The rediscovery of the Roman cities overwhelmed by the rage of
Vesuvius is one of history's most extraordinary adventure stories.
Pompeii Awakened revels in that adventure, and tells of the
re-emergence of a long-vanished cosmopolis which profoundly
inspired a later age - from its arts and architecture to its
science, sex and religion. When Herculaneum, Pompeii' s sister in
disaster, was located in 1709, that first discovery launched a
frenzied scramble for buried treasure. Then in 1755 Pompeii too
rose from its crust of volcanic rock, and the science of
archaeology was born. Whereas Herculaneum had artistic, political
and philosophical impact, the later discoveries at Pompeii spoke
rather of domesticity - of cuisine and household architecture,
tools, gardens and religion. To this day it is the only site to
show what daily life was like in antiquity. However, the full story
of Pompeii consists not just in its uniquely preserved classical
villas and votives, but in the powerful response it evoked in the
European cultural imagination. Here are the English, whose wealth,
wet weather and classical education fostered a passion for Naples
and its rediscovered cities. We read of Sir William Hamilton
discussing priapic cults with his near neighbour, the dilettante
Richard Payne Knight, and of how the famous love affair of Emma
Hamilton and Admiral Nelson saved the Heculaneum papyri from the
French. Here too are the hosts who arrived from across Europe, and
then from America - engineers and artists, dreamers and poets,
photographers and cinematographers, whose reconstructions and
remembrances of Pompeii have never ceased to resonate. Judith
Harris brings the doomed city vibrantly to life. Pompeii breathes
again through her account of the diverse people who sifted through
its remains to catch a glimpse of themselves in the past. From the
poetic souls who found a majestic melancholy in Pompeii's
shatttered walls , to the tub-thumping Victorian preachers who
denounced the city as akin to Sodom and Gomorrah, Pompeii Awakened
uncovers many fascinating stories - of sex, science, love and
death. The author has spoken to experts on three continents, flown
over Pompeii in a hot-air balloon, delved into ancient diaries and
descended deep underground to assess the latest discoveries of a
lost world . As the sleeping city re-awakens in her hands, Pompeii
casts its spell once more, bewitching those who seek to unearth its
buried secrets.
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