The mummy's curse: a study in rumour

We associate the curse of the mummy with the opening of the tomb of Tutankhamen in February 1923 and the death, six weeks later, of the fifth Earl of Carnarvon. In fact, this curse rehearsed two prior curse stories associated with Victorian gentleman and which circulated as gossip and rumour in the late Victorian era. This essay tries to recover those fugitive narratives in the belief that they help reveal more of the cultural significance of the curse narrative in the Victorian and Edwardian era.