3.5/5

Absolutely incredible. I stayed up late reading this several nights in a row and filled my husband in on everything I had learned the next day. The historical facts and the linguistic nuances were written in a way that was easy to understand and enjoyable. Sometimes it felt like the author went down a rabbit trail, but always came back to the main point. Cannot wait to stand in front of the Rosetta Stone and sob.

This was such a well written and put together book. The way it's written and draws hypothetical comparisons really gets the mind racing and understands the scope that Thomas Young and Champollion and everyone else who was involved was taking a look at and trying to solve.

Super interesting dive into discovery and translation of the Rosetta Stone, as well as the crazy for Egyptology in 1800s Europe. Wasn’t crazy for the writing style at times but was a good high-level take on a topic I didn’t know a lot about.

A complete and fascinating delight of a book!
Highly recommended for anyone with even a slight interest in linguistics, Egypt, history, codebreaking, etc.
haven’t read a non-fiction this riveting in probably ever.

I certainly went through a Ancient Egypt phase and the Rosetta Stone has always been fascinating. It is something that would likely make me awe-struck. Just thinking about how few people could read and write when it was inscribed and then to have three ways of writing on one stone is incredible.

This book followed the two main-men behind decoding the stone (as well as some other tangents). I think the book was well researched and written, but it sometimes got a bit long winded. Overall, it was an interesting read with good depictions and pictures.