Trees and Shrubs for Fragrance (The Woody Plant)

Book Description

Trees and Shrubs for Fragrance, part of The Woody Plant series, describes over 100 genera, all chosen for their fragrance highlights, from moonflowers to hyacinths to herbs. This book provides detailed guidance on how to design, plant, and maintain a scent-filled garden, and will help you mix fragrances to create gardens that smell as good as they look.

The first three books in The Woody Plant series focus on key features of woody plants: Flowers, Foliage and Fragrance. With each book, gardeners can optimize their knowledge of the plants in their garden and pursue their passion for new ones.

Elegantly designed and easy to use, each book in The Woody Plant series also includes:

Over 100 plant genera, over 600 species and cultivars
Details of plant height and width, size, shape and color
Country of origin, common and scientific names, and derivations
Full cultivation needs, pests and diseases, hardiness zones
Trees and shrubs for smaller gardens
Over 250 color photographs
Mail order sources, comprehensive index and bibliography

The other titles in series are: Trees and Shrubs for Flowers (pb: 1-55297-630-0; hc: 1-55297-631-9) and Trees and Shrubs for Foliage (pb: 1-55927-628-9; hc: 1-55297-629-7).

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Trees and Shrubs for Fragrance
Glyn Church
Manufacturer: Antique Collectors C
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K6L67K

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Trees for Flower and Fragrance
Stirling Macoboy
Manufacturer: Angus & Robertson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Shrubs | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0207159009

Ghosts of Vesuvius: A New Look at the Last Days of Pompeii, How Towers Fall, and Other Strange Connections
Average customer rating:

An engrossing look at Vesuvius (79 AD) ... and 9-11 (2001)

Self-important Jumble

Going To and Fro In The Earth, and Up and Down

Judith Petres Balogh

Rambling.

Ghosts of Vesuvius: A New Look at the Last Days of Pompeii, How Towers Fall, and Other Strange Connections
Charles R. Pellegrino
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books
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Unearthing Atlantis:: An Archaeological Odyssey to the Fabled Lost Civilization

Return to Sodom and Gomorrah

Vesuvius, A.D. 79: The Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum

Her Name, Titanic

Herculaneum: Italy's Buried Treasure

ASIN: 0060751002
Release Date: 2005-08-09

Book Description

A fascinating look at Pompeii, Herculaneum and the Vesuvius eruption in comparison with other historically significant volcanic eruptions, including the World Trade Center disaster.

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, which obliterated the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum, was a disaster that resounds to this day. Now palaeontologist Charles Pellegrino presents a wealth of new knowledge about the doomed towns – and brings to vivid life the people, their last moments, and the aftermath.

The lessons learned from modern scrutiny of that ancient eruption produce disturbing echoes in the present. Dr Pellegrino, who worked at Ground Zero in the aftermath of the 9/11 attack, shares his unique knowledge of the strange physics of volcanic 'downblast' and 'collapse column', drawing a direct link from past to present, and providing readers with a poignant glimpse into the last moments of the 'American Vesuvius'.

Customer Reviews:

An engrossing look at Vesuvius (79 AD) ... and 9-11 (2001).......2007-08-18

[Review of Hardcover edition]

This is a tremendously interesting and engrossing book, on many different levels. "GoV", contrary to what the title might lead one to suspect, is NOT just a book about Mt. Vesuvius - it's a tour de force exploration of the effect of volcanic forces on people, on civilizations, on religion(s), on species and evolution in general, on the landscape, and even on the very formation of life itself ... and the author draws upon a wide array of scientific disciplines in order to tell the tale effectively.

