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Title: The Linguist and the Emperor : Napoleon and Champollion's Quest to Decipher the Rosetta Stone by DANIEL MEYERSON ISBN: 0-345-45067-1 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 02 March, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95

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Average Customer Rating: 3 (5 reviews)

Rating: 3
Summary: Artistically rendered account on decoding Egyptian writing
Comment: Daniel Meyerson's story of the Rosetta Stone - its discovery by Napoleon's soldiers and its intrepretation by Champollion - tells the story with the broad strokes of a painter using mixed styles. Broadly giving the background of the time and then recounting in some detail certain characters related to the story, some very much peripheral to the story.

If you like your history told like an adventure novel, then this book is for you.

In some points the story may confuse because sections of the book alternate between Napoleon's story, Champollion's and other historical persons and not necessarily in chronological order (and there is no subject index).

Part I ends with Champollion's declaration, when still a schoolboy, that he will decipher the hieroglyphs of Egypt.

Part 2 gives background on Egyptian history, Alexander the Great, the Ptolemys, Napoleon's time in Egypt and the various ways Egyptian antiquities were brought to Europe. The key of the cartouches, and specifically, the name Ptolemy, and the realization that some hieroglyphs are homophones (different symbols for the same sound) as well as 'determinatives" come to light near the end of the book.

For a certainty, someone would have eventually figured out the hierogylphs. The book emphasizes Champollion's extensive studies of ancient languages and especially that of Coptic being instrumental in his being able to crack the code.

Rating: 2
Summary: Keys of Egypt
Comment: What a shame this is disappointing. For anyone wanting a good, well-written modern biography of Champollion, with lots of background on hieroglyphs, they should go for The Keys of Egypt by Lesley & Roy Adkins.

Rating: 2
Summary: Needs More Linguist, Less Emperor
Comment: I'm sure it's just me, but this book didn't have enough to say about Champollion. I was looking forward to a detailed narrative describing Champollion's quest to decipher the Rosetta stone. My expectations were not met. Instead, I got a few chapters about how Champollion was interested in Coptic alternating between chapters about Napoleon's conquest of Egypt, and some other stuff (I won't ruin it for you if you do read the book). True, the basics were there, but I suppose the stuff I was looking for would be a little dry for a mass-market book. I'm the kind of guy that buys grammars and introductions to languages that seem interesting. This book did not sate my desire to know more about Champollion. Also, one review mentions black & white photos in the book. The copy I recieved had no such photos, which was a huge disappointment. Enough has been written about Napoleon. Not much has been written about Champollion. He deserves his own modern biography. I'm still looking for it.

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