This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt. You may receive a partial or no refund on used, damaged or materially different returns.

Read full return policy

Payment

Secure transaction

Payment

Secure transaction

We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more

Details

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery Thursday, May 2 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35. Order within 16 hrs 33 mins

Select delivery location

Used: Good | Details

Sold by bookmamas_books

Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Other sellers on Amazon

New & Used (39) from $9.45 + $3.98 shipping

Image Unavailable

Image not available for
Color:

To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the authors

The Riddle of the Rosetta: How an English Polymath and a French Polyglot Discovered the Meaning of Egyptian Hieroglyphs Hardcover – September 15, 2020

by Jed Z. Buchwald (Author), Diane Greco Josefowicz (Author)

4.2 54 ratings

See all formats and editions

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$26.30","priceAmount":26.30,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"26","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"30","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"Dw7GfRCQ3O942ZhJwcIQLF9sMN63t%2FOTIMvqfewgZAMgMRecuaZiAPXrpQKuRB5ty2hTxpZ7ah4AByR%2Bu16cmmZbNk%2BwqFcGN0zpBLP175jmlW%2FsTr3BvCQQy35V0NrO1ij%2BlNG689cjjZeVSJQcRY6TCdP31zX7%2FMKMJvAgDngeTHFREGMOxjxfbDD6p%2Bf9","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$15.95","priceAmount":15.95,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"15","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"95","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"Dw7GfRCQ3O942ZhJwcIQLF9sMN63t%2FOTKmxpsezjTTcHkJ3cXc9cPW7pgIE9PIKfm0GcPLOdFLMUj4puPNCJ9CMb6cvvp6Gb4YgdBaN4XUEjoU9OYdIy7ebMrHded6yGu4BHTwUNLMqsuh6%2BYqqORmo9B4j%2FKcua0sediQUItnQ3aq05b5k5mQ%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

A major new history of the race between two geniuses to decipher ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, set against the backdrop of nineteenth-century Europe

In 1799, a French Army officer was rebuilding the defenses of a fort on the banks of the Nile when he discovered an ancient stele fragment bearing a decree inscribed in three different scripts. So begins one of the most familiar tales in Egyptology―that of the Rosetta Stone and the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs. This book draws on fresh archival evidence to provide a major new account of how the English polymath Thomas Young and the French philologist Jean-François Champollion vied to be the first to solve the riddle of the Rosetta.

Jed Buchwald and Diane Greco Josefowicz bring to life a bygone age of intellectual adventure. Much more than a decoding exercise centered on a single artifact, the race to decipher the Rosetta Stone reflected broader disputes about language, historical evidence, biblical truth, and the value of classical learning. Buchwald and Josefowicz paint compelling portraits of Young and Champollion, two gifted intellects with altogether different motivations. Young disdained Egyptian culture and saw Egyptian writing as a means to greater knowledge about Greco-Roman antiquity. Champollion, swept up in the political chaos of Restoration France and fiercely opposed to the scholars aligned with throne and altar, admired ancient Egypt and was prepared to upend conventional wisdom to solve the mystery of the hieroglyphs.

Taking readers from the hushed lecture rooms of the Institut de France to the windswept monuments of the Valley of the Kings, The Riddle of the Rosetta reveals the untold story behind one of the nineteenth century's most thrilling discoveries.

Print length

576 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Princeton University Press
Publication date

September 15, 2020
Dimensions

6.25 x 1.75 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

0691200904
ISBN-13

978-0691200903
See all details

Edward Dolnick
469
Hardcover
46 offers from $4.15

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Combining exhaustive excavation of British and French archives with eclectic biographical elements, [this] valuable new book explains in unique detail . . . the twists and turns behind the perpetually fascinating decipherment."---Andrew Robinson, British Museum Magazine

"Rarely have I seen the false starts and blind alleys, firm beliefs and 180-degree recalibrations, exhilaration and loneliness of pioneering thought captured so well. . . . If The Riddle of the Rosetta won’t be coming to screens anytime soon, its achievement is no less admirable."---Maxwell Carter, Wall Street Journal

"Arguably the most meticulous and thoroughgoing account of the work of Young and Champollion. . . . The dazzling scholarly nimbleness of Champollion and Young is richly illustrated throughout the book ― that is no myth, but it emerges as something a little more human."---Elizabeth Frood, The Spectator

"Buchwald, a historian at California Institute of Technology, and writer Josefowicz put a decade’s worth of work into this book, and it shows. . . . Buchwald and Josefowicz deliver an account that sometimes seems as if in real time, describing the blind alleys, intuitions, and thorny debates that surrounded the scholars’ investigations. . . . Fans of Egyptology, cryptography, and languages will enjoy this exploration of the ancient past." ― Kirkus Reviews

"A gloriously detailed reconstruction . . . this past intellectual world is dazzlingly brought to life by Buchwald and Josefowicz."---Dmitri Levitin, Times Literary Supplement

