Anne Rice changed everything. Long before the sparkly vampires of the 2000s or the gritty reboots of the 2010s, she was busy reinventing the monsters of the Victorian era. In 1989, she stepped away from her famous vampires to tackle a dusty, bandaged trope. She gave us The Mummy, also known as Ramses the Damned. Honestly? It’s a wild ride. It’s not your typical "shuffling creature in a tomb" story. Not even close.
Ramses is different. He isn't a rotting corpse seeking a lost soul. He’s a sun-bronzed, immortal polyglot who wakes up in Edwardian London and immediately wants to eat everything, learn everything, and—naturally—fall in love.
What Actually Happens in The Mummy by Anne Rice
The plot kicks off when Lawrence Stratford, an archaeologist who probably should’ve been more careful, dies under mysterious circumstances. His daughter, Julie Stratford, inherits his collection and his secrets. Among those secrets is a giant sarcophagus. Inside? The legendary Ramses II. But here’s the kicker: Ramses drank an elixir of life thousands of years ago. He isn't dead. He was just sleeping.
When he wakes up, he doesn't go on a killing spree. He drinks coffee. He reads the entire British Museum. He becomes a bit of a socialite. Rice writes him with this incredible, manic energy that makes you realize just how boring most other mummies are. He’s a man out of time, but he’s also a god with a very human ego.
The conflict ramps up when Ramses decides, in a fit of grief and questionable judgment, to use the elixir on the long-dead remains of Cleopatra. It goes about as well as you’d expect. Which is to say, it goes horribly.
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The Elixir and the Curse of Immortality
Rice loves to play with the cost of living forever. In her Vampire Chronicles, it’s all about the "Savage Garden" and the loneliness of the hunt. In The Mummy, it’s a bit more physical. The elixir makes Ramses practically indestructible. He can regenerate. He’s strong. But he’s also stuck.
The tragedy of the book doesn't come from the supernatural elements alone. It comes from the realization that even a god-king can’t bring back the past. When he revives Cleopatra, she isn't the woman he remembered. She’s a mindless, starving creature at first—a literal "mummy" in the horror sense—before her mind starts to knit back together into something vengeful and alien. It’s a stark contrast to Ramses' own elegance.
Why Readers Keep Coming Back to Ramses the Damned
A lot of horror fiction from the late 80s feels dated now. The tropes are tired. The pacing is weird. But Rice has this lush, almost suffocatingly detailed prose style that keeps the Edwardian setting feeling alive. You can smell the dust in the Stratford attic and the expensive tobacco in the London clubs.
- The Romance: It’s steamy. It’s Anne Rice, after all. The chemistry between Julie and Ramses is built on intellectual curiosity as much as physical attraction.
- The History: Rice clearly did her homework. While she takes massive liberties with the historical Ramses II, the "feel" of Egyptology during the early 20th century is spot on.
- The Horror: When the horror hits, it’s visceral. The description of Cleopatra’s slow, wet regeneration is enough to make anyone skip lunch.
Rice understood that we don't fear mummies because they are strong. We fear them because they represent the stubbornness of the past. They are things that refuse to stay buried.
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The Problem With the Sequel
For decades, fans begged for a sequel. It took until 2017 for The Passion of Cleopatra to arrive, co-written with her son, Christopher Rice. Some people loved the continuation. Others felt the original 1989 novel was a perfect standalone piece of gothic camp. There’s a certain magic in the ending of the first book—a lingering sense of "what now?"—that a sequel can sometimes smudge.
Honestly, the original stands on its own. It’s a bridge between the classic Universal Monsters and the modern "paranormal romance" genre. Without Ramses, we might not have the 1999 Brendan Fraser Mummy movie (which, let’s be real, owes a spiritual debt to Rice’s more adventurous tone).
How to Read The Mummy by Anne Rice Today
If you’re picking this up for the first time, forget the movies. Forget the "Return of the Mummy" tropes. Read it as a historical fantasy.
The pacing is breathless. Rice doesn't waste time with long-winded explanations of how the magic works initially; she just throws you into Julie's perspective as her world falls apart. The transition from a grieving daughter to the lover of an ancient king happens fast, but in the context of the book’s heightened reality, it works.
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Key Themes to Look Out For:
- Regret: Ramses is haunted by the people he couldn't save.
- Scientific Hubris: The tension between ancient alchemy and modern (1914) science.
- Gender Roles: Julie Stratford is a surprisingly capable protagonist for a book written in the 80s about the 1910s. She holds her own against a literal god.
The Legacy of Ramses the Damned
We don't talk about this book as much as Interview with the Vampire, and that’s a shame. It’s arguably more "fun" than the vampire books. It’s less brooding and more active. Ramses is a man of action. He wants to see the world, even if he has to burn a few things down to do it.
Critics at the time were split. Some found the prose too purple. Others found the blend of romance and gore jarring. But that’s the Anne Rice brand. She doesn't do "subtle." She does "everything, all at once, with a side of silk sheets."
If you’re a fan of historical fiction with a supernatural edge, this is basically the gold standard. It captures the "Egyptomania" of the early 20th century better than almost any other novel.
Actionable Steps for the Curious Reader
If you want to dive deeper into the world of The Mummy by Anne Rice, don't just stop at the last page. The experience is better when you contextualize it.
- Visit a Museum: If you can, go to the British Museum in London or the Met in New York. Look at the actual statues of Ramses II. Seeing the sheer scale of the historical figure makes Rice’s characterization feel even more audacious.
- Compare the Eras: Read Bram Stoker’s The Jewel of Seven Stars. It was written in 1903 and deals with similar themes of Egyptian resurrection. It shows just how much Rice flipped the script by making her mummy the "hero."
- Check out the Comic: There was a comic book adaptation of The Mummy by Millennium Publications in the 90s. It’s hard to find but worth it for the visual interpretation of Ramses' "radiance."
- Skip the Spoilers for the Sequel: If you decide to read The Passion of Cleopatra, go in cold. The tone is slightly different because of the co-writing, but it expands the lore of the elixir in ways that might surprise you.
Rice’s work reminds us that the past is never truly dead. It’s just waiting for a little sunlight—or a drop of the right chemical—to wake up and start making trouble again.