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The novel opens with an introduction in which the unidentified and ungendered narrator laments an inability to think of an original hero. On a walk, the narrator falls asleep and dreams of a visit by a spirit bearing a scroll containing ‘the Chronicle of a future age’. Detecting a silent objection in the narrator’s mind that one cannot tell a story of which one has no personal experience, the spirit vouchsafes the narrator an actual vision of the events described in the scroll, and the novel proper begins.
It is 2126. After several revolutions, England is now Catholic, and at peace under the absolute rule of Queen Claudia, one of a series of queens who must always be elected from the young women of the royal house and who may never marry. Roderick, King of Ireland, invades Wales. Universal education makes Claudia’s army, like all the lower classes, reluctant to take orders, but they are led to victory by General Edmund Montagu, who then embarks for Germany. Edmund and his brother Edric are set forth as a contrast, the general having been influenced primarily by Father Morris, confessor of his neighbour the Duke of Cornwall, and Edric primarily by the exiled German philosopher Dr Entwerfen, who knows more of science than of the human heart. After the departure of Edmund, however, Edric too falls under the spell of Father Morris, especially when the latter discusses him with the feasibility of reanimating a dead body. To prove his theory that ‘the organs of thought, reflection, imagination and reason, are material’, and to circumvent Edric’s fear of touching a corpse, Morris suggests that Edric try to reanimate the recently rediscovered mummy of the Pharaoh Cheops, which can be done without removing its bandages. Dr Entwerfen agrees, as he thinks that Cheops could explain how the pyramids were built.
A letter (carried, as all post is, in a cannon ball) informs them that Edmund, having conquered France, is coming home, eagerly awaited by his father Sir Ambrose, whose favourite he is, and by the latter’s friend and neighbour the Duke of Cornwall, a member of the royal family. Cornwall plans to marry his meek daughter Elvira to Edmund and his passionate niece Rosabella to Edric, though Father Morris thinks the couples would be better suited the other way round. Edmund does in fact love Elvira, and she thinks she returns his affection, but she deludes herself in this and her heart is still untouched, while Rosabella really does love him. Queen Claudia ennobles Edmund and plans a triumph in London. Sir Ambrose immediately arranges to go by balloon to London with Edric and his orphaned fifteen-year-old niece Clara, and tells Edric of the plan that he shall marry Rosabella. Edric, already fired to emulate his brother’s glory by going to Egypt, protests that he does not love her, and is given a day to change his mind or be turned out of doors. Meanwhile the Duke of Cornwall discloses the plan to Elvira and Rosabella. Elvira now realises that she does not love Edmund yet, but is still pleased; Rosabella is furious both at the scheme and at the fact that, as the Duke’s niece rather than his daughter, she is entirely dependent on him because her own father, as we now learn, was mysteriously disgraced. She confides all in her faithful servant Marianne.
Father Morris, who is shaken when Rosabella mentions her father, gives Edric the money to go to Egypt, falsely telling him that it comes from his father, who wants him gone. Edric and Dr Entwerfen depart by balloon. Dr Coleman, the well-intentioned local doctor, tries to pacify Sir Ambrose’s anger at Edric’s depature, but is himself distracted by the arrival of old friends, the comedy Irishman Father Murphy and his master Mr Henry Seymour, whom the Duke of Cornwall befriends and invites first to stay at the castle and then to accompany him to London for Edmund’s triumph.
Edric and Dr Entwerfen arrive in Egypt, which is heavily industrialised and colonised by English and Americans. They enter the tomb of Cheops and find his mummy. Although alarmed by the look of fierce hatred on his face, they use galvanism to reanimate him. Each then faints, and on their recovery find both balloon and mummy gone and themselves arrested and accused of reanimating the mummy. Edric lies, but Dr Entwerfen confesses. Cheops, meanwhile, very surprised to find himself alive, has escaped in the balloon, and lands in London in the middle of Edmund’s triumph, right on top of Queen Claudia, who is badly hurt. The mummy, brooding on the loss of his love Arsinoë, makes his way to Sir Ambrose’s house but then disappears again, and Volume I ends.
Volume II opens with the death of the injured Claudia, even though she had seemed to be recovering. The two candidates for the throne are Elvira, who has clearly fallen in love with Henry Seymour, and Rosabella. The queen must of course remain unmarried, but Edmund selflessly resolves to secure the crown for Elvira, and Father Morris intrigues for Rosabella, with Cheops, who overheard him scheming, offering to help, even though he is attracted to Elvira. Cheops, who appears virtually omniscient, also offers to assist both Edmund and Henry Seymour, telling the latter that he knows he is not what he seems (upon which we guess that he is the prince of Ireland in disguise). Cheops also becomes the confidant of Sir Ambrose’s niece Clara, who has fallen in love with Edmund’s captive Prince Ferdinand of Germany. Henry Seymour is suddenly called away by the illness of a close relative. The election for the throne takes place. Rosabella is arrogant, and Elvira unable to speak at all; she simply sobs, and is immediately elected. She appoints Edmund her Prime Minster and they work hard to govern well.
