The Last Days of Pompeii
CRITIQUE | THE TEXT | AT THE MOVIES
1851 Alta editionFirst publication
1934
Literary form
Novel
Genres
Literary, historical fiction
Writing language
English
Author's country
England
Length
Approx. 158,500 words
Notable lines
First line:
"Ho, Diomed, well met! Do you sup with Glaucus tonight?" said a young man of small stature, who wore his tunic in those loose and effeminate folds which proved him to be a gentleman and a coxcomb.
Great lines:
He who has loved often has loved never.
There is no tongue that flatters like a lover's; and yet, in the exaggeration of his feelings, flattery seems to him commonplace.
"Oh, can these men love, my Clodius? Scarcely even with the senses. How rarely a Roman has a heart! He is but the mechanism of genius—he wants its bones and flesh."
"Die, then, in thy rashness!" he muttered. "Away, obstacle to my rushing fates!"
Last line:
Viewing the various witnesses of a social system which has passed from the world for ever—a stranger, from that remote and barbarian Isle which the Imperial Roman shivered when he named, paused amidst the delights of the soft Campania and composed this history!.
CRITIQUE | THE TEXT | AT THE MOVIES
