The Face On The Sphinx

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The Sphinx Mystery

Author : Robert Temple
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1594778841
Total Pages : 653 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (947 download)

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Book Synopsis The Sphinx Mystery by : Robert Temple

Download or read book The Sphinx Mystery written by Robert Temple and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-01-20 with total page 653 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A book that verifies the existence of secret underground chambers beneath the Sphinx and demonstrates its origins as the Egyptian god of the dead, Anubis • Includes an anthology of eyewitness accounts from early travelers who explored the secret chambers before they were sealed in 1926 • Reveals that the Sphinx was originally carved as a monumental crouching Anubis, the Egyptian jackal god of the necropolis Shrouded in mystery for centuries, the Sphinx of Giza has frustrated many who have attempted to discover its original purpose. Accounts exist of the Sphinx as an oracle, as a king’s burial chamber, and as a temple for initiation into the Hermetic Mysteries. Egyptologists have argued for decades about whether there are secret chambers underneath the Sphinx, why the head-to-body ratio is out of proportion, and whose face adorns it. In The Sphinx Mystery, Robert Temple addresses the many mysteries of the Sphinx. He presents eyewitness accounts, published over a period of 281 years, of people who saw the secret chambers and even went inside them before they were sealed in 1926--accounts that had been forgotten until the author rediscovered them. He also describes his own exploration of a tunnel at the rear of the Sphinx, perhaps used for obtaining sacred divinatory dreams. Robert Temple reveals that the Sphinx was originally a monumental Anubis, the Egyptian jackal god, and that its face is that of a Middle Kingdom Pharaoh, Amenemhet II, which was a later re-carving. In addition, he provides photographic evidence of ancient sluice gate traces to demonstrate that, during the Old Kingdom, the Sphinx as Anubis sat surrounded by a moat filled with water--called Jackal Lake in the ancient Pyramid Texts--where religious ceremonies were held. He also provides evidence that the exact size and position of the Sphinx were geometrically determined in relation to the pyramids of Cheops and Chephren and that it was part of a pharaonic resurrection cult.

We Can't Go Home Again

Author : Clarence E. Walker
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0195357302
Total Pages : 210 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (953 download)

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Book Synopsis We Can't Go Home Again by : Clarence E. Walker

Download or read book We Can't Go Home Again written by Clarence E. Walker and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2001-06-14 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Afrocentrism has been a controversial but popular movement in schools and universities across America, as well as in black communities. But in We Can't Go Home Again, historian Clarence E. Walker puts Afrocentrism to the acid test, in a thoughtful, passionate, and often blisteringly funny analysis that melts away the pretensions of this "therapeutic mythology." As expounded by Molefi Kete Asante, Yosef Ben-Jochannan, and others, Afrocentrism encourages black Americans to discard their recent history, with its inescapable white presence, and to embrace instead an empowering vision of their African (specifically Egyptian) ancestors as the source of western civilization. Walker marshals a phalanx of serious scholarship to rout these ideas. He shows, for instance, that ancient Egyptian society was not black but a melange of ethnic groups, and questions whether, in any case, the pharaonic regime offers a model for blacks today, asking "if everybody was a King, who built the pyramids?" But for Walker, Afrocentrism is more than simply bad history--it substitutes a feel-good myth of the past for an attempt to grapple with the problems that still confront blacks in a racist society. The modern American black identity is the product of centuries of real history, as Africans and their descendants created new, hybrid cultures--mixing many African ethnic influences with native and European elements. Afrocentrism replaces this complex history with a dubious claim to distant glory. "Afrocentrism offers not an empowering understanding of black Americans' past," Walker concludes, "but a pastiche of 'alien traditions' held together by simplistic fantasies." More to the point, this specious history denies to black Americans the dignity, and power, that springs from an honest understanding of their real history.

