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has grown frail and sickly. She confides that she feels she is dying, but he dismisses her ailment as bridal nerves. He reveals that one seed has escaped the fire after all, and after being sent to Niles, it has bloomed into an unusual white flower. She surprises him by revealing that she has grown her own strange flower in her boudoir, and that she intends to wear it during the wedding, which he cautions against. She appears at the ceremony with renewed vivacity, but later falls into a swoon, revealing the flower pinned to her breast. An urgent letter arrives from a friend of Niles's, bringing news of the professor's death after wearing his own flower, which was later pronounced to be a lethal poison which drains the vitality of the wearer. Evelyn falls into a catatonic state of "death in life," and
Forsyth secludes himself to tend to his insensate wife.
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Despite strong reservations, Forsyth throws the mummy on the fire at Niles's command, Jumal rescues the hapless explorers, who have lost consciousness from the fumes. Forsyth keeps the box as a "souvenir" and Niles later deciphers a piece of parchment which identifies the woman as a powerful sorceress who has vowed to curse anyone who dares disturb her grave.
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Evelyn asks to plant the seeds, but
Forsyth throws them into the fireplace, fearing that they may be cursed or poisonous. He reveals that Niles has had bad luck since his return, but the happy lovers do not think much of it. Three months later, Forsyth remarks to Evelyn on their wedding day that she
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Like most of Alcott's sensation fiction, "Lost in a
Pyramid" received little attention throughout most of the twentieth century. Rediscovering the story in the late 1990s, Dominic Montserrat believed Alcott to be the first to use to utilize a fully fleshed-out "mummy's curse" narrative. However,
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in search of Niles, whom he finds lost and despairing. Niles breaks his leg in a fall, and, fearing for their lives, the two resolve to start a fire in order to signal Jumal. They burn a wooden coffin and unroll the wrappings of the mummified woman inside, where they discover the box of seeds.
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After an expedition to Egypt with his colleague
Professor Niles, Paul Forsyth returns to his fiancée Evelyn with a mysterious box of scarlet seeds. He warns her that the story of their origin will haunt her, but her naïve curiosity prevails.
62:, in this case a mummified sorceress. Alcott had praised such "blood & thunder tales" in an 1862 letter as "easy to 'compoze' and… better paid than moral & elaborate works of Shakespeare."
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Conversely, Jasmine Day argues that the tradition in which Alcott writes was not always so male-centric, pointing to the anonymously published story "The Mummy's Soul" (1862) and
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in 1869. Despite being largely overlooked throughout the twentieth century, "Lost in a
Pyramid" was rediscovered in 1998 and has since become an influential example of early "
99:. The two decide to lie in the sand and rest while Niles's guide, Jumal, seeks another guide to lead Forsyth to safety. Awaking alone, Forsyth plunges farther into the
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Evelyn: Forsyth's charming young bride-to-be, whose romantic curiosity about "weird stories" ultimately becomes her downfall
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Written in late 1868 or the first week of 1869, "Lost in a
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Forsyth's tale begins when, despite fatigue and growing wariness, he follows the insatiable Niles deep into the
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Day, Jasmine. "The Rape of the Mummy: Women, Horror
Fiction and the Westernisation of the Curse"
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Professor Niles: A fanatical explorer who risks grave danger in his pursuit of ancient artifacts
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under the initials L.M.A., alongside two engravings. Written concurrently with
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Gregory
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curse stories establish "an analogy between desecration of tombs and rape."
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A.M. Barnard) is shown through her continuing preoccupation with
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Paul
Forsyth: A man haunted by a recent misadventure in the
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Behind a Mask: The
Unknown Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott.
64:"Lost in a Pyramid" was first published in Frank Leslie's
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17:"Lost in a Pyramid; or, The Mummy's Curse"
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338:Eight Cousins, or The Aunt-Hill
370:Jack and Jill: A Village Story
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460:The Brownie and the Princess
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623:Works by Louisa May Alcott
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23:and first published by
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31:'s curse" narratives.
628:Fiction about mummies
314:An Old-Fashioned Girl
221:Alcott, Louisa May.
75:Alcott's interest in
52:(published under the
638:Gothic short stories
493:Thoreau–Alcott House
583:Henry David Thoreau
578:Nathaniel Hawthorne
568:Ralph Waldo Emerson
521:Anna Bronson Alcott
509:Amos Bronson Alcott
41:sensation thrillers
633:1869 short stories
153:Arthur Conan Doyle
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134:Critical reception
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539:Samuel Joseph May
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87:Plot summary
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25:Frank Leslie
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399:Short works
149:Bram Stoker
617:Categories
478:Fruitlands
443:Miscellany
322:Little Men
190:References
112:Characters
35:Background
463:(1879-87)
378:Jo's Boys
309:(1868-69)
101:labyrinth
54:pseudonym
553:(cousin)
547:(cousin)
535:(sister)
529:(sister)
517:(mother)
511:(father)
434:" (1869)
592:Related
541:(uncle)
45:novella
561:People
502:Family
471:Places
455:(1873)
427:(1866)
419:(1863)
411:(1854)
381:(1886)
373:(1879)
365:(1878)
357:(1877)
349:(1876)
341:(1875)
333:(1873)
325:(1871)
317:(1869)
301:(1866)
289:Novels
229:Print.
155:, and
143:'s "
77:Egypt
29:mummy
227:vii.
182:on
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