Lot No. 249

<h4>What if the most brilliant mind on campus chose the dead as his weapon?</h4><p></p><p>First published in 1892 <em>Lot No. 249</em> helped define the modern mummy genre long before Hollywood's bandaged monsters. In this gripping novella the quiet world of academia collides with ancient sorcery when Edward Bellingham-eccentric Egyptologist and target of cruel pranks-decides to punish his rivals through arcane secrets buried beneath three thousand years of sand.</p><p></p><p>Told from the viewpoint of Bellingham's wary classmate the story unfolds in fog-shrouded quadrangles lamp-lit libraries and narrow dormitory passages where something huge drags its bandaged limbs in the darkness. Each new attack leaves the university authorities baffled and the students terrified until a desperate showdown forces reason to confront the supernatural.</p><p></p><p>This modern translation sharpens Conan Doyle's taut prose while preserving every pulse of suspense dry wit and period detail.</p><p></p><p><strong>What You'll Discover in This Modern Translation:</strong></p><p></p><ul><li>A pioneering mummy tale that predates-and inspires-20th-century cinema</li><li>An atmospheric clash of science scholarship and the occult</li><li>Themes of intellectual arrogance colonial plunder and karmic revenge</li><li>Razor-edged pacing and an unforgettable climactic duel</li><li>Conan Doyle's rarely seen gift for outright horror beyond Sherlock Holmes</li></ul><p></p><p>Dread scholarship and ancient wrath converge in a novella that still feels frighteningly fresh.</p>