Vesuvius

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Gabrielle Euvino with Michael San Filippo

You're no idiot, of course. You know there's more to Italy's rich tapestry than spaghetti and the Sicilian Mafia, but you also know you have a lot to learn about the country that brought you the paintings of Michelangelo, the poetry of Dante, and the Ferrari of your dreams.Get ready to indulge! The Complete Idiot's Guide® to Italian History and Culture will satisfy your thirst for all things Italian with its in-depth information about Italian art and literature, wine and cooking, and famous Italians and Italian Americans. In this Complete Idiot's Guide®, you get:Secrets of Italian cooking sure to whet your appetite!The Italian-American connection, from pizza to the Mafia to soccer.A comprehensive look at the centuries-long struggle to unify Italy.The power and glory of the Renaissance.

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Estelle Lazer

"Pompeii has been continuously excavated and studied since 1748. Early scholars working there and in other sites associated with the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius were seduced by the wealth of artefacts and wall paintings yielded by the site, meaning that the less visually attractive evidence, such as human skeletal remains, was largely ignored, and its archaeological value unrecognized and compromised." "A number of skeletons were used as props for vignettes of the tragic last moments of the victims, made to impress dignitaries visiting the site. They were also used to creatively reconstruct the lives of the victims in literary works, such as Edward Bulwer-Lytton's 1834 novel, The Last Days of Pompeii, where the skeletal evidence is presented through storytelling with a thin veneer of science. This work in particular has had a profound influence and has driven the agenda of many Pompeian and Campanian skeletal studies into the twenty-first century." "Recognizing the important contribution of the human skeletal evidence to the archaeology of Pompeii and studying the reasons for the scientific neglect of the human remains, Resurrecting Pompeii provides detailed information about what the skeletal record can actually provide. Estelle Lazer demonstrates that the biological evidence does not support the detail of the stories that have been told to date, but it does yield tantalizing glimpses into the lives and deaths of the victims, providing students of archaeology and history with an essential resource in the study of this fascinating historical event."--Jacket.

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Aleksandr Pushkin

Eugene Onegin (Russian: Евге́ний Оне́гин, BGN/PCGN: Yevgeniy Onegin) is a novel in verse written by Alexander Pushkin. It is a classic of Russian literature, and its eponymous protagonist has served as the model for a number of Russian literary heroes (so-called superfluous men). It was published in serial form between 1825 and 1832. The first complete edition was published in 1833, and the currently accepted version is based on the 1837 publication. Almost the entire work is made up of 389 stanzas of iambic tetrameter with the unusual rhyme scheme "AbAbCCddEffEgg", where the uppercase letters represent feminine rhymes while the lowercase letters represent masculine rhymes. This form has come to be known as the "Onegin stanza" or the "Pushkin sonnet." The rhythm, innovative rhyme scheme, the natural tone and diction, and the economical transparency of presentation all demonstrate the virtuosity which has been instrumental in proclaiming Pushkin as the undisputed master of Russian poetry. The story is told by a narrator (a lightly fictionalized version of Pushkin's public image), whose tone is educated, worldly, and intimate. The narrator digresses at times, usually to expand on aspects of this social and intellectual world. This allows for a development of the characters and emphasises the drama of the plot despite its relative simplicity. The book is admired for the artfulness of its verse narrative as well as for its exploration of life, death, love, ennui, convention and passion. It influenced Vikram Seth's Golden Gate.

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Nathalie Aubert

Poète belge de langue française, Christian Dotremont (1922-1979) a poursuivi, tant au sein des grandes avant-gardes artistiques du XXe siècle (le surréalisme, le surréalisme-révolutionnaire et Cobra) qu'individuellement, une recherche personnelle qui l'a placé non seulement au coeur des débats littéraires et philosophiques de son temps, mais aussi, comme nombre d'artistes de sa génération, au centre des débats éthiques et politiques. Cet ouvrage retrace l'intégralité de son parcours.