In similar fashion to Brian Greene's "The Elegant Universe", the book opens with a bang ... or more specifically, with the origins of the universe, the formation of heavier elements in the hearts of stars, the evolution of solid matter (planets, asteroids and dark matter), the formation of volcanoes on those planets, and the role that volcanic forces play in the formation of life. From there, the author gives the reader an introductory taste of some of the possible connective threads between volcanic calamities of recent millennia, their appearances in (and possible influence on) religious accounts & beliefs, and how the tripartite aspects of creation, destruction, and preservation directly mimic the aspects of certain deities recurring throughout human history in various different religions ... a theme touched on indirectly by Fritjof Capra's Hindu-slanted poetic paradigm for viewing physical reality "The Tao of Physics".

From there, the authors pauses (in Chapter 3, "The Time Gate") to neatly tie together a broad range of different fields of human study into a single and innovatively coherent view of time. In it, the author telescopes backwards, in accelerating fashion, as he zooms further and further outwards - from recent history, through archeology (deep history), past paleontology (biological history), past geology (planetary history), and onward into astrophysics (stellar history) ... with major volcanic events as the connective thread every step of the way. A larger and more robust treatment of this material is also covered in a stand-alone novel entitled "Time Gate".

Next, the author reels the reader's time focus back in closer to home again, and delves into the heart of the book, and the author's chief love: archeology. In this case, the primary focus are the twin cities destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD: Pompeii and Herculaneum. The author treats us to a veritable smorgasbord of some of the written accounts dating near, relating to, or directly affected by the eruption:

* Historical accounts (ex: the Plinys, Democritus, Josephus, Spartacus the Gladiator, etc),
* Biblical references (ex: the Council of Nicea that originally collated, edited and winnowed down the scattered accounts of the time into "The Bible" as we know it today),
* Legal records (ex: the legal case of the ex-slave Justa who was suing to retain her freedom at the time of the eruption) recovered from the carbonized remains of a large cache of library scrolls.

Reading those accounts drives home in dramatic fashion the terrible and lasting impact Vesuvius had on both the personal lives of the people nearby, on the surrounding nations and empires, and on the bible itself ... effects that are being felt even today, in ways that we're only just now beginning to understand.

From classic archeology, the author then re-focuses closer still into the subtle nuances and intimate details offered by forensic science, and the oh-so-human stories that the latter is allowing to emerge from the archeological strata. The bones can literally speak to us now ... telling us their exact age & gender, their most likely profession and social status, their dietary habits, wounds and diseases they suffered from, and so much more ... details that truly reinforce that archeology is not just about biology or dead civilizations - it's also about individuals.

It was shortly after the author finished writing the draft of this book that history and fate played a cruel joke ... on September 11th, 2001, hijackers crashed two passenger jets into the Word Trade Center in New York City. The buildings subsequently imploded and down blasted into the Manhattan Bedrock, and massive debris clouds radiated throughout southern Manhattan, burying, damaging and destroying much in it's path. The resemblance to Pompeii and Herculaneum was uncanny ... and that brings us to Chapter 10, the final chapter of GoV, in which several archeologists (including the author) converge on NYC to study the still-fresh archeological record.

Central to Chapter 10 is the story of NYFD Ladder 4 that emerged from the archeological evidence, and subsequent attempts (by certain unscrupulous people) to censor/delay/suppress the publication of this very book for daring to tell the truth ... a truth that exposed an earlier journalistic claim (of looting) as a slanderous hoax. For the details on that matter, I refer interested readers to the author's official discussion forum, which contains a thread on that subject, with additional information by the author.

To conclude, GOV is a must-read for anyone who's interested in the sciences in general, in history (both real and biblical), and in the ongoing efforts by determined researchers to carry forward the bright torch of knowledge & truth across the dark wastelands of time, superstition, ignorance ... and sometimes across the barbed wire boundaries of 'accepted theory', through toxic pools of opportunistic lies, and through suffocating clouds of censorship.

To quote Dr. Pellegrino: "History [and Truth] will eventually have it's way ... it always does."

I enjoyed it immensely, and I was engrossed throughout, from cover to cover.

