Cracking the Egyptian Code: The Revolutionary Life of Jean-Francois Champollion - Softcover

ROBINSON ANDREW

3.91

164 ratings by Goodreads

9780500294178: Cracking the Egyptian Code: The Revolutionary Life of Jean-Francois Champollion

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0500294178 ISBN 13: 9780500294178

Publisher: THAMES HUDSON, 2018

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Cracking the Egyptian Code is the first biography in English of Jean-Francois Champollion, the impoverished, arrogant and brilliant child of the French Revolution who made the vital breakthrough in deciphering the Egyptian hieroglyphs. This finely illustrated account charts Champollion's dramatic life and achievements: by turns a teenage professor, a supporter of Napoleon, an exile, a fanatical decipherer and a curator at the Louvre, he lived life to the full but drove himself into an early grave. Andrew Robinson's full-blooded account brings the man, his setbacks and his ultimate triumphs vividly to life.

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About the Author:

Andrew Robinson is a Visiting Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge, Literary Editor of The Times Higher Education Supplement, and author of over 20 books, including Sudden Genius: The Gradual Path to Creative Breakthroughs, The Story of Writing, Writing and Script: A Very Short Introduction, and The Last Man Who Knew Everything.

Review:

"'A remarkable tale, wonderfully told.'--Wall Street Journal

"Robinson's analysis of Champollion's fanatical pursuit of his linguistic goals, and his rivalry in this with the English polymath Thomas Young, is utterly compelling."--World Archaeology

"Robinson's biography is a most welcome and long-overdue study in English of an enigmatic and still controversial genius. His splendidly produced and absorbing book should be in every Egyptologist's library." Egyptian Archaeology

"Robinson paints an engrossing portrait of a difficult genius's punishing pursuit of knowledge."--Publishers Weekly

"Andrew Robinson, the man who deciphered Michael Ventris and knows all that's worth knowing about Thomas Young, here shines his lamp of Diogenes on the Frenchman who broke the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic code, illuminating anew Jean-Fran�ois Champollion's fascinating life as well as his prodigiously fertile work."-- Paul Cartledge, author of Alexander the Great and Ancient Greece: A History in Eleven Cities

"An entertaining, highly readable and authoritative biography of the greatest decipherer of all time, the man who almost single-handedly enabled us to read the hitherto mysterious Egyptian hieroglyphs."--Michael D. Coe, author of Breaking the Maya Code

"At last, a definitive biography of Champollion in English! Andrew Robinson brings his expertise at ancient languages and his research into the nature of genius to bear on one of Egyptology's most remarkable figures ... A memorable, enjoyable and beautifully written historical detective story."--Brian Fagan, author of The Rape of the Nile and Floods, Famines and Emperors

"Andrew Robinson's Champollion is a brash genius, with the power to make loyal friends but also bitter enemies, a man at odds with the Church and much of the Establishment. Above all, how much did he know about the work of his great rival, the English polymath Thomas Young? This is a spirited account of a fascinating subject: the birth of Egyptology." --John Ray, author of The Rosetta Stone and the Rebirth of Ancient Egypt

"Robinson has produced the definitive English-language biography of Champollion with this richly illustrated and readily accessible narrative. Highly recommended to Egyptophiles, philologists, historians, and anyone who might be wowed by the drama of a scholar falling unconscious for five days after announcing his long-sought success!"--Library Journal

"Robinson masterfully covres the life of the brilliant and controversial French Egyptologist Jean-Francois Champollion in this well-written, knowledgeable biography."--E.H. Cline, CHOICE

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