3.25

Some credit Stoker with penning the classic Mummy monster in much the same way he paved the way for popular vampire lore with Dracula. The book (spoiler) doesn't actually contain the walking dead wrapped in cloth, however, and follows an entirely different structure to Dracula. If you come to Jewel of Seven Stars expecting a similar level of epic, you'll be sorely disappointed. It's an extremely slow burn and much more minimalist. Most of the book takes place in a single home, or even a single room. We have a small cast of characters that are mostly concerned with the bizarre and mysterious circumstances in which an Egyptologist is attacked. It is moderately spooky, but mostly intellectual, with a through line of doomed romance (or not, depending on which ending you read).

I enjoyed the story, and I have a lot of respect for Stoker's knowledge on the subject matter and his attention to detail in conveying the themes he wants to convey. I found the challenging of traditional monotheistic ideals with the threat of a far less benevolent polytheism particularly interesting, and the allusions to hypnosis and soul possession make for unnerving omens. I do think that Stoker chose to focus a little too much on some of the more trivial details, however. Summarise the plot for someone and it will sound compelling, but the execution is unnecessarily drawn out. The original ending, which remained unavailable for a shocking 80 years, is definitely preferable. It is also open to interpretation, and a little puzzling. I'm not entirely sure what to make of it, but I'd say that it nibbles at my mind in a way that the best of horror often does. ( )

Aunque menos popular que Drácula, La Joya De Las Siete Estrellas es una excelente novela de Bram Stoker.
Comparada con sus novelas más conocidas, La joya de las siete estrellas (1903) es sin duda la mejor escrita y la más interesante de todas ellas, la más abundante en episodios trágicos, días de amor, de aventura y de misterio, aparte de Drácula. En ella, la narración inicial, sustentada en los motivos propios de la novela policial, evoluciona en un argumento fantástico dominado por la omnipresencia de Tera, una antigua egipcia, reina y hechicera, que desde hace milenios prepara su regreso a un cuerpo mortal.

1st, let's get this misunderstanding out of the way that Bram Stoker invented the Mummy story ("the curse of the Egyptian mummy formula which it introduced" - Keith Deutsch's afterward in the edition I have; "He did invent the Mummy story, and this is the book that started it." - a quote from another Goodreads review). Theophile Gautier, a French author who died in 1872 (long before "The Jewel of Seven Stars" was written & published) wrote "One of Cleopatra's Nights", "The Evil Eye", &, most importantly, "The Mummy's Foot". This latter is the most relevant here. It's a short story about a man who buys the mummified severed foot of an Egyptian Princess in a curiousity shop. In Stoker's story there's a severed hand of an Egyptian Princess. In Gautier's story the Princess appears in his home & tries to reunite w/ her foot. In Stoker's story, the Princess is reunited w/ her hand by people experimenting w/ reincarnating her. So, no, Stoker didn't invent the genre - more likely he just took Gautier's story & turned it into a novel.

Why did I waste my time reading this? Ok, I read Dracula when I was, maybe, 12 years old. It was the 1st thing I ever read w/ that type of atmosphere & I liked it but I never felt motivated to ever read anything by him again. Since then, it's my feeling, that the vampire theme has been done to death (pun intended, of course). Maybe the reason why it gets brought out so much by Hollywood is to encourage the attraction of young girls for WAY older guys. Hhmm..

So why did I read this? I started reading an H.G.Wells bk & I've been thinking: "Why am I reading this?" so I took a break from reading an English novel 1st published in 1911 to read.. what? an English novel 1st published (according to this edition but contradicted elsewhere) in 1912. Like I don't have anything better to do?! So I figured reading this wd be a quickie, a distraction, some fun, & I'd fill in my knowledge of Stoker a little - in the end, hardly a worthy goal.

In the meantime, the G20 is approaching Pittsburgh, the intensified police state outside is crazy & I'm inside reading this stupid bk. Wch isn't to say that I haven't been participating in G20 protesting-related activities - I have. But, still, there was a big protest today & I didn't even know about it. Sheesh! What a jerk-off I'm becoming.

ANYWAY, is this a review or what? reading bks is usually good for stimulation & even this piece of fluff made me interested in finally reading the Egyptian Book of the Dead or some other such bk that I might learn something about hieroglyphs from. But, really, I don't recommend this to anyone & the large quantity of editions that it's been published in is disgraceful. This was a piece of sensationalist pop crap in its day that's probably best worth forgetting about. In fact, I cd barely care enuf to pay attn while I was reading it &, THEN, the ending was so lame it was pathetic. ( )

Comparada con sus novelas más conocidas, la joya de las siete estrellas (1903) es sin duda la mejor escrita y la más interesante de todas ellas, la mas abundante en episodios trágicos, días de amor, de aventura y de misterio, aparte de Drácula.

Good story re machinations of a mummy of an Egyptian female pharoah with astro travel powers, weak ending ( )