I'd also like to compliment the author for his steadfast commitment to "Keep faith with the dead", regardless of the risk to his career as a published author. I've seen some of the consequences of that decision, first hand.

Self-important Jumble.......2007-05-08

Charles Pellegrino's stream-of-consciousness ramblings about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and the collapse of the Twin Towers offer excellent descriptions of just how such catastrophes play out, but little else of interest. Reading the book is an exercise in frustration; just when the author throws out juicy tidbits regarding Pompeii or Herculaneum, he veers off into discussions of conditions on Earth in 1,000,000 B.C. or Gnostic philosophy. Pellegrino clearly possesses an active, imaginative mind but, just as clearly, has difficulty focusing it on something as mundane as maintaining focus. In this manner he reminds one of Tim Robbins' baseball pitcher Nuke LaLoush in "Field of Dreams," who possessed a phenonomenal fastball but was just as apt to hit the team mascot as the strike zone. In "Ghosts of Vesuvius," Pellegrino throws a few strikes. Unfortunately, these are overshadowed by his spectacular wild pitches. Mascots, and readers, beware.

Going To and Fro In The Earth, and Up and Down.......2007-04-12

Ghosts of Vesuvius
by Charles Pellegrino.
Harper. 496 pages.

I picked up this book after listening to the author on a talk radio show. He impressed me, holding forth on the universe in a distinct Long Island accent, so I thought why not? What I got was an incredibly ambitious work that takes the reader back, literally, to the non-time before the universe was born, then barrels forward faster than the speed of light to the non-time post-omega of the universe, and then drops the reader on the edge of the pit left behind after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center after lengthy disquisitions on Pompeii, Herculaneum--the incredible forces unleashed there--and how they were repeated at various intervals of volcanism through the eons. Not content with this, Pellegrino dove-tails these dynamics with the collapse of the Twin Towers and shows how various fire fighters and rescue workers met or survived their fates through the phenomenon of "shock cocoons"--the uncanny interventions that appear in the midst of disasters and which allowed paper documents to survive the searing heat in Herculaneum as well as one fire-fighter to glide on his back for hundreds of feet through the closest equivalent to hell on earth this side of the atomic bomb. A less capacious mind would be content to call it quits after these feats of mental gymnastics, but Pellegrino plows on, Diderot-fashion, to consider, simultaneously, rustcicles, the sinking of the Titanic, the Book of Thomas, Josephus and the early Christian church, the Stoics, the history of Rome, Roman technology and hundreds of other subjects. This man Pellegrino, if he ran a pizza parlor, would most probably offer the Pellegrino Special, which would be the very embodiment of abundanza!--all conceivable toppings, plus a sprinkling of star dust--and all for a reasonable $15.95, U.S.D.! (And, by the way, it appears that the folks of Herculaneum and Pompeii actually had a pizza-like dish, as well as their own hamburgers, hotdogs and a great-tasting fish topping--facts I learned from the author in question.) In addition Pellegrino succeeds in putting a human face on these tragedies--both natural and man-made. We are taken through the last nano-seconds of the life of a beautiful Asian-European slave girl of 14--16 years of age, who was lying on her side with her mistress' baby in her arms trying to comfort it when the searing gasses from Vesuvius caused her brains to boil and explode. We stand on the deck of the Titanic watching an officer with a pistol in his hand holding off the surging crowds of desperate passengers as women and children find seats on the final life boats, the freezing water lapping around their ankles. We are taken into the private hell of a man buried with his dog under tons of volcanic dust, who managed to live for weeks after Pompeii's extinction, yet still died far from the picks and shovels of potential rescuers.

With any such massive undertaking there will be of course some problems. Even War and Peace has arid passages that one would like to tear out and feed to the swine--especially when Tolstoy the philosopher begins to lecture us about history. With the Ghosts of Vesuvius the problems involve structure and editing. Towards the end of the book Pellegrino seems to be writing under the old rule of so many cents a page. We've seen the results in Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi when what begins as an excellent book is buried, in part two, under so much filler. I believe that the author simply had a space requirement that was assigned to him by his agent and by hook or crook, he managed to fill it. In addition, Mr. Pellegrino sometimes needs a fact-checker. However, having said these things, I recommend both the author and his book. Obviously the man is brilliant in the best possible sense of the word, and the book is the near-barbaric yawp of an American original.

