Ali Wood

Perid#2

10/23/00

Book Report Redo

Everything seemed so odd in the Stratford house since Lawrence’s death. He had left his daughter everything. Not only the business, but the large sum of money he had progressively earned over the past few years. With Julie in the house with only herself, the maid, and the mummy things were out of place and just plain odd. For instance, when Julie was standing in the Egyptian room and staring at the mummy basking in the sun, she noticed that it moved just slightly and she heard the sound of something take in a deep breath. Who was it? No one but the mummy had been in the room with her!

The book that catches and drags the reader in from the beginning is, The Mummy of Rameses the Damned. The very talented author is a woman by the name of Anne Rice and the book was revised and republished in 1997 by Ballantine Bookd©. There are three hundred ninety-eight wonderfully written pages in the book.

In the beginning the story took place in Egypt, where Lawrence Stratford was murdered by his nephew Henry. Since then it moved to New York City where the Stratford estate is established. It’s the year 1910 and the discoveries of Julie’s father have been shipped to the house and set up on display for family and friends and important authorities to see. The estate is very large and only the wealthiest of people owned ones such as these. Inside it’s very Victorian, with silver tea sets in every room, china dishes, marble floors, and crystal chandeliers. From the estate you can see the entire town and the roof tops of all the small houses. The streets are covered with tiny little shops, motor vehicles, women, children, and wealthy old ladies who like to shop to their hearts content.

There were two main characters in, The Mummy. One was Julie Stratford, and the other was Rameses the Great ruler of Egypt. Julie was a blonde hared blue eyed girl, with soft gentle features, and was very soft spoken. She was of average height, about five foot five, and about twenty-five. She stuck to what she believed in, and what she thought would be pleasing to her father. She looked out for herself with no hesitation. She was brave and loved challenges, which showed in her Egyptian discoveries.

Rameses was extremely physically fit and had a very defined muscular body. He looked foreign with his darkened skin and his striking features. He was about six foot four and had amazing blue eyes. He had a long mop of brown hair falling down his forehead. Back in the time that Rameses lived the only language that existed was Latin and Hieroglyphics. He had no knowledge of the English language. Luckily Julie spoke a little Latin, and she slowly started teaching him the English language the best she could. From the beginning Rameses found interest in Julie. He was fascinated by her girlish curvy figure and her soft warm face.

Henry, Julie’s cousin came over to visit one morning and got in an argument with Julie about his drinking and his money problems. Henry was so upset that he decided the only way to resolve the problem was by killing Julie the same way he had killed her father. He slipped out a rag filled with the ancient poisonous powder and put it into Julie’s coffee. When he offered it to her he turned very pale and agitated. Then before he had the given the cup to Julie, the mummy rose behind him and grabbed his neck. Henry took off out the door and went to get his father.

In the mean-time the mummy returned to its original human state. He was a strong, big, man and Julie became so attracted to him that she even kissed him. The mummy bathed and cleaned himself. When Henry came back with his father and the guards no one believed that the man standing before them was the mummy. Julie told them that he was a visiting guest from Egypt, who was friends with her father. After they left, Julie started to teach the mummy English. When he had learned enough, he told Julie that Henry had killed her father and was going to try and kill her the same way. She was stunned and didn’t want to believe him. Julie spent many more days with Rameses and decided that she loved him more than her own fiancé, Alex.

Julie introduced Rameses to Alex, and a few months later Alex, Rameses, and Julie took a trip to Egypt to see her fathers grave site. While they were there, Rameses wanted to go to the burial place of his beloved Cleopatra. Rameses opened her tomb and let light shine in awakening her immortal soul. Julie knew she had no chance with Rameses now. Two nights later they were walking down the railroad tracks back to their camp sight and two trains derailed causing a huge explosion. It swallowed Cleopatra inside. Rameses was devastated at the thought of loosing her. Julie was thrown back from the blast and landed in Alex’s arms. She remembered how much she had loved him at one time and looking into his eyes found she still did. Since Cleopatra was immortal she survived the explosion and bounced back the way she was before. Rameses decided that the world had become to dangerous a place for he and Cleopatra and they decided to be entombed again, until the next group of discoverers awakened them in the centuries to come.

The author's message of this story was to never take things you have for granted because you never know when they’ll be taken away from you. You should follow your heart and do what you know is right. Make your own decisions and pay attention to warnings. In the book Julie’s father was warned over and over again not to open the tomb and he did anyway. He caused so many things to happen including his death and endangering his daughter.