The Shadow of Vesuvius: A Life of Pliny

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.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
Published: 12/10/2019
ISBN: 9781631496394
Pages: 336
Weight: 1.36lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.50w x 1.20d

Review Citations: Library Journal Prepub Alert 07/01/2019 pg. 46
Kirkus Reviews 10/01/2019
Library Journal 11/01/2019 pg. 91
Booklist 11/15/2019 pg. 11
Publishers Weekly 01/06/2020