"This volume is a tour de force of scholarly research and thorough analysis."---Hilary Forrest, Ancient Egypt

"The story of the Stone and its role in the translation of the hieroglyphs has been told many times, but never so well as in Buchwald and Josefowicz’s new book. . . . [The Riddle of the Rosetta is] a sophisticated, exciting, and polished piece of scholarship.”"---Anthony Ossa-Richardson, Erudition and the Republic of Letters

"Elegantly written and dazzlingly erudite. . . . [The Riddle of the Rosetta] offers a fascinating account of an often told story that never loses its allure."---Cecilia Hurley, History of Humanities

Review

"Buchwald and Josefowicz bring together vast amounts of evidence that have not been used in conjunction before, providing novel insights into how the centuries-old mystery of Egyptian hieroglyphs was unlocked."―Theresa Levitt, author of A Short Bright Flash: Augustin Fresnel and the Birth of the Modern Lighthouse

"This is one of the most impressive, carefully researched, and beautifully written books I have read in a long time. No one else working in the history of philology has described what it means to decipher a lost language so fully or so well as Buchwald and Josefowicz."―Suzanne L. Marchand, author of German Orientalism in the Age of Empire

"This extraordinary book is the first to place the decipherment of hieroglyphs firmly in its wider intellectual context of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century European thought, bringing to the subject new sources and a scholarly breadth not found elsewhere. The Riddle of the Rosetta is a great pleasure to read."―T. G. Wilfong, author of Death Dogs: The Jackal Gods of Ancient Egypt

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Princeton University Press (September 15, 2020)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 576 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0691200904
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0691200903
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1.75 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,388,971 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,297 in Ancient Egyptians History
- #2,444 in Archaeology (Books)
- #2,518 in French History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.2 54 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the authors

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Diane Josefowicz
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.
Novelist and historian Diane Josefowicz is the author, most recently, of L'Air du Temps (1985), published by Regal House. Her debut collection, Guardians & Saints, is forthcoming from Cornerstone Press in 2025. She is also the author of a novel, Ready, Set, Oh (Flexible Press, 2022). As a historian, she is the author, with Jed Z. Buchwald, of two histories of Egyptology, The Riddle of the Rosetta (2020) and The Zodiac of Paris (2010), both from Princeton University Press. Her fiction, essays, and reviews have appeared in Conjunctions, Fence, Dame, LA Review of Books, and elsewhere. She serves as reviews editor at Necessary Fiction, associate fiction editor at the West Trade Review, and managing editor of the Victorian Web, the internet's oldest and largest website devoted to Victoriana. She holds an MFA from Columbia University, a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a BA from Brown University. She grew up outside Providence, where she now lives with her family.
See more on the author's page
Jed Z. Buchwald
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
See more on the author's page

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5

54 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

John B M Lordan

caveat emptor

Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2021

I personally enjoyed this book immensely
yes-- it is NOT! an easy book to read--i found I spent almost a month going through it-- bit i did read the entire text..from beginning to end
i notice that in the postscript the authors state that it took them 10 years to write this volume and that was commensurate w the effort I had to put in to read it.. .
hopefully for the prospective reader, it will not be hid first essay in this field--- that would be a serious error
i cant remember what I had read in the past but found myself looking at an earlier book titled the Rosetta Stone by Robert Sole-- translated from French--- also there are excellent you tube videos along these-- one by an Englishman called Robertson who gave a 1 hour lecture in London and a second by an American lady whoalso give a ihour lecture== from Emory i believe
yes there is a TON! of linguistic terminology that I am embarrassed to admit I had no ability to define--- but that is really shame on me-- not shame on the authors
i made a list of words or concepts I could not define-- i think it ran to 40 items---metonymy-- synecdoche---rebus principle--ideograph these are some of the few that come to my mind just now
in fact, for me i found it all very stimulating to read and the book challenged me to learn more
so for those reasons im giving it 5 stars
if you want a really good story and intellectual challenge at the same time. i suggest you pay yr 40 bucks and pick this up
coda kudos to Princeton University Press the book is physically a delight to read touch hold handle and manage for reading - just a delight .

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Leo Depuydt (Consignment)

Sets Back Decipherment History by Almost Two Centuries, to Zero Minutes Zero Seconds

Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2020

Verified Purchase

This book just came to my attention. They’re coming. Do not delay. Time to suit up and march towards Marathon. I gave this book three stars. Why? It is a compromise of, on the one hand, giving five stars for the overall professional execution of research and editing but, on the other hand, giving a black hole for the main thesis. A black hole not only does not give off light. It sucks it up. The notion that Thomas Young deserves credit for the decipherment of hieroglyphic writing, as the book’s title suggests, has been pulverized into subatomic particles so long ago that seeing the claim made again gives me the impression that I just saw a tyrannosaurus rex in the woods the other day driving by on the highway. Or was it just a big cow? Make no mistake. What I write is not in the least meant as a criticism of Young. I do not think there is anything wrong with Young. But where does the Young claim come from in the first place? Well, 1) Young was a great scientist, 2) he worked and published at great length on hieroglyphic writing, and 3) he saw some things. Nothing wrong with that. But these accomplishments have to be confronted with the following undeniable facts. 1) Using Young’s insights, one cannot translate a single Egyptian sentence let alone a text whereas, using Champollion’s insights, one can translate and understand most everything. That much is clear to anyone reading hieroglyphic Egyptian or Demotic. It begins with Champollion’s “apple falling from the tree experience” that burst the dam on 14 September 1822. It receives only passing mention in the book and is in fact completely misunderstood. 2) Young got most of his explicit identifications wrong. 3) It follows from 2) that one is very suspicious that someone making wild stabs and getting most everything wrong was hitting on a few (approximately) correct identifications here and there by sheer accident. A method that is so successful at getting most wrong is not a good method. It also raises questions about the sheer precocity of the person making claims that are again and again wrong. From the book’s bibliography, it is also clear that the authors missed the critical articles that long ago buried the Young hypothesis. This book is to decipherment history what alchemy is to chemistry, with the difference that the authors feel that they have indeed made gold out of . . . what could it be . . . French fries? The Young-Champollion discussion in the nineteenth century was at times quite bitter. To revive this controversy knowing what we know now, one needs to enjoy picking a fight. And what is the benefit of that? Again, why Champollion? To anyone reading hieroglyphics and Demotic, it is abundantly clear that, using Young’s few insights, one cannot translate and understand one single sentence of hieroglyphic or demotic, let alone a text. And that’s a fact. That is the qualitative leap that makes Champollion and no one else the decipherer. There were many partial insights of physics before Newton but the laws of gravity are forever his. If Young were a decipherer, then many physicists can claim credit for Newton’s laws. I think that I can already hear Galilei and Huygens calling their lawyers about the residuals. Leo Depuydt
PS “The Riddle of the Rosetta” sounds a little awkward. What is meant is obviously “the Rosetta Stone.” But referring to it as “the Rosetta” sound a little like saying that it is kept at “the British.” What do you mean “the British”? Or stating that one visited “the Eiffel” in Paris. “The Eiffel” what?

15 people found this helpful

Helpful

Brian S.

Extremely detailed, but a tough read

Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2024

The Riddle of the Rosetta is an extremely detailed and thorough book. I was continually amazed by all the research involving the main and secondary characters. While the book is well written, it's a challenging read. Too much of the text was very technical and there were far too many long sentences.

That said, there's a wealth of information, and it's a fascinating read--especially for people who enjoy well-researched books.

The notes section is extensive, and contains a lot of helpful additional information. There's also a substantial bibliography.

Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2021

Verified Purchase

The book is written in an unnecesarily academic style. What is impressive is an engaging, quick to read book, tortured writing impresses noone.

It goes on for many ( superfluous) chapters before getting to anything about the Rosetta stone.

Helpful

Amazon Customer

This book is really aimed at philologists and can be hard to follow for a general reader.

Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2020

Verified Purchase

I purchased this book to learn more about how the Rosetta stone was deciphered, but the book achieves that purpose in a very indirect way. It reconstructs the "competitive scholarship" between a Frenchman and an Englishman which extends over more than 20 years. There are many diversions and a great deal of material on arcane subjects which, while potentially interesting, divert ones attention from the main subject. While much is made of the inherent biases of the two researchers (one believes Egyptian society was "primitive" and that colors his view; the other identifies with the non-Christian nature of Egyptian religion at a time of church-state conflict in France) the case that these biases had a major impact on the final "correct" explanation of the ancient Egyptian languages is more circumstantial than causative.
Finally, the book was, for me, written too much for 'insiders' - it seems to assume the reader knows the characters and ultimate result of this competition between scholars. I didn't and had to go read the one page summary on Wikipedia to give me a more clear and concise portrayal of the major concepts and cast of characters.

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

n1msr

If you are deep into this subject (>500 pages) then get the Kindle edition not the printed book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 28, 2020

Verified Purchase

Two main comments in this review at this stage: (1) I recommend that if you really want this publication, get the Kindle version. I have returned the printed version for two reasons: (i) the type is too small to read comfortably and (ii) the printed figures and reproductions of illustrations are poor quality for a book like this. (2) I say "if you really want this" because it looks like a heavily researched book, and covers its topic(s) in depth. There are many other publications on the subject of the Rosetta Stone that are much easier to read.

Fortunately the internet will enable any dedicated reader to find online reproductions of the cartoons, pictures and paintings etc. in this book. But why should you have to do this after spending money on a printed publication? There are no photographs in this editon, but there are plenty of printed figures and illustrations, albeit of low quality in my opinion.

As for the merit of the content and arguments presented in the book, other reviewers have commented on this. I am not sufficiently well-read in this area to provide comment yet (I have not read the book partly for the reasons given above).

2 people found this helpful

See more reviews

Image Unavailable

Follow the authors