The shadow of Vesuvius : a life of Pliny / Daisy Dunn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dunn, Daisy, author.

Standardized Title:

In the shadow of Vesuvius

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pliny, the Younger.

Pliny.

Pliny, the Elder.

Authors, Latin--Biography.

Authors, Latin.

Lawyers--Rome--Biography.

Lawyers.

Naturalists--Rome--Biography.

Naturalists.

Rome (Empire).

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xiv, 318 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Edition:

First American edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2019.

Summary:

""A wonderfully rich, witty, insightful, and wide-ranging portrait of the two Plinys and their world."-Sarah Bakewell, author of How to Live. When Pliny the Elder perished at Stabiae during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, he left behind an enormous compendium of knowledge, his thirty-seven-volume Natural History, and a teenaged nephew who revered him as a father. Grieving his loss, Pliny the Younger inherited the Elder's notebooks-filled with pearls of wisdom-and his legacy. At its heart, The Shadow of Vesuvius is a literary biography of the younger man, who would grow up to become a lawyer, senator, poet, collector of villas, and chronicler of the Roman Empire from the dire days of terror under Emperor Domitian to the gentler times of Emperor Trajan. A biography that will appeal to lovers of Mary Beard books, it is also a moving narrative about the profound influence of a father figure on his adopted son. Interweaving the younger Pliny's Letters with extracts from the Elder's Natural History, Daisy Dunn paints a vivid, compellingly readable portrait of two of antiquity's greatest minds"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Part one: Aut-Prologue. Darker than Night

Roots and Trees; Part two: Winter. Illusions of Immortality

To Be Alive is to Be Awake

Solitary as an Oyster

The Gift of Poison; Part three: Spring. Pliniana

The Shadow of Verona

Portrait of a Man

The Death of Principle; Part four: Summer. The Imitation of Nature

A Difficult, Arduous, Fastidious Thing

Head, Heart, Womb

After the Solstice

Part five: -umn. Life in Concrete

Depraved Belief; Epilogue: Resurrection; Timeline.

Notes:

"First published in Britain under the title In the shadow of Vesuvius : a life of Pliny" -- Verso title page.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Dunn, Daisy In the shadow of Vesuvius

ISBN:

9781631496394

1631496395

OCLC:

1086337568