I really enjoyed reading this book. It was quite exciting and full of a lot of interesting views on language and the evolution of writing. All while still giving a cool introduction to hieroglyphs.
However, my one criticism would be the lack of nuance and this take on history. Specifically, I am not a fan of the use of genius to describe all these ‘white men doing great things all by themselves’. It should be more nuanced like “genius…with a brother who works in the Academy of Inscriptions and Literature…also with a friend who has access to Egyptian excavations…and who probably has people taking care of all his basic needs so he can pursue his hobby”.

Really interesting and I liked the subject matter. Writing was okay, but it did come together in a good story. Would recommend.

This is a fascinating look not just at the Rosetta Stone and how it was unlocked, but about Egypt and those who discovered its wonders.

Heiroglyphs were one of the more mysterious things the Egyptians left behind, and scholars went back and forth about what they meant and how to read them. Because the Egyptians were revered as a civilization of mystics, their writing was considered full of the great answers of existence, not just merely a way to communicate everyday things.

The book follows two scholars who finally broke down the barriers and opened up an amazing, actually accessible culture with a rich history. There are too many twists and turns to go into here, but the story is worth knowing.

There are a lot of "aha" moments in this book, which makes it worth the read.

Fascinating history of how heiroglyphs were deciphered following discovery of the Rosetta Stone, and the competition between Thomas Young and Francois Champoillon.

Engaging read on the story of the deciphering of the Rosetta Stone. The book follows two geniuses of the 19th Century as they compete and complement the work of each other. Written in normal, storyteller style that engages the reader includes nderstandable explanations of the immense size of the problem of learning to read Egyptian hieroglyphs and of the difficulty of decoding them. Not overly technical but willing to give the reader enough information about technical aspects to give an appreciation of the enormous challenge the Rosetta Stone held for would-be translators. Fascinating book highly recommended.

Tightly written, well researched, and thoroughly enjoyable. An incredible - and complicated - story and the author manages to tell it well without distracting digressions. Learned a lot too! I’ll be reading some of Dolnick’s other books.

Too much tangential and irrelevant material included. In the audiobook version, pronunciations of certain names were unnecessarily inconsistent (sic outside of illustrative purposes) and annoying.

Fascinating account of the race to decode Egyptian hieroglyphic writing filled with background history, stories and other linguistic tidbits.