The shadow of Vesuvius A life of Pliny

Daisy Dunn

Book - 2019

""A wonderfully rich, witty, insightful, and wide-ranging portrait of the two Plinys and their world."-Sarah Bakewell, author of How to Live. 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 th...e 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"--

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BIOGRAPHY/Pliny
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Subjects
Genres
Biographies
Published
New York : Liveright Publishing Corporation 2019.
Language
English
Main Author
Daisy Dunn (author)
Edition
First American edition
Item Description
"First published in Britain under the title In the shadow of Vesuvius : a life of Pliny" -- Verso title page.
Physical Description
xiv, 318 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9781631496394
  • Maps
  • Nota
  • Part 1. Aut-
  • Prologue Darker than Night
  • 1. Roots and Trees
  • Part 2. Winter
  • 2. Illusions of Immortality
  • 3. To Be Alive Is to Be Awake
  • 4. Solitary as an Oyster
  • 5. The Gift of Poison
  • Part 3. Spring
  • 6. Pliniana
  • 7. The Shadow of Verona
  • 8. Portrait of a Man
  • 9. The Death of Principle
  • Part 4. Summer
  • 10. The Imitation of Nature
  • 11. A Difficult, Arduous, Fastidious Thing
  • 12. Head, Heart, Womb
  • 13. After the Solstice
  • Part 5. -umn
  • 14. Life in Concrete
  • 15. Depraved Belief
  • Epilogue Resurrection
  • Timeline
  • List of Illustrations
  • Endnotes
  • Select Bibliography
  • Acknowledgements
  • Index
Review by Booklist Review

While Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger are not household names today, historians, writers, and scientists throughout history have been influenced by their writings. Classicist Dunn (Catullus' Bedspread, 2016) has written a delightful biography, interweaving extracts from the Elder's Natural History with the Younger's letters, speeches, and poetry into an insightful portrait of the men, their world, and their influence on people such as Giorgio Vasari, Frances Bacon, and Percy and Mary Shelley. Arranging the biography by seasons, she goes back and forth in their lives to show how the men used the natural world and its principles to guide their lives. As a lawyer, senator, poet, and chronicler of the Roman Empire, the Younger's letters reveal the turbulent and deadly politics of those years. Dunn also includes stories of how men such as Leonardo da Vinci and Charles Darwin debated the Elder's explorations of nature, and Charles Dickens used the Younger's story about a ghost walking in chains as the model for Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol. This is a rich, entertaining dual biography of two fascinating men, a revealing portrait of ancient Rome, and a celebration of nature that will appeal to fans of Mary Beard.--Merle Jacob Copyright 2019 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Historian Dunn (Catullus' Bedspread: The Life of Rome's Most Erotic Poet) intertwines the lives of Pliny the Elder and his nephew, Pliny the Younger, in this illuminating chronicle of the Roman Empire in the latter half of the first century CE. After narrating the elder Pliny's heroic death in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, Dunn traces the younger Pliny's career as a lawyer and provincial governor, detailing his rivalry with politician Regulus, friendships with historians Tacitus and Suetonius, and loving marriage to his second wife, Calpurnia. Drawing from Pliny's Letters, Dunn spotlights her subject's yearning for his quiet countryside estate; his desire to write a magnum opus like his uncle's seven-volume Natural History; and his philosophical musings on such topics as oysters, sleep, and snow. She ends her account with the fleeting but famous correspondence between Pliny and Emperor Trajan as the former, near the end of his life, sought guidance on how to stem the tide of Christianity in his role as the governor of Bithynia (in modern Turkey). Skillfully mining primary and secondary source material, Dunn offers a comprehensive study of how the elder Pliny influenced his equally perceptive and ambitious nephew. This eloquent and accessible history offers a revealing glimpse into the daily life of ancient Rome. (Dec.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

When Vesuvius erupted in 79AD, author and natural historian Pliny the Elder ventured out to provide assistance to a friend and died in the attempt. His teenage nephew Pliny the Younger headed in the opposite direction and survived to become a magistrate, lawyer, and prolific letter-writer. Classicist Dunn's new work ostensibly focuses on the Younger with a nod toward the Elder's influence on his life. But by offering nearly as many references to the Elder's encyclopedic Natural History as to the Younger's vast correspondence, the author seems to want to give equal space to her subject's bolder uncle. Dunn's decision to avoid a linear recounting of events in favor of a thematic narrative of Pliny the Younger's life results in a book that feels less like a biography than an appreciation of both men, with frequent digressions on the Elder's opinions on oysters and metal sculpture, the Younger's poetical ambitions and villas along Lake Como, and the effect of their dual legacy on future eras. VERDICT Not ideal for those looking for a straightforward biography of Pliny, the book will appeal to readers who are willing to follow Dunn's enthusiastic and vividly drawn, if meandering, story about the lives and influences of both men.--Kathleen McCallister, William & Mary Libs., Williamsburg, VA

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

The Roman Empire comes to life through the biographies of two influential men.Classicist Dunn (Catullus' Bedspread: The Life of Rome's Most Erotic Poet, 2016, etc.) creates a vivid tapestry of the Roman world focused on naturalist Pliny the Elder (23/24-79 C.E.), who perished when Vesuvius erupted, and his nephewand adopted sonPliny the Younger (c. 62-133 C.E.), a lawyer, senator, landowner, and poet who lived "at the very center of things in the first and early second centuries." Drawing largely on the Elder's encyclopedic, 37-volume Natural History and the Younger's prolific letters and speeches, Dunn depicts them as "Renaissance men in their own time," revered among their peers and by later generations. Darwin, for example, a member of the Plinian Society as a medical student, owned a "well skimmed translation" of Natural History, which influenced his thinking about heredity. Although both Plinys shared "an enquiring mind, an eye for minutiae, obsessive diligence," and a "love of stories, not only of the natural world, but of extremes of human behavior," the younger man could be pompous, self-centered, "attuned to detail and hard fact, obedient to protocol. Where his uncle was creative," Dunn notes, "Pliny was pedantic." He worked happily in solitude, preferring his rural villasserved by some 500 slavesto the bustle of the city. Like his uncleand also Cicero, Virgil, and Emperor Marcus Aurelius, among many other prominent RomansPliny adhered to Stoicism, "a philosophy for achieving equilibrium in a frantic world, through which you learned to become master of yourself and your emotions." Besides exploring his philosophical beliefs, Dunn examines Pliny's attitudes about medicine, agriculture, and marital relations along with his role in the political intrigues and rivalries that marked the reigns of the cruel Emperor Domitian, who exiled philosophers from Italy, and Emperor Trajan, a popular ruler for whom Pliny served as deputy. Their correspondence reveals the tensions that arose from the burgeoning of Christianity, portending "a change that was to come at the heart of Rome's empire."A sensitive, spirited investigation of the ancient world. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.