Ancient Egypt still fascinates us more than any other ancient civilization. But no Greek or Roman could read the elaborate Egyptian hieroglyphs: for almost two millennia, the hieroglyphic script became a 'lost language', until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone by Napoleon's soldiers in Egypt in 1799.
Despite the efforts of some of Europe's most intelligent scholars to crack the hieroglyphic code, it was an impoverished, arrogant and brilliant child of the French Revolution, Jean-François Champollion, who made the vital breakthrough.
Today, Champollion is rightly regarded as the founder of Egyptology, and is a national hero in France. Robinson's full-blooded account brings one of the world's greatest code-breakers, his setbacks and his ultimate triumphs vividly to life.
This finely illustrated biography - the first in English - charts Champollion's dramatic life and achievements: how, against the odds, he began to decipher a lost world, led an expedition to Egypt with royal backing, lived in the tombs of the Valley of the Kings, and made the voices of the pharaohs and their subjects speak. Living life to the full, he formed undying friendships and rivalries - but his obsession eventually drove him into an early death, at the age of only 41.
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