- Taschenbuch: 419 Seiten
- Verlag: Vintage, London; Auflage: New edition (17. Juni 1993)
- Sprache: Englisch
- ISBN-10: 0099223813
- ISBN-13: 978-0099223818
- Größe und/oder Gewicht: 19,4 x 12,8 x 3 cm
- Durchschnittliche Kundenbewertung: 4.3 von 5 Sternen Alle Rezensionen anzeigen (3 Kundenrezensionen)
- Amazon Bestseller-Rang: Nr. 129.219 in Englische Bücher (Siehe Top 100 in Englische Bücher)
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From Kirkus Reviews
The first novel in over 20 years by America's preeminent belletrist is a historical tour de force. This tale of 18th-century romance and revolution is certain to charm readers who enjoy the postmodern potboilers of Umberto Eco and A.S. Byatt. After a pretentious prologue about her role as author, Sontag dives into the grand drama of the English nobleman William Hamilton, ambassador to the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, the Bourbon monarchy based in Naples. ``Il Cavaliere,'' as he's called by his hosts, fancies himself ``an envoy of decorum and reason'' to the grotesque King. Where Sir William delights in collecting art and artifacts, and exploring the great volcano at Vesuvius, the fat King devotes himself to gluttony and impregnating his ambitious wife. After the Cavaliere's frail wife dies at age 44, the melancholic ambassador returns to England, where he grows infatuated with his nephew's mistress, a stunning beauty from the lower classes who mixes charm with vulgarity. Seeking a wealthy wife, the nephew passes his mistress to his uncle, now back in Naples. And soon follows a scandalous marriage between the 56-year- old ambassador and the 20-year-old lady of dubious virtue. A quick study, as well as a much-painted subject, Lady Emma Hamilton becomes the toast of Naples and the Queen's confidante. Her fall into infamy begins when she meets the hero of the age, Lord Nelson, ``the saviour of the royalist cause.'' In outline, this seems little more than the Vivien Leigh melodrama That Hamilton Woman. But Sontag adds such historical texture to her saga of sexual intrigue that it all comes to sordid life, full of passion and politics. Her warts-and-all version of history relies on a profound imagining of each character's point of view. At once heady and heartfelt, this is Sontag's best bid for a popular audience. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
-- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.
From Library Journal
The 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.
-Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.
-Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.
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Format:Gebundene Ausgabe
The first time I sat down to read The Volcano Lover, I closed the book and did not open it again for more than a year. Its opening did not grip me in the least. But luckily someone encouraged me to pick it up again, and I now rate it as one of my favorite reads. This novel has driven me to the Huntington Museum to observe the portrait of Emma Hamilton. The novel shows the truth of passion as it explores in depth those things that give our lives their meaning, and they are all--individuals, art, nature--that about which we feel an inexplicable fervor.
Format:Taschenbuch
Susan Sontag's the 'Volcano Lover' is a book that you have to start reading on the condition that you are used to problematic beginnings in books. Towards the middle, however, the story becomes a painting; one that some characters in the book would certainly want for their collection. Being drawn in a partly biographical story of eminent people of their time you would expect to focus on its credibility. However, it is a work that not only satisfies a kind of voyeurism, but also cultivates your fancy via the unexpectedly provocative temperaments of its characters during an 18th century Europe. The fact that they are the stereotypical protagonists of a romance can only add to the success of the story. That happens since the characters existed in reality as well and this knowledge alone evokes further amusing thoughts; The Beauty and the Beast meet Clark Kent and the end of the story comes as no surprise. The characters however leave their own mark, despite the subjective commentary of an unknown narrator. Reality is there for us to see and the exotic element sought by the characters is twice as exotic to the reader of the 21st century. Sontag lets the various narrators do the trick of exalting your curiosity with passing comments that however, leave your thoughts unaffected. Objectivity and partiality are mixed but she manages to let the romantic story evolve without interfering - not till the story is told. I, at least, was left with the impression that she let history speak for itself and that the only thing she did was to put some more powder on the wigs of her so carefully chosen protagonists. And boy, did she do a lot more. A romance at the heart of history and a writer thriving on the most demanding task of autofiction.
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe
Much as I admire Sontag, and much as I would like to rate THE VOLCANO LOVER with five stars, second thoughts intervene. I would describe those reservations by recalling what was once said about Beethoven's Ninth Symphony: namely, that it contains both his best and his worst efforts. One would second the observations of those reviewers who, in various ways, have suggested that this work embraces a real cornucopia of stylistic devices; yet in the end, and after more than one rereading, I find artifice sometimes taking precedence over art. In particular, the character of Effrosina Pumo seems drawn with strokes that fail to resolve, and leaves me wondering if she was intended to serve as caricature or archetype--perhaps as Sontag herself would question certain feminist efforts. Still, there is much to be savored in THE VOLCANO LOVER, and self-appointed rival Camille Paglia's dismissal of it as "pedestrian" strikes this reviewer as a spitefully inadvertent confession of envy--to say little of her quip being an egotistically summary and platitudinous facsimile of criticism.
If a bit sententious at times, Sontag's teeming insights into human nature, as inspired by her reflections on the many historical personnages woven into the plot, are admirably, almost frighteningly keen. Dialogue, when used, displays a virtuosically wide range of stylistic mastery. Perhaps this novel is a necessary step in the process of learning to integrate a large number of ideas and methods into a seamless and dramatically balanced whole, as Mozart is sometimes credited with accomplishing. (Interestingly, Mozart enters into both form and content of the plot, even if Sontag once reduced "much of Mozart" to "camp".) Perhaps we should look forward to Sontag's masterpiece, while thanking her for taking the artistic risks necessary to prepare for it.
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