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Sontag, Susan The Volcano Lover: A Romance
Farrar Straus & Giroux 1992 0374285160 / 9780374285166 Softcover Good Softcover
Softcover edition is book club edition from 1992. Light shelf wear. Inside is clean and perfect. From Publishers Weekly: It should be no surprise that Sontag's (The Way We Live Now) excursion into the realm of historical/romance novels serves a more rigorous agenda than merely fictionalizing the lives of Sir William Hamilton; his wife, Emma; and her lover, Lord Nelson. The narrative illuminates larger themes: the venality and hypocrisy of many of the pillars of 18th-century society; the perennial status of women as an underclass; the subservience of ethics to political expediency; the greed that often fuels a patron of the arts. These and other issues are examined in cool, ironic prose that does not disguise the author's indignation. Sontag's unconventional look at one of history's most famous amorous triangles offers revisionist portraits of her three protagonists. Hamilton, known as the Cavaliere in his post as British envoy to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, subverts his emotions into an obsessive urge to collect antiquities--until he becomes infatuated with Emma. Nelson is guilty of callously cruel and unprofessional behavior as a result of his infatuation with Lady Hamilton. Only she acquits herself relatively well; though she is vulgar and ostentatious, Emma has humanitarian instincts the others lack. The novel is a brilliant portrait of an age, the bloody epoch in which the Bourbon monarchs of the Kingdom of Naples--aided by the infamous Baron Scarpia of Tosca fame--took violent revenge on the revolutionaries and intellectuals who supported the insurrection of 1799. A master of descriptive detail, Sontag creates vivid pictures of an erupting Vesuvius; deadly storms at sea; the excesses of a pillaging, murderous mob. She also interjects herself into the narrative, a piquant but sometimes jarring technique. The ending, in which various characters summarize the novel's events, seems gratuitous, but it allows Sontag to drive her message home. The last line reads: "They thought they were civilized. They were despicable. Damn them all." (Aug.) . nCopyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. n n nFrom Library Journal n nThe astringently intellectual Sontag here turns to lush historical romance based on the real-life triangle of Sir William Hamilton, his wife Emma, and Lord Nelson. The English ambassador to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in the late 1700s, the Cavaliere is an exacting collector of antiquities and a frequent visitor to Mount Vesuvius. When his devoted wife Catherine dies, he becomes enamored of his nephew's beautiful if vulgar mistress. Emma gladly marries her benefactor but finds real love when heroic Lord Nelson visits Naples. The story starts slowly, and the Cavaliere's relation as collector to the collected Emma seems too obvious. But as Sontag warms to her subject, the novel becomes rich, expansive, and highly entertaining, right down to the slambang final chapters whose rapidly shifting voices suddenly provide new perspective. Hardly digressions, Sontag's many aesthetic speculations wonderfully enhance the plot. A fine novel of ideas, this is sure to please venturesome readers of historical romance as well. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/15/92. n-Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal" nCopyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. NOTE: Publisher overstock books may have a remainder mark. A remainder mark is a mark on the bottom or top edge that is added just to assure that it is not returned to the store! Orders normally ship in 1-2 business days depending on what time payment is completed.
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19.98 USD
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