Recommended for These Courses
Description
King Tutankhamen enjoyed only a short reign before his untimely death at eighteen, and the facts of his life have long been obscured by the mysterious circumstances surrounding the discovery of his tomb in 1922. But although Tut's time as pharaoh was brief and many of his accomplishments have been lost to history, the Boy King was an important and influential ruler. Under Tutankhamen, Egypt threw off a slew of theological reforms and returned to more traditional styles of religion, art, and writing—a startling renaissance that can be discerned only through meticulous analysis of his tomb and ancient scripts.
In Tutankhamen, acclaimed Egyptologist Joyce Tyldesley presents a remarkably vivid portrait of this fascinating and misunderstood ruler, shedding new light on his importance, his enduring power, and the astonishing discovery that earned him an eternal place in the popular imagination.
About the Author
Dr. Joyce Tyldesley holds a first class honors degree in archaeology from Liverpool University, and a doctorate from Oxford University. She is currently a lecturer in Egyptology at the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology, Fellow of the Manchester Museum and Honorary Research Fellow at Liverpool University. She has acted as consultant on several television projects and has excavated extensively in Egypt and Europe. Her previous books include a sequence of popular biographies of Egyptian pharaohs, with particular emphasis on the lives of prominent Egyptian women. She lives in Bolton, England.
Kirkus Reviews
“[An] engaging reconstruction of [King Tutankhamen’s] tomb discovery, family and life. Fluent in her subject, Tyldesley gives her own spin to the story in order to get beyond the sensational nonsense…. Tyldesley does an admirable detective job of reconstructing the boy king’s narrative.”
Publishers Weekly
“An authoritative, well-documented addition to a much-trodden field of inquiry.”
Sunday Times (London)
“[An] authoritative book…. If Tyldesley finds the curse stories empty nourishment, the core of her book reveals Egyptian history to be full of more satisfying riches. Sifting through the findings from Tutankhamen’s tomb, and the arguments of Egyptologists since, she aims to resurrect the man behind the mask. She succeeds: Tutankhamen emerges as a credible figure, a ruler presiding over a turning point in history, when his father Akhenaten’s heresies were abandoned and the polytheistic traditions revived…. That has always been Tutankhamen’s power: …to charm all who encounter him. As Tyldesley confesses, he kindled her schoolgirl fixation with ancient Egypt. She calls this ‘my own personal version of Tutankhamen’s curse’, but if it inspires books like this, the rest of us may consider it a kind of blessing.”
Booklist
“[An] absorbing overview of the sensational discovery of Tutankhamen in 1922…. Writing with signal clarity, Tyldesley taps into the ever-popular fascination with ancient Egypt.”
The Guardian (London)
“Solidly researched and accessibly written. The range of topics covered is impressive.”
Nature
“Tyldesley’s account of [Howard] Carter’s momentous find and the clearance of the tomb is brought to life with contemporary quotes and colourful details…. [Tyldesley is] a gifted storyteller…. Her writing is crystal-clear and charmingly irreverent…. She puts what little we know about Tutankhamun into context, giving a fascinating discussion of the discovery’s social history.”
Library Journal
“In this well-researched study for the general reader, Tyldesley acknowledges the fragile nature of her biographical reconstructions, presenting conflicting theories and drawing careful conclusions. Highly recommended for all Egyptophiles.”
The Star-Ledger
“Tyldesley successfully evokes the intense excitement engendered by the discovery [of Tutankhamen’s tomb], not only within the archaeological community but among the general public as well. Her descriptive powers allow the reader to be present as the tomb’s subterranean entry is unearthed from rubble heaped by ancient and modern floods, its various chambers filled with grave goods entered and assessed, and King Tutankhamen’s triple-layered coffin opened to reveal his mummified remains.”
Financial Times
“Egyptology is in good hands, and so is the reader…. The prolific writer Joyce Tyldesley…has turned her storytelling abilities to [Tutankhamen], and the result is entertaining and highly readable…. Written with humour and enthusiasm.”
New York Times Book Review
“In Tutankhamen: The Search for an Egyptian King, Tyldesley has written a crisp, well-researched account of emerging insights into both the life and times of the young king and the modern response, nonsense and all, to his resurrection, as it were, in the modern world.”
The New Republic
“[Tyldesley] pays out her gripping story in meticulous but always fascinating detail, clarifies and analyzes the conflicting interpretations of the evidence, and altogether avoids the sort of simplification which she deplores in television ‘documentaries.’ Her entertaining and demystifying discussion of the supposed ‘curse’ on those who disturbed Tutankhamen’s tomb occupies only a single chapter…. No one who reads this absorbing book will be likely to disagree, for it makes clear what her subtitle implies, that we have by no means come to the end of our discoveries of the life and times of this shadowy celebrity, whose least interesting aspect is that old Gothic fantasy of the mummy’s curse.”
Order from an online bookseller
Find a local bookseller
(Check your local Yellow Pages for a bookstore near you.)
International online orders
Domestic and International offline orders
The Perseus Books Group
Customer Service Department
1094 Flex Drive
Jackson, TN 38301
Return to top
