The Keys of Egypt: The Race to Crack the Hieroglyph Code

Rating:
Summary: Finally a fair study of the genious of J. F. Champollion.
Review: As the authors explain in the appendix dedicated to further reading, there was no biography dedicated to Champollion in the English language at the time of their writing. This book fills the gap, at least for the amateur.

The text is detailed and very well written. It dispells common mistakes and misunderstandings about the discovery, such as the too often repeated myth that the Rossetta Stone was the main text used by Champollion. It also deals with the necessary historical background, including Napoleon expedition to Egypt, in an appropriate way.

The reviewer before me takes ombrage at the fact that the book focuses on Champollion instead of Young. Paradoxically, such emphasis is precisely one of the central ideas of the book. Young and other scholars were nowhere close to figure that the Egyptian language could be at the same time phonetic and ideographic. Their systems of cracking the language were at best poor and at worst totally fictional. We owe the discovery of the meaning of hieroglyphs to the genious of Champollion. Moreover, such achievement took place despite his having to endure poverty and difficulties of all kinds, including the pettiness and jealousy of Young and others.

Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A decent read
Review: The Keys Of Egypt was written by husband-and-wife archaeological team Lesley and Roy Adkins. It is subtitled "The Race to Crack the Hieroglyph Code," and starts with a short chapter that introduces the eventual winner of that race, the Frenchman Jean-Francois Champollion, and mentions his most serious rival, the Englishman Thomas Young.

The book goes on to examine Napoleon's expedition to Egypt which both brought the Rosetta Stone to light and started a period of French and European fascination with ancient Egypt. These were the two catalysts for the riddle's eventual solution.

This is a well-written book that looks at the struggle and race for translation and the political and academic machinations (often both combined) that surrounded Champollion. It is essentially a biography of Champollion, who grew up and worked amid the turmoil of the Napoleonic era. The story is a compelling one and the authors have done well to make it at times fascinating, though it does lack some technical detail of exactly how Champollion attacked the problem.

As a genre I find that 'scientific biographies' tend to be a little overblown and flowery, the writing not quite precise -- and Keys suffers from these shortcomings. I also felt that while the book is subtitled "The Race to Crack the Hieroglyph Code" it really only focuses on Champollion, while he is the eventual winner a little more effort in examining the others involved in the effort would have improved the book.

Rating:
Summary: A terrific read
Review: The reviewer below has really summed up this book well, but it's worth reinforcing those views. This book is full of color, action, excitement, sadness, and lots of information about Egypt, hieroglyphs, 19th-century France, and rivalry in England. Well recommended.