Judith Petres Balogh.......2007-03-01

I embraced this book. It is informative, sensitive and superbly written. The paralell Mr. Pellegrino draws between the tragedies of Vesuvius and the Towers in unique, and there is so much information contained on the pages, that at times I had to slow down my reading, in order to fully absorb all the details. I read this book while in Europe, in a Hungarian translation, and it lost nothing through this process; the language is still powerful, even as translated into a language that is not related to any other modern language. As soon as I returned to the USA, I bought his other books.

Rambling........2006-10-30

If this book had a coherent topic I might have enjoyed it. It doesn't. It is supposedly about the explosion of Vesuvius in A.D. 79, the destruction of Herculaneum and Pompeii, and the social and cultural disruptions that followed. For reasons that are quite obscure the author rambles on for the first 127 pages about the origins of the universe, the origins of life, evolution, the appearance of the Big Dipper, panspermia, and more or less everything in between. Why? Who knows? Not me, and I read the book. He then prattles on about the slave revolt of Spartacus, which is at best tangentially relevant - but I guess he has a sense of humor, this chapter is called "Then listen, Josephus, for I digress"- never a truer word. The sections on Vesuvius are gripping and follow a coherent narrative line, until Pellegrino wanders off into yet another massive digression in a disjointed discussion of Gnosticism in the early church. I think the point was that the apocalyptic vision of early Christianity owed its origins to the calamitous explosion of Vesuvius, which is ingenious but he doesn't get even close to proving it, if only because nowhere are his arguments stated, it is all implication, imprecation and hand waving. We are then hurled through time to the sinking of the Titanic, an event that has nothing to do with Vesuvius, the Roman Empire, or volcanoes. The single point of comparison is the loss of life, and nothing in the Titanic chapters serves this book in any way whatsoever; pointless verbiage. Pellegrino then sets off on a gratuitous discussion of the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York. The only link to Vesuvius that Pellegrino could muster was the shared physics of the collapse column in both a volcanic cloud and a falling building. I'd call that a stretch. Perhaps a more valid comparison would have been to talk to survivors of the atom bombs in Japan. Surprisingly, given that the book is about a volcanic explosion, there is no discussion of volcanic events in recent times- Krakatoa, Mount St. Helens, Etna. It is not even clear from the book that Vesuvius is still active, or that the Bay of Naples has been devastated by earthquakes in living memory. This is just lazy. There are errors of fact; a message in a bottle thrown into the Atlantic seems to have washed up in Surrey, England, which is not a small feat since Surrey is a landlocked county with not an inch of shoreline (perhaps it floated up the river Thames?). Pellegrino appears to place the fall of Constantinople to around 535, which is nonsense. This is in the middle of the reign of Justinian I (527-565), who expanded the Byzantine Empire to include all the Mediterranean including Southern Spain, and who between 532 and 537 oversaw the building of the Sancta Sophia- one of the greatest churches ever constructed. These are hardly the signs of a dieing civilization. With inevitable ups and downs Constantinople remained the centre of a major Christian civilization until it fell to the Turks in 1453, whereupon it became the centre of a major Muslim civilization. Finally, the style is clumsy with the same phrase frequently repeated in the same sentence, as in, (just one example of many) "her first officer had (in a manner of speaking) given me a promise to keep and pointed me (in a manner of speaking) toward..." It could have been a good book, it isn't.

