The Mummy's Foot and Other Stories by Theophile Gautier, Fiction, Classics, Fantasy, Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology

The Mummy's Foot -- the title story in this collection -- is a gothic tale, published in French as "Le Pied de Momie." It relates the adventures of a man who buys the 3,000 year old foot of Princess Hermonthis in a Parisian curio shop. Gautier has a fascination with Ancient Egypt as well as an obsession with mortality, decay, and the passage of time.