The Mummy's Foot
| "The Mummy's Foot" | |
|---|---|
| Author | Théophile Gautier |
| Original title | "Le Pied de momie" |
| Translator | Lafcadio Hearn |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Genre(s) | Gothic fiction |
| Published in | Le Musée des familles |
| Publication type | periodical |
| Publication date | September 1840 |
The Mummy's Foot (French: Le Pied de momie) is a gothic short story by the French writer Théophile Gautier, first published in 1840. It relates the fantastical tale of a contemporary man and the adventures which befall him when he ventures into a Parisian curiosity shop and buys the four-thousand-year-old foot of Princess Hermonthis.
Plot summary
A man enters an antiques shop and buys a mummified foot which supposedly belonged to an Egyptian princess. He intends to use the foot as a paperweight. In the night, he sees a vision of the princess, and he agrees to return her foot in exchange for a small statuette. He is abruptly woken from this dream by the arrival of a friend. Now awake, he observes that the mummified foot that was on his desk has indeed been replaced by the statuette.
Adaptations
The story was adapted for television as part of the NBC Television anthology series Your Show Time, airing February 11, 1949.
External links
- The Mummy's Foot at Project Gutenberg
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The Mummy's Foot public domain audiobook at LibriVox - Your Show Time: The Mummy's Foot at the Internet Movie Database