C.” are those who have decided to spend their holidays in the mountains hoping for more temperate climates and those who have not given up on the hot sand of the Italian beaches: the choice in our pleasant peninsula kissed by beauty is rich and includes also the possibility of vacationing under a volcano. In this case we cannot exempt ourselves from some preparatory readings to best honor the mysterious proximity of this “complex geological structure” which has inspired poets, writers and scientists since the dawn of time.
La Fortuna by Valeria Parrella
Pliny the Younger in 79 AD described the eruption of Vesuvius, which as we know tragically buried Herculaneum and Pompeii together with his uncle Pliny the Elder. If you want to relive that magical moment in history you cannot miss the latest novel by Valeria Parrella Luck (Feltrinelli) which poetically tells the story of Lucio, a young boy from Pompeii at the timewith the fears, dreams and aspirations of his generation and a cursed desire for the future just like today’s kids who will find themselves facing climatic emergencies perhaps even more devastating than that historic eruption.
Susan Sontag’s Lover of the Volcano
In Latin the word luck means fate, in itself neither good nor bad, and perhaps this is precisely the fate of Emma Hamilton, an immense character protagonist of the historical novel by Susan Sontag The lover of the volcano first published in the United States in 1992. Sontag, historian and philosopher, falls in love with Napoli of the late eighteenth century where you can breathe culture and beauty and innovative ideas and tells it through the stories of the English diplomat Lord William Hamilton, art collector almost obsessively attracted to the energy emanating from Vesuvius and at the same time by the bursting sensuality of his young wife Emma. Once again it is nature that acts as a counterpoint to the historical events in a love triangle which also includes Admiral Horatio Nelson stationed in Naples to defend it from the French attack. Unmissable.
Under the Malcolm Lowry volcano
And it certainly cannot be missing from the collection of literary volcanoes Under the volcano by Malcolm Lowry: here the volcanoes are two and they stand out disturbing and threatening on the Mexican city of Quauhnahuac where the protagonist Goeffrey Firmin, an alcoholic British consul, is spending his last days of life. Even if you have already seen the film based on the novel directed by John Huston it is impossible to do without the book.
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