Amazon.com: Pompeii Awakened: A Story of Rediscovery: Judith Harris: Books

Review

"A thrilling story, and a wonderful subject for a book. Judith Harris has done it full justice." - John Julius Norwich

"Judith Harris skilfully interweaves the story of the town’s evacuation with the development of archaeology and insights into life in Roman times…The tale emerges from the pages as vibrantly as Pompeii does from the shroud of time." - Italian

“[An] entertaining account of the rediscovery of the buried city . . . offer[s] colorful and sometimes acute insights into the modern history of Pompeii” --Times Literary Supplement

Product Description

On that fateful day in AD 79 the city of Pompeii was lost, and in time its location, its inhabitants and even its name were buried and forgotten. Not until 1748 did it emerge from its layer of volcanic rock, and the impact of that discovery was immediate and far-reaching. The evocative story of Pompeii's awakening lies not just in its uniquely preserved classical remains but also in the powerful impact it made on Western cultural imagination. Judith Harris brings the doomed city vibrantly to life. In her rich account of those who sifted through its artefacts, we read of Nelson, Napoleon and Mussolini. Of poets who sought melancholy fulfilment from Pompeii's shattered walls. Of tub-thumping Victorian preachers who likened it to Sodom and Gomorrah. And of the many others -- engineers and architects, artists and filmmakers -- for whom the city has never ceased to resonate. Harris has delved into ancient diaries and descended deep underground to assess the latest excavations. As the sleeping city re-awakens at her hands, Pompeii casts its spell once more, bewitching those who seek to unearth its buried secrets.

Her website is: www.judith-harris.com

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Product Details

Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: I. B. Tauris (June 26, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1845112415
ISBN-13: 978-1845112417
Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #711,847 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
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#33 in Books > Science > Archaeology > Greek & Roman

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Inside This Book (learn more)

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
rotoli della villa ercolanese, appunti autobiografici, dei papiri ercolanesi, ancient vases, marble panels

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Maria Carolina, Last Days, Villa of the Papyri, Padre Piaggio, Mount Vesuvius, King Ferdinand, World War, San Gennaro, Elisabetta Farnese, New York, Camillo Paderni, Grand Tour, Karl Weber, Sir William Hamilton, Society of Dilettanti, William Gell, Great Peristyle, King Charles, Marie Antoinette, Roman Empire, Julius Caesar, National Archaeological Museum, Villa Sessa, Sarno River, University of Naples

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	89% buy the item featured on this page: Pompeii Awakened: A Story of Rediscovery 4.5 out of 5 stars (2) $27.30
	11% buy Pompeii: The History, Life and Art of the Buried City 5.0 out of 5 stars (13) $37.80

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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book on exciting Pompeii discovery, July 18, 2007

By	S. S. Jordan - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book of Judith Harris's is a refreshing and humorous slant on the discovery of Pompeii. It reveals the newest artifacts uncovered as well as the latest information about prior discoveries. I especially liked the face of a woman peering out of the mud and the pride and embarrassment of finding sexual artifacts and what owners did with them. You could tell that Ms Harris was very familiar with the event and area. Plus, her writingwas picturesque and flowing. I am going to give it to all of my friends with even the slightest interest in Pompeii.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but not what I expected, July 23, 2008

By	Atheen M. Wilson "Atheen" (Mpls, MN United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

Pompeii Awakened is not quite what I'd expected it to be. Having recently seen the Pompeii exhibit at the Minnesota Science Museum in St. Paul, I'd expected a catalogue of finds and their cultural and historical significance, more of an interpretation of the site in terms of its place in the history of the world. Instead what the book presents is an ongoing history of the site as a cultural artifact, one which has/had value to those who were in control of it at any given time. It is also the story of an archaeological oddity that has had a significant and ongoing impact on world culture by virtue of its unique preservation. Roman culture has always had a place in Western civilization, guaranteed by the survival of its language and literature, especially through the agency of the Roman Catholic Church. The words of Ovid, Terrance, Horace, Cicero, and Caesar brought ideas to later generations that inspired the shaping and reshaping of the world, but they were only words, second hand impressions at best. With Pompeii, the lives of the Romans became almost unbearably real. Here later generations could peak into the lives of the ancients as they were in progress, interrupted by the disaster that preserved them.

While not an historian or archaeologist herself, the author, Judith Harris, is a journalist of some distinction and a US expatriate who has lived and worked in Italy most of her life. Her familiarity with Italy and its people has allowed her to present Pompeii as a cultural entity, subject to the whims of the King of Naples among others. She uses the buried city as a proxy for the history of Italy as a whole. In a collection of loosely united city states, the Italian people struggled to achieve a national identity long after other countries had already succeeded in doing so. Pompeii as an "artifact" belonging to Naples helps to illustrate how the divisive interests of various power centers, including the gradually declining Papal authority, prevented a concerted effort toward that unity. It also reveals that various international agendas, most notably France under Napoleon and Great Britain as it attempted to thwart him, also competed for control over the area. Even the activity of Mussolini during World War II becomes more understandable within the framework the author creats. One might almost see WWII as the "growing pains" of national identity in general, just as the present efforts to unify Europe into a more coherent entity are the growing pains of globalization.

The book is well researched with an extensive bibliography and end notes, some of which are in Italian. Most of the journal articles are recent, although some are as far back as 1967. The discussion covers a period from the actual Vesuvian eruption to modern times. The last chapter deals with the issues of the on going exploration of the site, it's preservation, and the ever present danger of reburial by the still active Volcano that destroyed it in the first place.

An interesting book.

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