Product Description

An Egyptologist, attempting to raise from the dead the mummy of Tera, an ancient Egyptian queen, finds a fabulous gem and is stricken senseless by an unknown force. Amid bloody and eerie scenes, his daughter is possessed by Tera's soul, and her fate depends upon bringing Tera's mummified body to life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #823810 in Books
• Published on: 1993-01-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 254 pages

Customer Reviews

Stoker's best known post-Dracula novel
Originally published in 1903, some six years after Dracula, Bram Stoker's The Jewel of Seven Stars is a singular work of dark fantasy. It reads as if it were one of the author's earliest writings, espousing a much more awkward style than that which permeates Stoker's most famous novel. The characters are stereotypical of the time, the dialogue is sometimes forced and so Victorian in its manner that it fails to draw the reader fully into the story, and it leaves too many unanswered questions in its wake. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this, Stoker's most familiar novel after Dracula, is its storyline built around the resurrection of an ancient Egyptian mummy. Few people today realize that Stoker not only truly defined the vampire genre, he helped give rise to the mummy genre as well.

Published in 1903, this novel is steeped in Victorian idealism, particularly in its treatment of Margaret and the courtship between her and Malcolm. Modern readers may find this aspect of the novel either romantic or silly. In addition, the respectful and entirely proper conversations between characters, especially in times of suspicion or fear, may seem strikingly quaint to today's readers. The second half of the novel, which tells the story of the ancient mummy and lays the groundwork for the climax of the Great Experiment, is much more interesting than the preceding pages, yet there are elements to the evolving story that fail to make perfect sense.

The Jewel of Seven Stars is unique in that it features two different endings, neither of which fully satisfies. The accepted version, which you will find in modern publications, is not the original ending but is instead a rewrite first found in the 1919 edition of the novel. It is anticlimactic at best and seems oddly different from the novel as a whole. There is actually some speculation that the final couple of pages of this ending were not even written by Stoker, who was dead and buried seven years prior to this amended edition's release. The original 1903 ending is a much better if rather shocking conclusion to a story that openly hints of ancient horrors; it is a pity that the original ending has been superseded by a questionable and quite dissatisfying rewrite. In any case, though, The Jewel of Seven Stars is an interesting if flawed novel that shows few signs of the literary magic with which Stoker's masterpiece, Dracula, is infused.

A great supernatural crime-chiller dealing with Egyptology!
Starting wide awake from a dream of the girl he has fallen in love with, barrister Malcolm Ross is summoned to that very girls new home, in order to solve a mystery of an murder-attempt at her father.
Mr Trelawny - an explorer and an ardent egyptologian, are found with his wrist torn by claws. No one could have physically entered the room, except his own daughter, the girl Malcolm Ross longs for.
The detectives from Scotland Yard are puzzled, but singles out Margaret - daughter of Mr Tralawny - as the only possible suspect.

But the story doesn`t end there. Nor does it begin there.
The mystery will unfold the tragic history of a beautiful egyptian queen, who longs for peace and harmony...and love in another place, under another world-view...perhaps another religion...another God, than that of her coevals. The story will tell of her, as she in her desperation, sought the mummy sleep, so as to awaken in another world and another time.
But the story is one filled with murder. And Malcolm Ross finds himself beginnig to doubt everything; even the individual existence of Margaret, his beloved.

In this book, Bram Stoker, presents a story full of philosophical doubt. If one can say that the fear that runs through Dracula, is the fear of an alien and immoral sexuality, and the fear that one shall loose sight of it being immoral, the fear that runs through "The Jewel of Seven Stars", is that of ancient spiritual powers, and the fear of a foreign culture and a foreign religion, particularly as re-emerging and taking hold in the Victorian society. But although it is much fear here, so also is an admiration of Ancient Egypt.
As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that the destinies of Margaret Trelawny and that of the ancient Queen Tera, are intertwined, almost to be inseparable. And here is the greatest horror that permeats the book; that of falling in love with a charming, intelligent and beautiful girl...and finding her past life haunting her like the shadow-existance of a mummy-spirit, as alien and as strange as another culture, another time, another religion, and also capable of killing for her wish to have a new life...

The book are not as well-written as, say Dracula. But, then again, Dracula is exceptionally well written. "Jewel" starts of pretty much as a Agatha Christie-story, or should I rather say Sherlock Holmes-story. It soon becomes evident however, that the mystery goes deeper than the materialistic-logistic crime-cases of Arthur Conan Doyle`s super sleuth.
The mystery is interesting, and particularly so, for people who enjoys their literature to be philosophical. But, ay, here is the rub; Bram Stoker provides very little answers for his readers, and when you come out of the story, most questions will be unanswered, making almost the book a mystery itself. Its like a supernatural crime story, where you just seem to have been given every clue, and you have heard the whole story, but still you wonder why it happened as it happened.
To make the mystery greater, the book comes in two versions; Bram Stokers original ending from 1903, and a later rewritten last chapter, either published post-humeously, or being altogether the work of another author...
None of the endings explains really what is the cause of what happens; that is, why it ends like it does.
I find the original 1903-ending, the most satifactory, but its not a happy ending...

Are you in for a original mummy-book, a mysterious crime-chiller, a love-story full of of doubt, a story of investigators of the strange meddling with things that mortals should stay fra away from, and also a book that will puzzle you, and make you search for clues between the lines...then this is recommended reading.

Hard Going
Being a big fan of Dracula and of the spin off films of the book Jewel of Seven Stars I bought this book. It is not easy to read and plods along quite slowly compared to Dracula by the same author. Persevere with it, but don't expect great things.