The Last Days of Pompeii
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- For other uses, see The Last Days of Pompeii (disambiguation).
The Last Days of Pompeii was written by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1834. Once a very widely read book, and now relatively neglected, it culminates in the cataclysmic destruction of the city of Pompeii by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
The novel uses its characters to contrast the decadent culture of first-century Rome with both older cultures and coming trends. The protagonist, Glaucus, represents the Greeks who have been subordinated by Rome, and his nemesis Arbaces the still older culture of Egypt. Olinthus is the chief representative of the nascent Christian religion, which is presented favorably but not uncritically. The Witch of Vesuvius, though she has no supernatural powers, shows Bulwer-Lytton's interest in the occult - a theme which would emerge in his later writing, particularly The Coming Race. The 1935 RKO film The Last Days of Pompeii, with Preston Foster and Basil Rathbone, carried a disclaimer that, although the scenes of Vesuvius erupting had been inspired by the novel, the movie did not use its plot or characters. An Italian version of the novel was made in 1959, and the novel was finally filmed in English faithfully as an ABC-TV miniseries in 1984 which counted among its stars, Sir Laurence Olivier, Duncan Regehr, Nicholas Clay, Olivia Hussey, Linda Purl, Franco Nero, Lesley-Anne Down, Ernest Borgnine, Ned Beatty, and Siobhan McKenna.
