The Shadow of Vesuvius: A Life of Pliny
About this audiobook
When Pliny the Elder perished at Stabiae during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, he left behind an enormous compendium of knowledge, his thirty-seven-volume Natural History, and a teenaged nephew who revered him as a father. Grieving his loss, Pliny the Younger inherited the Elder’s notebooks―filled with pearls of wisdom―and his legacy. At its heart, The Shadow of Vesuvius is a literary biography of the younger man, who would grow up to become a lawyer, senator, poet, collector of villas, and chronicler of the Roman Empire from the dire days of terror under Emperor Domitian to the gentler times of Emperor Trajan. A biography that will appeal to lovers of Mary Beard books, it is also a moving narrative about the profound influence of a father figure on his adopted son. Interweaving the younger Pliny’s Letters with extracts from the Elder’s Natural History, Daisy Dunn paints a vivid, compellingly readable portrait of two of antiquity’s greatest minds.
About the author
The author of Catullus’ Bedspread: The Life of Rome’s Most Erotic Poet and The Poems of Catullus: A New Translation, Daisy Dunn is a classicist, art historian, and cultural critic. She lives in Surrey, England.
Mike Grady, Earphones Award–winning narrator and voice talent, is an English actor whose career has spanned more than forty years. On stage he has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, and on the West End. He is also known for roles in Last of the Summer Wine, Sweet Sixteen, and Citizen Smith.