Sphinx

Author : Christiane Zivie-Coche
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780801489549
Total Pages : 142 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (895 download)

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Book Synopsis Sphinx by : Christiane Zivie-Coche

Download or read book Sphinx written by Christiane Zivie-Coche and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Sphinxes are legion in Egypt--what is so special about this one?... We shall take a stroll around the monument itself, scrutinizing its special features and analyzing the changes it experienced throughout its history. The evidence linked to the statue will enable us to trace its evolution... down to the worship it received in the first centuries of our own era, when Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans mingled together in devotion to this colossus, illustrious witness to a past that was already more than two millennia old."--from the IntroductionThe Great Sphinx of Giza is one of the few monuments from ancient Egypt familiar to nearly everyone. In a land where the colossal is part of the landscape, it still stands out, the largest known statue in Egypt. Originally constructed as the image of King Chephren, builder of the second of the Great Pyramids, the Sphinx later acquired new fame in the guise of the sun god Harmakhis. Major construction efforts in the New Kingdom and Roman Period transformed the monument and its environs into an impressive place of pilgrimage, visited until the end of pagan antiquity.Christiane Zivie-Coche, a distinguished Egyptologist, surveys the long history of the Great Sphinx and discusses its original appearance, its functions and religious significance, its relation to the many other Egyptian sphinxes, and the various discoveries connected with it. From votive objects deposited by the faithful and inscriptions that testify to details of worship, she reconstructs the cult of Harmakhis (in Egyptian, Har-em-akhet, or "Horus-in-the-horizon"), which arose around the monument in the second millennium. "We are faced," she writes, "with a religious phenomenon that is entirely original, though not unique: a theological reinterpretation turned an existing statue into the image of the god who had been invented on its basis."The coming of Christianity ended the Great Sphinx's religious role. The ever-present sand buried it, thus sparing it the fate that overtook the nearby pyramids, which were stripped of their stone by medieval builders. The monument remained untouched, covered by its desert blanket, until the first excavations. Zivie-Coche details the archaeological activity aimed at clearing the Sphinx and, later, at preserving it from the corrosive effects of a rising water table.

Sphinx

Author : Anne Garreta
Publisher : Deep Vellum Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1941920098
Total Pages : 153 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (419 download)

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Book Synopsis Sphinx by : Anne Garreta

Download or read book Sphinx written by Anne Garreta and published by Deep Vellum Publishing. This book was released on 2015-04-21 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A landmark literary event: the first novel by a female member of Oulipo in English, a sexy genderless love story.

Book of the Sphinx

Author : Willis Goth Regier
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
ISBN 13 : 9780803205260
Total Pages : 330 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (52 download)

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Book Synopsis Book of the Sphinx by : Willis Goth Regier

Download or read book Book of the Sphinx written by Willis Goth Regier and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2004-12-01 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sought, the Sphinx seems everywhere, whether the guardian of the pyramids on Egypt's Giza plateau or the beautiful man-eater with a deadly riddle, to be approached with awful caution. The Sphinx, that icon painted, sculpted, engraved, and exalted in poetry, fiction, and music, so impressed the philosopher Hegel that he pronounced the creature “the symbol of the symbolic itself.” With a wealth of illustrations, Book of the Sphinx confirms Hegel's lofty judgment, finding the Sphinx everywhere: in tragedies, paintings, opera, murder mysteries, brothels, bars, and advertisements. Pursuing the Sphinx through kaleidoscopic sightings and encyclopedic observations, Willis Goth Regier plumbs the symbol's mysteries, conducting the reader down ever more perplexing and intriguing paths. Wonderfully readable, his highly idiosyncratic tour of the ages and the arts leads at last to a conception of the Sphinx that embraces nothing less than all that is unknowable—proving once again that confronting a Sphinx is one of the most dangerous and exhilarating adventures of the imagination.

