May 1, 2021
Discovered in 1799, the Rosetta Stone bears an inscription in three languages--Egyptian hieroglyphics, Egyptian Demotic, and ancient Greek--that in 196 BCE disseminated a decree on behalf of Ptolemy V. With all three texts the same, it thus allowed hieroglyphics finally to be deciphered. A former chief science writer at the Boston Globe and Edgar Award winner for The Rescue Artist: A True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece, Dolnick tells the story. With a 75,000-copy first printing.
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August 9, 2021
When the Rosetta Stone was discovered by French soldiers in 1799, “the first guesses were that it might take two weeks to decipher,” according to this stimulating history of a linguistic puzzle that took 20 years to solve. Journalist Dolnick (The Seeds of Life) reveals that Thomas Young (1773–1829) and Jean-François Champollion (1790–1832), the two “rival geniuses” who “did the most to crack the code,” had both been child prodigies and possessed “an uncanny flair for languages,” but were “opposites in nearly every other regard.” Polymath Young made contributions to the fields of physics, medicine, and linguistics, while Champollion “cared about Egypt and only about Egypt.” Though Champollion was the first to truly “read” the language of hieroglyphs, in the 1820s, Young made a key breakthrough in 1816, when he proposed that one grouping on the Rosetta Stone spelled out the name Ptolemy (Champollion insisted that he had come to the same conclusion independently). Dolnick lucidly explains the complex steps taken to decipher the relic, and offers brisk and enlightening history lessons on the first appearances of written language, Roman emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity in the fourth century, the Scientific Revolution, and Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt. The result is an immersive and knowledgeable introduction to one of archaeology’s greatest breakthroughs. Illus. Agent: Flip Brophy, Sterling Lord Literistic.
October 15, 2021
For many, the exciting discovery of the Rosetta Stone during the Napoleonic Wars and the ensuing race between two great minds to decipher one of the world's oldest written languages remains largely unknown. A brief overview of ancient Egypt and its cultural folklore at the time of the stone's finding sets the stage. The happenstance, mid-war discovery of this all-important artifact is vividly and accurately brought to life. From here, the tale moves on to two geniuses from the world's then-rival superpowers--Thomas Young of England and Jean-Francois Champollion of France--and how they raced to decode the inscribed slab. As these two brilliant minds decipher the Rosetta Stone, so does the reader. The text dives deep into the method of the stone's decoding, as well as ciphers and lost languages at large. Prolific nonfiction author and prior science writer at the Boston Globe, Dolnick's prose is beautifully lyrical, and will engage even those unfamiliar with the three converging subjects of ancient Egypt, the Rosetta Stone, and Europe during the Napoleonic Wars.
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November 15, 2021
The story of the Rosetta Stone's discovery and decoding. Today, the Rosetta Stone occupies such a prominent role in public interest--not unlike Stonehenge or the Egyptian pyramids--that its actual significance can easily get lost amid the crowds of tourists clamoring for a view. In his latest book, Dolnick, former chief science writer for the Boston Globe who has written for a wide variety of publications, offers a strong corrective, describing not only how the Rosetta Stone was found, but also how, over several long decades, it was deciphered. He creates an engaging portrait of the two men--Jean-Fran�ois Champollion and Thomas Young--who were mainly responsible for cracking the code of Egyptian hieroglyphs. For centuries, those hieroglyphs had been unreadable. Dolnick provides an exciting narrative of the journey to legibility, and he effectively describes why it was such an important--and excruciating--process. However, the author sometimes goes awry when he strains too hard for wittiness--e.g., describing ancient Alexandria as "Paris to Rome's Podunk." Worse are the banalities that stud Dolnick's analyses. "If you pull the camera back far enough," he writes, "all cultures look the same. People meet and fall in love; they boast and puff themselves up; they mock their rivals; they pray to their god, or a host of gods; they fear death. The details make all the difference." Accessibility is no crime, of course, but the author's desire to make the book accessible to everyone leads him to oversimplify his subject with labored asides: "Imagine how much harder crossword puzzles would be if the answers could be in any language including dead ones." Despite these flaws, Dolnick makes complicated linguistic challenges not only comprehensible, but also especially vivid for readers new to the subject, and, as in his previous books, his enthusiasm is infectious. A largely engaging yet sometimes pedestrian look at language and the limits of what we can understand.
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