For The Fires of Vesuvius, historian Mary Beard assembled her unique take on 250 years of archaeological and historical excavation and exploration. I gotta say that I found Fires a most inspiring book.
So far, Beard's text has inspired me to put together two walking tours of Pompeii, one of the House of the Faun and one of the city streets. I'll probably make at least two more---every time I open the book, it leads me in another interesting direction. The inspiration comes from the text alone--the version I read was uncorrected page proofs and didn't have the 23 color plates that you, o lucky reader, will get a look at.
Anyway, take a look at my review, and you may find yourself putting it on your own holiday wish list.
- The Fires of Pompeii: A book review
- Compare prices for The Fires of Pompeii at PriceGrabber
- Read the book blurb at Harvard University Press
- The Streets of Pompeii walking tour
- Walking Tour of the House of the Faun
- Pompeii: Buried in Ages
Comments
I am sitting in the Hotel Geneve in Mexico City and I also just finished reading Mary B´s incredible book. I liked it so much that I gave my copy to Felipe Solis, the Director of Mexico´s National Museum of Anthropology yesterday and told him he has to read it immediately. I found it quite an inspiration for a book I am beginning to write on the ancient city of Teotihuacan, and in fact I read much of it while staying in Teotihuacan last week. Kris, I agree she takes the archeologists to the wood shed but in many cases they seem to deserve it. By the way, I am working on a Walking Tour of Teotihuacan for this web site and practiced it several times last week. I strongly recommend Fires of Vesuvius for anyone intersted in history and archaeology.
Dick