Origins of the Sphinx

Author : Robert M. Schoch
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1620555263
Total Pages : 616 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (25 download)

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Book Synopsis Origins of the Sphinx by : Robert M. Schoch

Download or read book Origins of the Sphinx written by Robert M. Schoch and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-03-16 with total page 616 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New research and evidence that the Sphinx is thousands of years older than previously thought • Contrasts what Egyptologists claim about the Sphinx with historical accounts and new research including reanalysis of seismic studies and updates to Schoch’s water weathering research and Bauval’s Orion Correlation Theory • Examines how the Sphinx is contemporaneous with Göbekli Tepe, aligned with the constellation Leo, and was recarved during the Old Kingdom era of Egypt • Reveals that the Sphinx was built during the actual historical Golden Age of ancient Egypt, the period known in legend as Zep Tepi No other monument in the world evokes mystery like the Great Sphinx of Giza. It has survived the harsh climate of Egypt for thousands of years and will remain long after our own civilization is gone. According to orthodox Egyptology, the Sphinx was built around 2500 BCE as a memorial to the pharaoh Khafre. Yet this “fact” has scant to no supportive evidence. When was the Sphinx really built and, most importantly, why? In this provocative collaboration from two Egyptology outsiders, Robert M. Schoch, Ph.D., and Robert Bauval combine their decades of research to show how the Sphinx is thousands of years older than the conventional Egyptological timeline and was built by a long forgotten pre-Pharaonic civilization. They examine the known history of the Sphinx, contrasting what Egyptologists claim with prominent historical accounts and new research, including updates to Schoch’s geological water weathering research and reanalysis of seismic studies. Building on Bauval’s Orion Correlation Theory, they investigate the archaeoastronomical alignments of the monuments of the Giza Plateau and reveal how the pyramids and Sphinx were built to align with the constellations of Orion and Leo. Analyzing the evidence for a significantly older construction phase at Giza and the restoration and recarving of the Sphinx during the Old Kingdom era, they assert that the Sphinx was first built by an advanced pre-Pharaonic civilization that existed circa 12,000 years ago on the Giza Plateau, contemporaneous with the sophisticated Göbekli Tepe complex. The authors examine how the monuments at Giza memorialize Zep Tepi, the Golden Age of legend shown here to be an actual historical time period from roughly 10,500 BCE through 9700 BCE. Moving us closer to an understanding of the true age and purpose of the Great Sphinx, Schoch and Bauval provide evidence of an early high civilization witnessed by the Great Sphinx before the end of the last ice age.

American Sphinx

Author : Joseph J. Ellis
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0375727469
Total Pages : 463 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (757 download)

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Book Synopsis American Sphinx by : Joseph J. Ellis

Download or read book American Sphinx written by Joseph J. Ellis and published by Vintage. This book was released on 1998-11-19 with total page 463 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER Following Thomas Jefferson from the drafting of the Declaration of Independence to his retirement in Monticello, Joseph J. Ellis unravels the contradictions of the Jeffersonian character. He gives us the slaveholding libertarian who was capable of decrying mescegenation while maintaing an intimate relationship with his slave, Sally Hemmings; the enemy of government power who exercisdd it audaciously as president; the visionarty who remained curiously blind to the inconsistencies in his nature. American Sphinx is a marvel of scholarship, a delight to read, and an essential gloss on the Jeffersonian legacy.

Marcy and the Riddle of the Sphinx

Author : Joe Todd-Stanton
Publisher : National Geographic Books
ISBN 13 : 1912497492
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (124 download)

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Book Synopsis Marcy and the Riddle of the Sphinx by : Joe Todd-Stanton

Download or read book Marcy and the Riddle of the Sphinx written by Joe Todd-Stanton and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2020-03-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kids will love this exciting excavation of ancient Egyptian myths as they follow along with the clever Marcy on a quest to save her dad from the belly of the sphinx! Many years have passed since the tale of Arthur and the Golden Rope, and Arthur is now a world-famous adventurer. If only his daughter Marcy shared his enthusiasm for exploration... Determined to bring out Marcy's adventurous side, Arthur sets off to Egypt to bring back the legendary Book of Thoth. When Arthur doesn't return, Marcy must follow in his footsteps. Can she overcome her fears and rescue her father from the clutches of the great Sphinx?