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Pompeii: The Last Day
Paul Wilkinson
Manufacturer: BBC Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Rome | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

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Pompeii - The Last Day/Colosseum - A Gladiator's Story
Pompeii: The History, Life and Art of the Buried City
Vesuvius, A.D. 79: The Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum
Pompeii: The Day a City Died
Pompeii (Roman World)

ASIN: 0563522399

Book Description

In this lavish and dramatic account, archaeologist Paul Wilkinson pieces together a terrifying picture of what happened in Pompeii on a summer's day in 79 AD. Using the latest scientific evidence and forensic techniques, he recreates that day hour by hour, bringing to life a vivid timetable of destruction. This fascinating, picture-filled book is the companion to the major Discovery Channel series, "The Last Day of Pompeii," first broadcasting nationwide in January 2005.

The Last Days Of Pompeii (Classic Books on Cassette Collection)

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The Last Days Of Pompeii (Classic Books on Cassette Collection)
Edward BulwerLytton
Manufacturer: Audio Book Contractors
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

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ASIN: 1556857586

Product Description

The scene of horror in the amphitheater as gladiators combat each other to the death or face the fangs of lions and tigers is met with cheers and tears from the crowd. But behind it all lurks impending doom from the volcano Vesuvius. Eleven 90-minute cassettes and one 60.

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The Last Days of Pompeii - 1887
E. Bulwer Lytton
Manufacturer: Book Jungle
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1594625107

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"Days" seem like years
A romantic (?) tale of a fabled city.
Best of the worst?
A Wonderful, Exciting Drama/Love Story
Worth the read, but get a different edition

The Last Days of Pompeii
Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron Lytton , and John Betancourt
Manufacturer: Borgo Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Pompeii: A Novel
Pompeii - The Last Day/Colosseum - A Gladiator's Story

ASIN: 1587157403

Book Description

Classic Victorian tale of the last days of Pompeii, doomed city that lay at the feet of Mount Vesuvius. From poets to flower-girls, gladiators to Roman tribunes, here is a plausible story of their lives, their loves, and the tragic fate that awaited them.

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Customer Reviews:

"Days" seem like years.......2005-07-24

Edward George Bulwer-Lytton is best known for coming up with the immortal phrase that Snoopy is always typing: "It was a dark and stormy night." Unfortunately, he's never that concise in "Last Days of Pompeii," a bloated and melodramatic historical novel that takes a volcanic eruption and makes it.... boring.

It focuses on the final days of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, which was buried in a volcanic eruption in 79 A.D. In particular, it focuses on a virtuous young Roman man, Glaucus, who is stuck in a love quadrangle with a beautiful, equally virtuous young lady, a blind slave girl, and a sinister Egyptian who beguiles the lovely young lady.

In the background is a turmoil of religious and social problems, with a deadly volcano smoldering behind it all. Then, a murder is committed -- and Glaucus is arrested for the crime, and sentenced to be sent into the arena. When Vesuvius blows, will any of them survive?

"The Last Days of Pompeii" is one of those novels that had immense promise. Unfortunately, Bulwer-Lytton turns it into a Roman soap opera. Rather than focusing on the more interesting aspects of Pompeii, Bulwer-Lytton decided to focus on a contrived romantic web of very boring people.

It doesn't help that "Last Days of Pompeii" is also written in a chokingly dense style, very ornate and full of bad poetry. The dialogue is even worse, with lines like, "'With all his conceit and extravagance he is not so rich, I fancy, as he affects to be, and perhaps loves to save his amphorae better than his wit." Okay, whatever. The story might be more palatable, had Bulwer-Lytton not tried too hard -- many Victorian authors managed to communicate their stories without smothering the readers in faux-ancient prose.

Bulwer-Lytton also seems to have been showing off his knowledge of Roman architecture and clothing, since the descriptions of the atrium and triclinium are more complex than any character. He regularly interrupted the narrative just to lecture readers on historical trivia, on everything from medieval necromancy to Italian herbs -- not just annoying, but often irrelevant to the story at hand.

