Looking for background behind the movie Pompeii, starring Kit Harington, Emily Browning, and Kiefer Sutherland?
Pompeii Classics contains two classic works of literature, fiction and non-fiction, that illustrate the culture and history of Pompeii. They are both available as public domain, but this compilation strives to provide additional hyperlinks/navigation not available in other versions.
The Last Days of Pompeii is a novel written by the baron Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1834. Once a very widely read book and now relatively neglected, it culminates in the cataclysmic destruction of the city of Pompeii by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.
The novel uses its characters to contrast the decadent culture of 1st-century Rome with both older cultures and coming trends. The protagonist, Glaucus, represents the Greeks who have been subordinated by Rome, and his nemesis Arbaces the still older culture of Egypt. Olinthus is the chief representative of the nascent Christian religion, which is presented favourably but not uncritically. .
The Wonders of Pompeii is a non-fiction work by Marc Monnier, a French writer/historian and published in 1871 by Charles Scribner & Co as part of its Library of Wonders collection. It contains in a very lively and graphic style, the results of the discoveries made at Pompeii since the commencement of the extensive excavations there. The illustrations represent the houses, the domestic utensils, the statues, and the various works of art, as investigation gives every reason to believe that they existed at the time of the eruption.
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