One of the biggest names in horror romance is Anne Rice. Rice was immortalised thanks to the popularity of Interview With The Vampire, her pioneering vampire novel showing us the complexity of the tortured vampire we know today. Through the character of Louis we were able to see the internal conflict that lives for as long as the vampire does, if it wants to fight for its soul.
In my opinion, she should be more famous than she is for her brilliant Egyptpian horror book The Mummy/Ramses The Damned.
Horror romance is a broad church these days, covering everything such as Twilight teen vampire romance to Warm Bodies, The Phantom Of The Opera and Dowry Of Blood. The undisputed queen of horror romance for me though is Anne Rice.
Mummy Horror and Romance first met in the 1800s
Would you have put ancient Egyptian mummy horror alongside romance? Anne Rice wasn’t the first! Here are some stories that look at mummy horror through a romantic lens:
Théophile Gautier wrote Le Pied de Momie [The Mummy’s Foot], followed by Le Roman de la Momie [The Romance of the Mummy] (Gautier 1858) Both of these stories explore romance and the mummy. This made a stark difference from some of the Egyptian horror classics we know today such as:
- Lot 249 (1892)
- The Beetle (1896)
- The Jewel Of Seven Stars (1903)
- The Mummy (1959 film)
Anne Rice’s horror classic: The Mummy/ Ramses The Damned.
I will never shut up about this novel. I will admit that I am not much of a romance reader. I don’t read contemporary romance or romantasy, but for a subplot in a horror novel? Absolutely. However, this was different as the story is very much a romance with the horror going on around it. It took me by surprise and it will probably do the same to you, too.
What’s Ramses The Damned about?
Ramses the Great has reawakened in opulent Edwardian London. Having drunk the elixir of life, he is now Ramses the Damned, doomed forever to wander the earth, desperate to quell hungers that can never be satisfied. He becomes the close companion of a voluptuous heiress, Julie Stratford, but his cursed past again propels him toward disaster. He is tormented by searing memories of his last reawakening, at the behest of Cleopatra, his beloved queen of Egypt. And his intense longing for her, undiminished over the centuries, will force him to commit an act that will place everyone around him in the gravest danger.
This book is full of risky moments that make you hold your breath as you’re never quite sure how it’s going to work out. The character of Julie Stratford felt a bit stereotypical of Edwardian heroine according to Hollywood and the description gives you Rose from Titanic vibes, but she’s all right.
Ramses is the most fascinating character, and it’s not because he is the same Ramses The Great that unified Egypt and had a long, fruitful reign. Ramses is an excellent character because even though he has lives so long and learned so much, he is still a man, and he will still give in to desires, or his weaknesses.
“She was…a living thing. A being in pain.”
My review of Anne Rice’s The Mummy:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
If comparing all of Anne Rice’s books to Interview With The Vampire, none of the ones I’ve read so far come close, but this was a great story.
I loved the setting, the characters and the obsession with immortality. It turns out that you might be able to have immortality but you’ll always have to be human. Too bad.
Such good fun from start to finish. Excellent tension throughout and oh, what a bunch of fools people in love are. It’s actually the perfect recipe for a horror book.
I read this when I was researching ancient Egyptian horror stories for my latest collection, The Shade In The Sands.
Rice herself had read The Ring Of Thoth, She and Lot No.249. I decided to do the same.
You can find out more about these stories here:
More Egyptomania to wrap yourself up in:
- Ancient Egyptian Horror Books On Goodreads
- What is Egyptomania and why is it Gothic?
- Gothic Egyptomania books.
- The Shade In The Sands And Other Stories.
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