Apparently in the interest of keeping the novel "human," Bulwer-Lytton introduced some romantic tension. Unfortunately, his characters don't act like real people -- really, who would fuss about their love lives while escaping from an erupting volcano that has killed hundreds and destroyed two cities? It's hard to imagine anyone so oblivious and self-absorbed, but the annoying blind slave Nydia apparently can't think of anything else.

Glaucus is a paragon of virtue, despite what Romans of the time were like; he even converts to Christianity for no apparent reason, in keeping with the attempt to make him fit the Victorian ideal. On the flipside, Arbaces is a rather cartoonish -- even slightly racist -- villain, who is just there to make trouble because he wants to.

"The Last Days of Pompeii" is an intriguing idea for a novel, but a flop as Edward Bulwer-Lytton actually wrote it. Too bad the volcano didn't blow a lot sooner.

A romantic (?) tale of a fabled city........2005-02-01

Lord Lytton could write historical novels, and this one is actually one of his best. Lytton was a very prolific writer, but quality was not sacrificed for quantity. This particular book though is the one that has stood the longest. Lytton does a pretty good job with the strange names in this book. We still learn to know and enjoy all the characters in spite of the unfamiliarity of the names and the places. He wrote this book and his other historical work "Rienzi" after he had made a trip to Italy, and when he was experiencing major difficulties with his marriage. In spite of these personal problems, Lytton wrote on and the people of the time snapped up his work. His books are certainly worth the effort and the time. Some may say that he is melodramatic and typecasts his characters. He does do this, sure, but he still gets his story across.

Best of the worst?.......2005-01-05

Bulwer-Lytton was a notoriously bad writer, and I can't honestly say that this book does anything to save his well-earned rep. However, it's a lot of fun, partly because it's so melodramatic. The bad guys almost hiss, the good guys shine and sparkle, the damsels are definitely placed into distress. Good prevails, evil is punished. You can almost hear a rinky-tink piano player off to the side of the stage, plink-plunking out chords meant to signal suspense, then fear, then true and undying love, then imminent disaster. Don't model your prose on this, unless you're hoping to win the Bulwer-Lytton prize for lousy writing -- but it's definitely worth reading. You may find yourself gritting your teeth, or laughing out loud -- not because of the realism, but because it's all just SO awful!

A Wonderful, Exciting Drama/Love Story.......2004-10-26

I bought this battered old book at an antique shoppe because I was intrigued by the title, and the obvious age of the novel. I sat down to "skim" the book a couple of days ago, and was delighted to have found such a gem! The writing is intelligent and for an intelligent reader; something that we almost never get to expeience anymore. The story is rich in historic details and mythic references. But, the saga is truely nail-biting excitement and suspense! What a wonderful surprise! If you want to take a vacation from watered down superficial writing and what passes for suspense too often today, if you want to experience something noble of your time and enriching, read with pleasure, this book!

Worth the read, but get a different edition.......2003-12-14

I agree with other reviewers that this is a wonderful story based in 79 AD just prior to Mt Vesuvius' fateful eruption. The characters are vivid and the story is very rich. However, the prose is completely overblown which is sometimes a distraction. I couldn't even read the lyrics of the various songs and odes in the book. Too much to slog through.

My main complaint with this book, however, is the editing. This edition is really horrible. The introduction alone has glaring errors (such as the author lived from 1803 - 1873, but was married in 1927). This mistake is repeated on the back cover blurb. Entire pages in the book are blank. Whole words and phrases are missing in the chapter titles. For a $20 paperback, I would expect a bit more.

I would recommend the book if you have an interest in the ancient Roman empire, but definitely buy a different edition.

