The new insights Thompson provides on those who simply 'made things happen' is not only fascinating but serves as an extremely valuable contribution to the evaluation of Egyptology's legacy. We learn much about the less acknowledged characters in the narratives of Egyptology, appreciating the different types of contributions individuals made beyond the practices of 'digging and writing'. Moving beyond the familiar recounting of great discoveries in Egypt.Wonderful Things seeks to demonstrate the power and complexities of Egyptological activities in fashioning the story of ancient Egypt. The author successfully conveys his infectious enthusiasm for the subject but writes with a degree of detachment that allows him to be refreshingly and occasionally almost ruthlessly trenchant and critical.' - Jaromir Malek 'Thompson's account demonstrates the multiple array of events, personalities, political developments and intellectual inclinations that contributed to shaping the field of Egyptology as it emerged as a self-conscious discipline. To follow the growth of an arcane but also a highly romantic branch of learning becomes in Thompson's book something close to an adventure. Only by understanding how Egyptology has developed can we truly understand the Egyptian past.'Wonderful Things is a remarkable achievement: a scholarly work packed with facts but one which is also genuinely readable. Wonderful Things affirms that the history of ancient Egypt has proved continually fascinating, but it also demonstrates that the history of Egyptology is no less so. This, the first of a three-volume survey of the history of Egyptology, follows the fascination with ancient Egypt from antiquity until 1881, tracing the recovery of ancient Egypt and its impact on the human imagination in a saga filled with intriguing mysteries, great discoveries, and scholarly creativity. The history of Egyptology is the story of the people, famous and obscure, who constructed the picture of ancient Egypt that we have today, recovered the Egyptian past while inventing it anew, and made a lost civilization comprehensible to generations of enchanted readers and viewers thousands of years later.

The discovery of ancient Egypt and the development of Egyptology are momentous events in intellectual and cultural history. A comprehensive history of the study and understanding of ancient Egypt, filled with intriguing mysteries, great discoveries, and scholarly creativity, the first of three-volumes-new in paperback

Wonderful Things by Jason Thompson