*NOW UPDATED WITH EXTRA BONUS MATERIAL!*
On this episode, enter the Wide Atlantic Weird cabin-in-the-woods to find the place stuffed with mummified cats, cursed relics and forbidden idols as we delve into THE JEWEL OF SEVEN STARS! This 1903 book from Dublin-born Bram ‘Dracula’ Stoker affords us the perfect excuse to doff a pith helmet, drink cognac, and tell mystical tales of turn-of-the-century Gothic London and spooky, mysterious Egypt!
Come to find out when the Western world actually decided that mummies were scary, why the British were obsessed with Egypt, and how to tell when a fellow is decent by looking at his skull – but stay for the eccentric Irish occultists, the racial hang-wringing, and of course the blatant Orientalising.
-what race were the ancient Egyptians anyway?
-did an Irish palm-reader predict the downfall of Charles Stuart Parnell?
-why did Oscar Wilde’s father want Cleopatra’s Needle brought to London?
-can Cian jam HG Wells, AC Doyle and ‘Invasion literature’ into another episode??
All these questions and more will be raised, mulled over, and distainfully dismissed in THE JEWEL OF SEVEN STARS: BRAM STOKER’S SPOOKY EGYPT PART 1.
Theme from the 1959 Hammer version of The Mummy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zef-RrAunZ4
Quadrivia article about Cleopatra’s Needle