The Last Days of Pompeii
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The Last Days of Pompeii
Sir Edward g. e. Bulwer-Lytton
Manufacturer: Dodd, Mead & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Greece | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000BARE1W

Product Description

Classic history

Last Days of Pompeii (Kessinger Publishing's Rare Mystical Reprints)

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Both Fascinating and Entertaining
"Last Days" seem like years
Well worth reading
A Fascinating Historical Novel
Get yourself lost in this magical world

Last Days of Pompeii (Kessinger Publishing's Rare Mystical Reprints)
Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron Lytton
Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

Reveals the famous last days of Pompeii in great detail. Interesting reading both for the mystic and the scholar.

Customer Reviews:

Both Fascinating and Entertaining.......2005-08-30

This is a cleaver and interesting mystical story of Pompeii - an interesting and well done piece of romantic fiction.

"Last Days" seem like years.......2005-04-19

Well worth reading.......2002-01-11

Though the description is overdone and the plot rather creaking, I was caught up by both the description and the story. Glaucus, an Athenian in Pompeii, loves Ione, as does Arbaces, an Egyptian of evil. Nydia, a blind slave, also loves Glaucus. Arbaces kills Apaecides, brother of Ione, who has become a Christian, and then blames the killing on Glaucus, who has become temporarily crazed by a supposed love potion given him by Nydia--after Nydia took it from Julia, who had gotten it from a witch at Arbaces' urging. To illustarte the fulsome style: "The eyes of the crowd folowed the gesture of the Egyptian, and beheld, with ineffable dismay, a vast vapour shooting from the summit of Vesuvius, in the form of a gigantic pine-tree, the trunk, blackness,--the branches, fire!--a fire, that shifted and wavered in its hues with every moment, now fiercely luminous, now of a dull and dying red, that again blazed terrifically forth with intolerable glare!" You will not soon forget this awesome book.

A Fascinating Historical Novel.......2001-03-05

This historically accurate novel is filled with exceptional characters and an intriguing plot. Set in the days before the famous eruption of Mount Vesuvious, the novel highlights several stories at once, dealing with romance, adventure, and treachery. Edward Bulwer-Lytton did an excellent job in making the story deep and colorful. It is perfect for students studying Roman culture, as well as anyone looking for a good novel. This book is definitely a classic worth reading!

Get yourself lost in this magical world.......2001-01-27

This is a romantic historical novel, with a convoluted and exciting romantic story of passion, hate, revenge, and adventure. So what? There are many books like that, most of them pretty cheap and predictable. The trick, of course, is the writing. Bulwer Lytton, an early Victorian character with his own peculiarities (he was very interested in the mystical cults of Rome) is an extraordinary storyteller. The plot, as I said, is long to summaryze, but it concerns Glauco, a Greek stud who is beloved by almost every woman in the story; Ione, the Naples girl he loves; Nadia, a blind slave who is -of course- in love with Glauco, and the excellently portrayed Arbaces, a priest of the cult of Isis, the Egyptian goddess. Two other interesting characters are Julia, a rich and mean heiress who is, alas, in love with Glauco, and Salustio, a dissipated and drunken Roman.

The plot revolves around the constant intrigues of the characters, which include magic love-potions, betrayals and heroism. But at the back of the action, there is a volcano about to explode and leave this town covered by tons of dust and volcanic rock. The characters are planning their lives and lusting for passion, without knowing that they have no future. Like some of us, maybe.

Summing up, this novel is great entertainment, intelligent fun. The best, in my opinion, is the re-creation of a lost world, a city full of color and passion, living in full while Destiny works its own way.

The Last Days of Pompeii
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Last Days of Pompeii

The Last Days of Pompeii

Manufacturer: A. L. Burt Publisher
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000E1CB8E

Customer Reviews:

Last Days of Pompeii.......2007-09-23

Needed this product to give as present. Terrific book!! and received in
very condition.

The Last Days of Pompeii International Collectors Library

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The Last Days of Pompeii International Collectors Library

Manufacturer: International Collectors Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000F3FUPC

The Last Days of Pompeii (World's Greatest Literature)

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The Last Days of Pompeii (World's Greatest Literature)
Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Manufacturer: Fountain Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B0007EJ8PC

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