The Message of the Sphinx

Author : Graham Hancock
Publisher : Crown
ISBN 13 : 030755791X
Total Pages : 505 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (75 download)

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Book Synopsis The Message of the Sphinx by : Graham Hancock

Download or read book The Message of the Sphinx written by Graham Hancock and published by Crown. This book was released on 2009-06-10 with total page 505 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Two Egypt experts posit a revolutionary theory: The Sphinx and other great Egyptian monuments are older than common history books tell us and are arranged in such a way as to send us a message from the silent past. Graham Hancock is featured in Ancient Apocalypse, a Netflix original docuseries Guardian of the ancient mysteries, the keeper of secrets . . . For thousands of years the Great Sphinx of Egypt has gazed toward the east, its eyes focused on eternity, reading a message in the stars that mankind has long forgotten. And today as our civilization stands poised at the end of a great cycle, it is a message that beckons insistently to be understood. All the clues are in place. Geology and archeo-astronomy have already indicated that the lion-bodied Sphinx may be vastly older than Egyptologists currently believe, dating not from 2500 B.C., but from 10,500 B.C.—the beginning of the astrological Age of Leo. And we now know that the three pyramids of Giza, standing on high ground half a mile to the west of the Sphinx, are in fact a precise map of the three stars of Orion’s belt, formed in fifteen million tons of solid stone. Are these monuments trying to tell us something? And, if so, what? In The Message of the Sphinx, Robert Bauval and Graham Hancock present a tour de force of historical and scientific detective work that unravels the millennial code embodied in these structures. Using sophisticated computer simulations of ancient skies, they unravel the riddle of the Sphinx, and they present a startling new theory concerning the enigmatic Pyramid Texts and other archaic Egyptian scriptures. Their discoveries lead the authors to this question: Does mankind have a rendezvous with destiny—a rendezvous not in the future, but in the distant past, at a precise place and time? The secrets can be kept no longer. The Message of the Sphinx brings them to light.

Secrets of the Sphinx

Author : James Giblin
Publisher : Scholastic
ISBN 13 : 9780590098472
Total Pages : 47 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (984 download)

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Book Synopsis Secrets of the Sphinx by : James Giblin

Download or read book Secrets of the Sphinx written by James Giblin and published by Scholastic. This book was released on 2004 with total page 47 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: James Cross Giblin, this year's winner of the Sibert Medal, has written a stunning exploration of one of history's most mysterious structures. The Great Sphinx is one of the largest sculptures in the world. Six stories high and a city block wide, it has stood guard over the pyramids of Egypt's Giza Plateau for 4,500 years. Who built the Sphinx and why? And how did primitive sculptors manage to carve such a towering monument? In search of answers, James Cross Giblin takes readers back to a time before written history and traces the trail of clues left behind by the ancient Egyptians. As he explores various theories, Giblin seamlessly incorporates fascinating information on the pyramids, the Rosetta Stone, Atlantis, and more.

Arm of the Sphinx

Author : Josiah Bancroft
Publisher : Orbit
ISBN 13 : 0316517976
Total Pages : 443 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (165 download)

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Book Synopsis Arm of the Sphinx by : Josiah Bancroft

Download or read book Arm of the Sphinx written by Josiah Bancroft and published by Orbit. This book was released on 2017-08-22 with total page 443 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Senlin continues his ascent up the tower in the word-of-mouth phenomenon fantasy series about one man's dangerous journey through a labyrinthine world. "One of my favorite books of all time" -- Mark Lawrence on Senlin Ascends The Tower of Babel is proving to be as difficult to reenter as it was to break out of. Forced into a life of piracy, Senlin and his eclectic crew are struggling to survive aboard their stolen airship as the hunt to rescue Senlin's lost wife continues. Hopeless and desolate, they turn to a legend of the Tower, the mysterious Sphinx. But help from the Sphinx never comes cheaply, and as Senlin knows, debts aren't always what they seem in the Tower of Babel. Time is running out, and now Senlin must choose between his friends, his freedom, and his wife. Does anyone truly escape the Tower?

