This page is a stub!
This article is a stub. You can help The Book Lovers Wiki by expanding it.
The Volcano Lover is a novel written by Susan Sontag. Released in 1992, it tells of the Cavaliere and his ties to Vesuvius.
Characters[]
- The Cavaliere
rest to be added
Publisher's Summary[]
It was the beginning of the age of revolution. It was the beginning of the age of exaggeration...
Naples, 1772. The second city of Europe, gorgeous, turbulent, and presided over by its renowned volcano. Vesuvius, constantly threatening eruptions that simultaneously fascinate and terrify. An English nobleman, the British ambassador to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, returns to his adoptive city with his wife. The Cavaliere, as he is known to all, is a collector of antiquities, of art, of people, with a connoisseur's avid but dispassionate temperament.
Then his wife dies, and the Cavaliere knows deep feeling for the first time. And when his nephew's former mistress comes into his life, he is swept away by overwhelming passion. Ravishingly beautiful and supremely intelligent, though uneducated, the young woman becomes, under her mentor's loving eye, a remarkable citizen of the world and, to his family's consternation, his wife. A favorite of the Neapolitan queen, who is the sister of Marie Antoinette, she is the love of her husband's life. But it is not until the young British admiral, the greatest hero of the time, arrives in Naples that the Cavaliere's wife knows a correspondingly powerful emotion.
Based on the lives of Sir William Hamilton, his celebrated wife, Emma, and Lord Nelson, and peopled with many of the great figures of the day, The Volcano Lover is about revolution, the fate of nature, the condition of women, operatic emotions and stories from Don Giovanni to Tosca, art and the collector's obsessions, and, above all, love.
A book of prismatic formal ingenuity, rich in speculative and imaginative spellbinding characters, and strong emotions, The Volcano Lover rings invigorating changes on the conventions of the historical romance. It is Susan Sontag's most powerful work to date, an exciting, passionate, unforgettable novel.
Full Summary[]
TBA
Notes[]
- Sontag began writing The Volcano Lover in 1989.
See also[]
| Title | Author | Release date | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Losing Nelson | Barry Unsworth | 1999 | A novel also featuring Lord Nelson as a major character |
| The General in His Labyrinth | Gabriel García Márquez | 1989 | A novel released around the same time with similar themes |
| Lemprière's Dictionary | Lawrence Norfolk | 1990 | A novel released around the same time with a similar setting |
| The Adventuress of Henrietta Street | Lawrence Miles | 2001 | A novel released around the same time with a similar setting |