Published in 1911 at nearly the same time that Norman Douglas moved from Italy to London, Siren Land describes and celebrates the region around Naples, particularly the Sorrento Peninsula and the island of Capri. It was in this region in 1888 that Douglas, a Scot born in Austria, had first experienced Italy and the Mediterranean, and it was here that he had settled in 1897. Many of the book-s chapters had been written here, and it had been Douglas-s success in placing some of them (as well as other pieces) in English periodicals that had led to his move. He was divorced, had exhausted his income, and hoped now to set himself up as a writer.
Appropriately enough, Siren Land opens with a discussion of -Sirens and their Ancestry-, a learned, leisurely stroll through the subject in what readers would come to recognize as Douglas-s best mock-erudite style. Subsequent chapters deal with that -Siren-loving monster- Tiberius, the Roman emperor who retired to Capri; early appreciation of Capri-s Blue Grotto as a species of cave worship; the cemeteries and burial chapels of the region; and - a subject dear to Douglas-s heart - leisure. -The Life of Sister Serafina- is an ironic hagiography, a form to which its bemused author would return repeatedly. -Rain on the Hills- finds Douglas unexpectedly -weatherbound- in a small upland village, musing genially on a series of otherwise unrelated subjects. In the book-s final chapter, -The Headland of Minerva-, he announces the end of summer and contemplates -how much there is still to see- - and, by implication, to write about. Sirens are a leitmotiv, as the shores and isles of the Bay of Naples are traditionally a favourite haunt.
During this period, accommodation in the region was nonexistent outside of Naples and Capri. Undaunted, Douglas was glad to turn his back on such -trite- attractions, seeking out instead some relic or ruin through which he might read the near or distant past. A hearty climber, he was also fond of scaling promontories to survey the lie of the land or the expanse of the sea - exertions that invariably generated some of his most sublime prose.
Although its content is varied, Siren Land sounds a note that would distinguish Douglas-s work from first to last: -Many of us would do well to mediterraneanise ourselves for a season, to quicken those ethic roots from which has sprung so much of what is best in our natures.- Douglas believed in what he would later call the -actualities-. -What strange creatures we are,- he muses in Siren Land, -placing more faith in deductions than in facts-. By the book-s end he has worked such observations into a near-philosophy: -What you cannot find on earth is not worth seeking.- And as the many references in the index attest, Douglas had found much in his years of study and travel in the region.
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