796
A version of this text has been digitized and is available through the HathiTrust.
Jane Webb (1807-1858)
The Mummy! or, A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century
Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press,[1994]