Antiquity and Modernity

Author : Neville Morley
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 9781444305128
Total Pages : 200 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (51 download)

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Book Synopsis Antiquity and Modernity by : Neville Morley

Download or read book Antiquity and Modernity written by Neville Morley and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2009-01-30 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The nature, faults and future of modern civilization and how theseconnect to the past are tackled in this broad-reaching volume. Presents a study of modernity that examines classicalinfluences Incorporates political, economic, social, and psychologicaltheories Highlights writings from a wide range of thinkers, includingAdam Smith, Marx, Mill, Nietzsche, Weber, and Freud

Geronimo Stilton Graphic Novels Vol. 2

Author : Geronimo Stilton
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1597075671
Total Pages : 60 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (97 download)

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Book Synopsis Geronimo Stilton Graphic Novels Vol. 2 by : Geronimo Stilton

Download or read book Geronimo Stilton Graphic Novels Vol. 2 written by Geronimo Stilton and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-06-25 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The popular children’s story appears in graphic novel form for the first time in the U.S., with stories never seen in America. Geronimo Stilton is a talking mouse who lives in New Mouse City on Mouse Island with his friends and relatives. He works at The Rodent’s Gazette, the most famous newspaper in New Mouse City. In this series of comics, Geronimo Stilton travels through time in order to defend history from his arch nemeses, the Pirate Cats. These devious felines plan to travel back in time in order to change history to make them supreme rulers of Mouse Island!

The Wings of the Sphinx

Author : Andrea Camilleri
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101159626
Total Pages : 242 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (11 download)

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Book Synopsis The Wings of the Sphinx by : Andrea Camilleri

Download or read book The Wings of the Sphinx written by Andrea Camilleri and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2009-12-29 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “You either love Andrea Camilleri or you haven’t read him yet. Each novel in this wholly addictive, entirely magical series, set in Sicily and starring a detective unlike any other in crime fiction, blasts the brain like a shot of pure oxygen. Aglow with local color, packed with flint-dry wit, as fresh and clean as Mediterranean seafood — altogether transporting. Long live Camilleri, and long live Montalbano.” A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window Things are not going well for Inspector Salvo Montalbano. His relationship with Livia is once again on the rocks and—acutely aware of his age—he is beginning to grow weary of the endless violence he encounters. Then a young woman is found dead, her face half shot off and only a tattoo of a sphinx moth giving any hint of her identity. The tattoo links her to three similarly marked girls-all victims of the underworld sex trade-who have been rescued from the Mafia night-club circuit by a prominent Catholic charity. The problem is, Montalbano's inquiries elicit an outcry from the Church and the three other girls are all missing.

The Sphinx Without a Secret

Author : Oscar Wilde
Publisher : Modernista
ISBN 13 : 9180949479
Total Pages : 9 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (89 download)

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Book Synopsis The Sphinx Without a Secret by : Oscar Wilde

Download or read book The Sphinx Without a Secret written by Oscar Wilde and published by Modernista. This book was released on 2024-05-30 with total page 9 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: »The Sphinx Without a Secret« is a short story by Oscar Wilde, originally published in 1891. OSCAR WILDE, born in 1854 in Dublin, died in 1900 in Paris, was an Irish prose writer, playwright, essayist, and poet. Wilde's significance as a symbol for persecuted homosexuals around the world is immeasurable. Wilde himself was sentenced to prison and hard labour, his works were boycotted, theatrical productions were shut down, and he was publicly vilified. The Picture of Dorian Gray [1890] is his most famous work.

