•Why it earns a slot
The novel earns its place as a period document of popular Egyptomania: written in the immediate wake of the Tutankhamun sensation, it dramatises the era's fascination with suspended animation, forged antiquities, and the idea that ancient Egyptian science surpassed the modern, while its central twist anticipates the unreliable-discovery plot that would become a thriller staple.
Barry Cumberland, a restless young New York millionaire haunted by visions of a dark-eyed woman in Egyptian dress, joins his father and the mysterious dealer Danbazzar on an illegal excavation in the Valley of the Queens. They open an ancient tomb and apparently awaken Princess Zalithea, a captive of Pharaoh Seti I who has slept in suspended animation for over three thousand years. After Zalithea vanishes from New York, Barry pursues her to Paris, where the entire enterprise is revealed to be an elaborate illusion staged by a master showman.
This distillation is written from the freely available original, which is always the better read when you have the time: gutenberg.org.