Falco in Pompeii

I am just back from a great conference in Bristol on Pompeii: “Ruins and Reconstructions”. This wasn’t on the ancient history of the city, but its history since its rediscovery. Fascinating titbits of information were flying around (one speaker informed us that the average time spent by tourists in the reconstructed brothel on the site was 30 seconds – surprisingly long, I thought). But much of the talk was about Pompeian fiction, in particular Bulwer Lytton’s Last Days of Pompeii.

This is the classic (1834), much-filmed, pre-Robert Harris story, of the virtuous couple, Glaucus and Ione, who manage not only to escape the nasty schemes of Arbaces, the priest of Isis, but also the lava flow of the eruption (with the help of a conveniently loyal blind flower seller) – and end up happy ever after, married and Christian, in Athens.

Delegates were divided on the literary merits of the book. One group regularly inserted the adjective “ghastly” in front of every mention of it. In fact one speaker pointed out that in the USA there is an annual Bulwer Lytton prize for the worst opening sentence of an imaginary novel. (The organisers have in mind “It was a dark and stormy night”, the first line of his Paul Clifford; but “Ho, Diomed, well met”, the opening of Last Days, is in the same style.)

Others opined that it was a neglected gem – and, in any case, a good deal better than any of the historical fiction of Sir Walter Scott. Though that’s perhaps not saying very much.

What everyone did agree was that it had been one of the greatest literary hits of the nineteenth century (until it was overtaken by Ben Hur). But why? One idea was that it actually modelled a version of elite gentlemanly British life onto Roman Pompeii – and so appealed to generations of British public schoolboys (this didn’t seem to fit very easily with the massive sales). Another was broadly the reverse: that the novel was actually a critique of nineteenth-century elite culture/luxury/imperialism . .. . seen through the lens of the destroyed city (and contrasted with the virtuous Athens where Glaucus and Ione end up).

There was of course no chance of quizzing Bulwer Lytton himself! But a worthy substitute was found in the person of Lindsey Davis, who dropped in on her way to the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate. Lindsey is the creator of the Roman gumshoe Falco, who has now solved 18 mysteries in various places across the Roman empire. Part of one of these (Shadows in Bronze) is set in Pompeii.

I have quite a soft spot for these books. And Davis is always good value, in a deliciously down-to-earth self-ironical kind of way (and has done a lot of work supporting Classics in schools and universities since Falco became a superstar). On this occasion she talked about the kind of background research she does for the books, and how Pompeii comes into that more generally (not just in Shadows in Bronze).

It hadn’t escaped the notice of many in the room that the dramatic date of the Falco novels had now reached 76 CE – only three years from the eruption itself. But, from what Lindsey said, it didn’t seem that Falco was fated to be one of the victims. Phew.

Comments

[Mary]

Many thanks, Foska...will do

[SW Foska]

Mary, just to say that if parthenopolitan periegesis is what gets you up in the morning, you might cop a butchers at ISBN 9639776122, through which reference work you can easily access over fifty hitherto un- or underutilized accounts of Pompeii, in Serbian, Czech, Hungarian, Modern Greek, Macedonian, Polish, Romanian and Slovak. Your task will be facilitated by the sumptuous Ortsregister and also a useful index of translations.

[Helen]

Caroline mentions the Cambridge Latin Course and its influence. Friends of mine who did the Cambridge Latin course said that some people in their classes actually cried at the ending of the first unit when most of the characters are killed in the eruption of Vesuvius. The bit where the dog dies was particularly upsetting apparently.

(I apologise if I've spoiled the ending for anyone)

[Lisa]

Thank you for the link to the conference, I've just read the abstracts with great interest. I'm fascinated by the excavations in Pompeii but it's difficult to find material for the general reader on them; most books seem to concentrate on life in Pompeii before the eruption.

[Liz]

I read 'The Last Days' with great delight when I discovered it during my third year at Cambridge, and am looking forward to watching one of the film adaptations in the fairly near future. I remember being absolutely delighted with the tone of the story (the 'Ho, Diomed, well met' element, when read tongue firmly in cheek, is ripping good fun), and intrigued by the imposition of Victorian modernity onto the ancient world. I'd definitely stick it in the forgotten classics box - after all, there's always a pleasure in dubious prose.

One wonders what the 'ghastly' set would read upon the beach under their sun umbrellas. 'The Last Days' strikes me as an excellent option for those who haven't read it yet.

[anthony alcock]

If Ms Davies had decided to write fictional history rather than historical fiction, she wouldn't now be lumbered with "research". Some imaginary village in the Sabine Hills with an Octavia Acer sleuthing hither and yon. No need for all those tedious details. Just the story.

[Caroline]

As someone who was introduced to Latin through the Cambridge Latin Course - the first unit of which is set in Pompeii just before the eruption of Vesuvius - I wonder if this merited any discussion at the conference (twentieth century Pompeian fiction, anyone?). The Cambridge Latin Course must influence the impression many classicists have of Pompeii and of what happened when Vesuvius erupted.

[Tony Francis]

A site discussing the 534 AD event is:
http://sa.apana.org.au/~paulc/loreimpacts.html
According to this site, there are two main theories: either a comet hit the earth, or there was a giant volcano. Apparently the Chinese had some inkling of the event before it happened, because they abandoned their capital city. There was about 10-15 years of famine after the event. Volcano? Comet? You decide. This site correlates major cooling events with vulcanism. They say a drop of just a few degrees can be devastating for crops. This occurred around 1300. Of course, there was the Black Death, and great social upheaval.

[Gordon]

Dear Mary,
This isn't a comment on one of your articles, which I always read with great interest, by the way, but a question about a cataclysmic event that is supposed to have occurred in 534 A.D. and changed the course of European history. It is believed that a giant meteorite hit the earth somewhere and sent up a massive cloud of dust which 'obscured the sun for fifteen years', according to a contemporary account (Byzantine, I think). So in the first full century after the collapse of the Roman Empire, at the time of Attila the Hun and post-Roman upheaval, when the poor Europeans had enough to contend with just to survive, there comes a period of unimaginable suffering, with failed crops, famine, disease and death which made the Dark Ages literally darker than they would otherwise have been and eliminated the last vestiges of Roman civilization in most of Europe. If this actually happened, why is the year 534 not listed along with 79 (a minor disaster by comparison, but everyone knows about it), 1066, 1789, 1914 etc as one of the major dates in European history? So how do you stand on 534, as it were? It might even be an interesting subject for an article on your blog.
Best regards,
Gordon

[Mary]

I take Mr Punch's point (and agree with him). But it wasnt the point of the paper -- which was (if I got it right) that the book was in a sense a kind of policing device, allowing the elite (and only them) to recognise themselves in its pages.
Of course, the history of stories of toffs for non-toff children is a long one... Famous Five etc etc

[Candadai Tirumalai]

I read Bulwer Lytton's "Last Days" some 20 years ago, and found the confluence in it of three traditions (old Egyptian, established classical or pagan, and new Christian) interestingly evocative. Glaucus and Ione do convert to Christianity but someone expresses the view that he while he is a believer in the new religion he does not support its exclusionary view that all other religions are deficient or wrong. Bulwer Lytton is unlikely not have known about the German Higher Criticism of the Bible.

[Mr Punch]

"One idea was that it actually modelled a version of elite gentlemanly British life onto Roman Pompeii – and so appealed to generations of British public schoolboys (this didn’t seem to fit very easily with the massive sales)."

Two words: Harry Potter