Indiana Jones and the Secret of the Sphinx

Author : Max McCoy
Publisher : Bantam
ISBN 13 : 9780553561975
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (619 download)

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Book Synopsis Indiana Jones and the Secret of the Sphinx by : Max McCoy

Download or read book Indiana Jones and the Secret of the Sphinx written by Max McCoy and published by Bantam. This book was released on 1999 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is the most coveted of all ancient artifacts. In it is written the history--and the fate--of every human being. And he who owns it writes his own destiny. Now Indiana Jones follows a trail of danger, magic, and archaeological mystery through the war-torn Orient, from Rangoon to the Egyptian desert, searching for the secret underground hiding place of the all-powerful Omega Book. But with a beautiful woman seeking her missing magician husband, and a vengeance-crazed Japanese spymaster hot on his heels, Indy is running out of time. If the Omega Book falls into the wrong hands, not only his own fate but the fate of the world will be at the mercy of a madman bent on writing humanity's final chapter

The Sphinx

Author : Hugo Vickers
Publisher : Hachette UK
ISBN 13 : 1529390753
Total Pages : 353 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (293 download)

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Book Synopsis The Sphinx by : Hugo Vickers

Download or read book The Sphinx written by Hugo Vickers and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2020-01-09 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: **The Times and Sunday Times Books of the Year 2020** **The Times Best Biography Audiobook of the Year 2021** 'Vickers gives breathing, alarming life to a woman who puzzled and thrilled her contemporaries' SUNDAY TIMES 'Best Paperbacks of 2021' 'A continuously astonishing and ultimately moving account of a unique figure, the stuff of great literature' Simon Callow, SUNDAY TIMES 'Gripping . . . jaw-dropping story, brilliantly told' Ysenda Maxtone Graham, THE TIMES 'Mr. Vickers, with his sharp eye for detail, splendidly captures the drama of Gladys's life and the amazing cast of characters she encountered' WALL STREET JOURNAL 'This biography is truly wonderful - a masterclass in storytelling' SUNDAY TIMES 'The most extraordinary, rackety life' William Boyd, DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Richly anecdotal and oddly captivating' Miranda Seymour, FINANCIAL TIMES 'At the end of the book the reader can only say, "Whew! What a story!"' Anne de Courcy, SPECTATOR 'Hugo Vickers's life of Gladys Marlborough is an extraordinary and tragic story, with special resonance today' EVENING STANDARD ******************* One of the most beautiful and brilliant women of her time, Gladys Deacon dazzled and puzzled the glittering social circles in which she moved. Born in Paris to American parents in 1881, Gladys emerged from a traumatic childhood - her father having shot her mother's lover dead when Gladys was only eleven - to captivate and inspire some of the greatest literary and artistic names of the Belle Epoque. Marcel Proust wrote of her, 'I never saw a girl with such beauty, such magnificent intelligence, such goodness and charm.' Berenson considered marrying her, Rodin and Monet befriended her, Boldini painted her and Epstein sculpted her. She inspired love from diverse Dukes and Princes, and the interest of women such as the Comtesse Greffulhe and Gertrude Stein. In 1921, when Gladys was forty, she achieved the wish she had held since the age of fourteen to marry the 9th Duke of Marlborough, then freshly divorced from fellow American Consuelo Vanderbilt. Gladys's circle now included Lady Ottoline Morrell, Lytton Strachey and Winston Churchill, who described her as 'a strange, glittering being'. But life at Blenheim was not a success: when the Duke evicted her in 1933, the only remaining signs of Gladys were two sphinxes bearing her features on the west terraces and mysterious blue eyes in the grand portico. She became a recluse, and the wax injections she'd had to straighten her nose when she was 22 had by now ravaged her beauty. Gladys was to spend her last years in the psycho-geriatric ward of a mental hospital, where she was discovered by a young Hugo Vickers. Intrigued and compelled to unmask the truth of her mysterious life, Vickers visited her over the course of two years, eventually publishing Gladys, Duchess of Marlborough, a biography of her life - and his first book - in 1979, two years after Gladys's death. Forty years on, Vickers has now completely rewritten and revised his original biography, updating it with previously unavailable material and drawing on his own personal research all over Europe and America. He once asked Gladys, 'Where is Gladys Deacon?' She answered him slowly, 'Gladys Deacon? . . . She never existed.' The Sphinx is a fascinating portrait of this elusive but brilliant woman who was at the centre of a now bygone era of wealth and privilege - and a tribute to one of the brightest stars of her age.