AustLit
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
The Chamber of Eternity of Egypt is said to contain a hieroglyphic chart of the future, the meaning of life and the secrets of immortality. For thousands of years it has been sought by emperors, kings, caliphs and popes, but its site is fiercely guarded; its existence defended by preposterous rumours and outright lies. By the 1790s the chamber has become a treasure more prized and elusive than even the Holy Grail. Learning of the mysterious vault, in 1798 Napoleon Bonaparte launches an ambitious expedition to Egypt to locate it. And one year later, in the heart of the Great Pyramid, the chamber's secrets are revealed to him by a mysterious red-robed mystic - the so-called 'Red Man'. Buoyed by revelations of a phenomenal destiny, Napoleon returns to Paris and becomes Emperor of France. But as his fame escalates he begins to question the veracity of the meeting in the Great Pyramid, the accuracy of the chamber's prophecies, the existence of the Red Man - and his sanity. Forty years later it is Queen Victoria's turn to become infatuated with the legend. She knows that since Napoleon's day a few are said to have discovered the great vault, but for some inexplicable reason they seem determined to withhold its extraordinary secrets. So Alexander Rhind, a modest young Scottish archaeologist, is recruited to infiltrate the 'Brotherhood of Eternity'. But when Rhind himself becomes seduced by the mystery of the chamber, he too is compelled to undertake his own search for it, drawn by the possibility that there are answers among the ruins, both grand and intimate, which can only be discerned in person. With its cast of emperors, popes, queens, generals, sheikhs, artists and archaeologists - every one of them real - THE EMPIRE OF ETERNITY is a brilliant and haunting novel about the mysteries of the great tombs, the hidden secrets of the gods and man's desire to possess them at all costs. Its story will stay in your mind long after you have turned the final page. (Publisher's blurb)
Notes
-
Author's note: The Empire of Eternity is a work of fiction, but every named character actually existed and I have rarely altered their known whereabouts. With motivations, however, I have occasionally taken more liberties, and apologies are paid in advance to any affronted spirits,
-
Epigraph: Better never to have lived than to exist and pass on without leaving a trace.- Napoleon.
-
Epigraph: To all, his sweetness and unselfishness, his warm and sympathetic nature, could not be attractive, while to those who could appreciate them, the treasures of his active and well-stored mind formed an additional tie and charm.-John Stuart, Memoir of the Late Alexander Henry Rhind.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
And Now ... The Napoleon Code
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: The West Australian , 14 October 2006; (p. 8)
— Review of The Empire of Eternity 2006 single work novel -
Books Fiction
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 2 - 3 September 2006; (p. 22)
— Review of The Empire of Eternity 2006 single work novel -
Destiny in Well-Trodden Battle Paths
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 2 September 2006; (p. 16)
— Review of The Empire of Eternity 2006 single work novel -
Wild Fact-Fiction Mix
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 26 August 2006; (p. 12)
— Review of The Empire of Eternity 2006 single work novel -
From Egypt to Kingdom Come
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 5-6 August 2006; (p. 34)
— Review of The Empire of Eternity 2006 single work novel
-
Untitled
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , July vol. 86 no. 1 2006; (p. 50)
— Review of The Empire of Eternity 2006 single work novel -
In Short
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 8 August vol. 124 no. 6532 2006; (p. 67)
— Review of The Empire of Eternity 2006 single work novel -
From Egypt to Kingdom Come
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 5-6 August 2006; (p. 34)
— Review of The Empire of Eternity 2006 single work novel -
Wild Fact-Fiction Mix
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 26 August 2006; (p. 12)
— Review of The Empire of Eternity 2006 single work novel -
Destiny in Well-Trodden Battle Paths
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 2 September 2006; (p. 16)
— Review of The Empire of Eternity 2006 single work novel
Last amended 16 Aug 2021 14:34:22
Settings:
-
cEgypt,cNorth Africa, Africa,
- 1799-1854
Export this record