Edric and Dr Entwerfen meanwhile escape from prison and take ship for Malta, but are shipwrecked in Andalusia. They find themselves by the gravestone of Don Alfonso de Borbon, conqueror of Morocco. Dr Entwerfen, who admires Alfonso, kisses his tombstone, and they are immediately arrested for doing homage to a tyrant, since Spain is now a republic. They are brought before a well-disposed alcaide, who offers to release them if Dr Entwerfen can cure the general of his palsy by electric shock treatment; however, being unfamiliar with Spanish electrics, Dr Entwerfen electrocutes the general. He and Edric are returned to prison and condemned to be burned alive, but they are rescued by the new king of Ireland, Roderick II, who is making war on Spain at the behest of its people, who are tired of being governed by the army. Edric strikes up a friendship with Roderick, who introduces him to the Duke of Medina Celina and his granddaughter Princess Zoe, whose father was the murdered Emperor of Constantinople. Zoe, who loves Roderick, warns him of a French plot. In gratitude, he courts her, but Zoe, knowing he doesn’t love her, tells him she is returning to Constantinople, asking only that he will take care of her pageboy Alexis, who, she explains, is dumb. Roderick attacks Seville, where Edric falls in love with the distressed Swiss aristocrat Pauline de Mallet, whom he finds trapped in a ruined house with her elderly father, and who soon returns his affection. Volume Two ends with the destruction of Seville, with both Roderick and Edric fighting heroically in the battle. Volume Three opens with Roderick leaving Seville, appointing M de Mallet its governor, and marching on Madrid. Meanwhile back in London Elvira has so many plans for improvement that she cannot carry any of them out, and Edmund is jealous of what he thinks is a growing affection between her and the captured Prince Ferdinand of Germany, which he blames on the influence of the mummy. Edmund suceeds in securing the consent of the people for the queen to marry, but her husband can only be an Englishman. Elvira, however, refuses his subsequent proposal, telling him she loves a foreigner. She means the Irish Henry Seymour, but Edmund fights and wounds Prince Ferdinand. Both are imprisoned for drawing swords at court and their wounds are treated by a steam-powered automaton. Clara visits Ferdinand in prison but is removed by Cheops, who has been informed of her presence by Father Murphy, and who promises both Clara and Ferdinand his assistance. Edmund meanwhile is visited by both Father Morris, who wants to incite his anger still further so as to bring down Elvira and allow Rosabella to reign, and Cheops, whose proffered help he declines. Elvira herself is laid low by fever through agitation. This is interpreted as meaning that she loves Ferdinand, which infuriates her subjects. Elvira consults Cheops, who advises her to appeal to her people and demand absolute powers. Moved by her eloquence, the populace agrees. Prince Ferdinand is tried, with the judge and lawyers all automata, speaking words fed into tubes in their bodies. Elvira, however, aborts the trial and pardons him; he then leaves. Edmund is due to be tried next but is found to have escaped, having been rescued by Father Morris and Rosabella whom, out of gratitude and pique, he marries. Edmund storms the palace and he and Rosabella are declared king and queen. Elvira is forced to serve Rosabella and Prince Ferdinand returns to court. However Edmund, disowned by his shocked father, is disgusted with himself, and allows Rosabella to rule, which she finds tedious. Father Morris intends to kill Elvira, but Cheops prompts Clara to disguise herself as a Greek boy and rescue her. Clara, Elvira, and Ferdinand flee for Ireland. Roderick meanwhile has conquered Madrid and installed the heir to the Spanish throne, Don Pedro, as king. He and Edric return to M de Mallet, who reveals that Pauline is not his daughter, but was adopted by him as a baby in England. Roderick invites both of them to accompany him and Edric to Ireland. News reaches them of events in London, so they hasten back and meet the fleeing Elvira halfway through the tunnel between England and Ireland. She of course recognises Roderick as Henry Seymour. The Duke of Cornwall and Sir Ambrose quarrel over the flight of Elvira, and fight. Sir Ambrose dies and the duke goes mad. Roderick conquers England without resistance, since everyone is so disgusted by the arrogance of Rosabella, though Alexis tries to kill Elvira, and, when foiled by Roderick, commits suicide, revealing herself to be the infatuated Zoe. Rosabella retreats to the palace with Father Morris and her faithful servant Marianne. Cheops advises them to hide in a secret room and emerge when Elvira is alone with her distracted father the Duke. The Duke saves her, regains his sanity and exposes Father Morris as his brother, Edgar, father of Rosabella, who had murdered both his own wife and Queen Claudia, who had been recovering from the injuries sustained from the balloon until he poisoned her. M de Mallet recognises Marianne as the woman who sold him Pauline: Pauline is the real daughter of Edgar / Father Morris, and Rosabella is the illegitimate daughter of Marianne. Father Morris kills himself and Marianne. Pauline marries Edric, Clara marries Ferdinand, and Elvira and Roderick marry and are crowned King and Queen of Great Britain and Ireland. Only Edmund is left unhappy, apparently because he did not heed the mummy’s warning not to rely solely on his own strength, and we are not told what happens to Rosabella. Finally Edric, the only person who has still not actually met the mummy, hears a supernatural voice telling him to return to the pyramid. There he meets the mummy, who tells Edric that if he still wishes to know the secrets of the grave it will mean misery. Edric renounces his quest and the mummy explains that he can now rest in peace because he has found a reasonable man. As punishment for his incestuous passion for his sister Arsinoë and the murder of his father, he has been sent back to earth by divine power to help the good and give the wicked advice which will embroil them more deeply in their own schemes. He then sinks back into lifelessness.
© 2001 Lisa Hopkins / Sheffield Hallam University
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