The Keys of Egypt: The Obsession to Decipher Egyptian Hieroglyphs
HarperCollins | 2000 | ISBN-10: 0060194391 | English | PDF | 352 pages | 10.16 Mb

Jean-Franзois Champollion s biography is neatly interwoven with Napoleonic history and the functions of Egyptian hieroglyphs in The Keys of Egypt. A gifted bookseller s son born in Revolutionary France, Champollion was to become gripped by energetic enthusiasm for Egypt. By the age of 12, he was studying several ancient languages, and, amid a wave of Egyptomania, he would beat rivals to discover the key to deciphering hieroglyphs.If this was a race, it was a marathon. The breakthrough came after 20 years of obsessive hard work, not through the quick-fix solution often thought to have been provided by the Rosetta stone. The Keys of Egypt details Champollion s life and work, which were hampered by politics, poverty, and an almost hypochondriacal series of health problems. Its sources include letters and journals, the authors having undertaken researches in major libraries and museums.

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