Why did the Egyptians try to preserve their dead for eternity? How did they succeed? Carol Andrews answers these questions in a fully illustrated survey of the techniques of mummification, the religious beliefs that lay behind the practice, the ornate coffins and elaborate tombs that housed the bodies, and the grave goods that accompanied them. She explains how animals also came to be embalmed and relates the curious role assumed by Egyptian mummies in European culture and mythology. This book has long proved fascinating reading; it is now available in an updated format.

When Ira Gershwin wrote the lyrics to "A Foggy Day," he expressed the ne plus ultra of London unhappiness with the words, 'The British Museum has lost its charm.' As a new series of paperbacks from Harvard University Press...demonstrates, such an unthinkable state must needs constitute the very slough of despond. The institution's vast range of artistic treasures is suggested by the titles in the series: The Elgin Marbles, Assyrian Sculpture, Clocks and Watches, Egyptian Sculpture, Roman Britain, and Egyptian Mummies. Each has numerous illustrations, [and] literate texts by Museum staff members.
-- Boston Sunday Globe