The city of Pompeii has had an enormous impact on Western imaginations since its rediscovery under the ashes of the volcano that destroyed it in 79 CE. In the 250 years since excavations began, Pompeii has helped to bring the ancient world to life for everyone, from music hall audiences to gentleman scholars, and it continues to have an impact on the way in which we think about the past, and the human condition itself. The contributors to this generously illustrated volume, who include the novelist Robert Harris, in a recorded interview, investigate how Pompeii has been used in film, fiction, and art on both sides of the Atlantic over three centuries. They explore the many different ways in which Pompeii inhabits our imaginations: as ghostly relic of human suffering, romantic ruin, model of cultural inspiration, home of a distant, decadent culture, and comforting model for everyday life.
Reviews
This is a thought-provoking and wide-ranging work, bringing together such diverse subjects as changing attitudes to Pompeii's erotic material and the excavations' impact on 19th-century Italy's emerging political identity. Its often-surprising insights shed new light on this most familiar of sites. * Current World Archaeology *
The editors of Pompeii in the Public Imagination have given us a stimulating and provocative collection of essays in interpretation of this ruin that changes from year to year, yet always remains the same. * Professor Eugene Dwyer, Reviews in History *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199569366
Author Shelley Hales
Format Hardback
Page Count 440
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 758g
Dimensions(mm) 219mm * 135mm * 37mm