The earl and the pharaoh From the real Downton Abbey to the discovery of Tutankhamun

Review by Booklist Review

In 1922, the unearthing of the tomb of Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun set off a worldwide obsession. Egyptologist Howard Carter's achievement was funded by English aristocrat George Herbert, the Fifth Earl of Carnarvon. From a young age, Herbert was encouraged by his father, a Tory politician, and stepmother; he attended Eton and Cambridge. As a somewhat sickly child, he became entranced with both horse and car racing. After an automobile accident left him more deeply disabled, he took medical advice and wintered away from England. In Egypt's desert climes, Carnarvon, always a curious reader, steeped himself in Egyptian history. Partnering with Carter, Carnarvon and his wife became the first to witness Tutankhamun's rediscovered treasures. The author and current Countess Carnarvon (Seasons at Highclere, 2021) relates the story of her husband's famous ancestor, ably reconstructing the growth and development of a remarkable and accomplished scion of a noble line. Downton Abbey fans will further be intrigued that Earl Carnarvon grew up at Highclere Castle, now renowned as the setting of the show.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

The Countess of Carnarvon (Seasons at Highclere) pays tribute to her ancestor George Herbert (1866--1923), the fifth Earl of Carnarvon, in this overstuffed account. At a time when "wealthy tourists flocked to Egypt for little more than four months of the year," Lord Carnarvon, an avid collector of antiquities, "came to the conclusion that, rather than simply visiting as a tourist, he might see whether he could apply for a concession to excavate." He partnered with Egyptologist Howard Carter, and in 1914 they were granted the rights to excavate in the Valley of the Kings, where they hoped--based on mentions in historical sources--to find the burial chamber of a young pharaoh. They were proven correct in November 1922, when they discovered Tutankhamun's multichambered tomb on the western side of the valley. The author conveys the thrill of the discovery--which would turn out to be one of Egyptology's largest and most enduring--and lucidly sketches the era's turbulent politics. Unfortunately, readers must wade through mountains of extraneous details about the Earl's daily life, including where his family spent their holidays and what social events they attended, to get to the good stuff. This history gets bogged down in minutiae. (Dec.)

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Review by Library Journal Review

You may not know Lady Fiona Carnarvon, but you know her country home, Highclere Castle, where the sensationally popular Downton Abbey is filmed. Here she draws on Highclere's archives to chronicle the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb, financed by her forebear George Herbert, an antiquities collector and the 5th Earl of Carnarvon. Just in time for the centennial; with a 30,000-copy first printing.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

A fawning biography of the British aristocrat who, with Howard Carter, unearthed King Tutankhamun's tomb. The author is the wife of the eighth Earl of Carnarvon as well as the caretaker of the vast family castle, Highclere, now famous as the locus of the TV show Downton Abbey. The fifth Earl of Carnarvon, George Herbert (1866-1923), was the most notorious of the bunch, as the financial backer of Carter's King Tut excavation in 1922 and a dilettantish archaeologist who perished shortly after the momentous discovery from blood poisoning. The countess delineates with painstaking detail the privileged fabric of the scion's life. He was known as Porchey as a child, the only son of a well-regarded Tory statesman. Porchey was sickly growing up and stricken by the early death of his mother in 1875, when he was 8. He was raised to love hunting and horse racing, and he was more interested in socializing and gambling than academics while a student at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1895, he married Almina Wombwell, the illegitimate daughter of Alfred de Rothschild, and he spent untold amounts of money on racehorses and cutting-edge automobiles before discovering his love of Egyptology. He and Almina spent much of each winter season in Egypt, and in 1908, he employed Carter as his "learned man" to extend excavation work into the Valley of Deir el-Bahri. With the war intervening and political upheaval in Egypt, the two got back to the Valley of the Kings by 1920. Due to his health, however, the earl could not savor the discovery of King Tut's tomb, but his widow persevered with Carter, ensuring his tireless work would not be in vain. The narrative may interest amateur Egyptologists, but the text is another addition to a long line of the author's celebrations of her wealthy, influential descendants--e.g., The Women of the Real Downton Abbey, At Home at Highclere, etc. Written by a family member, the book lacks objectivity and suffers from an excess of detail about family lineage. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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