A Town Lost in Time

Stones are silent, with homes built up on the side of the mountain

One afternoon seemed much like the other as markets opened their shops, as wives and mothers swept out the dust and mud that had built up from the day before. A normal day for Aemilia and her two sons, she waited for the next shaking of the earth.

Aemilia's husband had shrugged off her worries. Calvus held no concerns at all for the shaking. Vulcan and Hephaestus were at work in the holy mountain, Calvus reassured her.  Just make an offering to Vulcan, pour dark red wine on the rocks by the temples, and all will be just fine.

The ground shook all through the day and into the night. There, Calvus stated, see the smoke rising from his forge. 

The sky exploded and smoke became a billowing monster of gray and black. Before Aemilia could gather her sons to her side and Calvus could run back home, fire and ash rained down on them. She had no time to even cry out as she clutched the boys to shield them with her body. 

In brief moments the ash settled on them, cloaking them in gray death. Her home in Pompeii was now lost in time.  

video we took  from across the Bay of Naples

I hope this video plays, but if not, oh well.

We were looking down on the bay of Naples. Having just come from Pompeii where some of the town had been excavated, we could only start to imagine what true horror had happened. 

Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum, John Martin 1821

The Last Days of Pompeii

Artist: Karl Briullov

Most interesting and surprising discoveries are made by pure chance.  The discovery may something as small as the remote control under a newspaper, as a house key in the laundry basket. 

There was a discovery of monument size here, or so we thought.  One of my grandmother’s book given to me (in 1972) turned out to more interesting than originally thought:  The Last Days of Pompeii by Sir Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton, 1^st Baron Lytton.

Source: in his later life

My husband was delighted upon seeing that the book, published in 1884, was in mint condition.  We had just seen “Pompeii” at the theater---predictable plot, predictable ending.  To ease his excitement over the book’s possible value, Wikipedia® was accessed and Sir Bulwer-Lytton was there!!

Value of the 1884 edition mass printed book:  about $5.00, despite its age.

What discovery, you may ask.  Well, I’ll tell you.

Sir Edward B-L was an intelligent man who achieved many honorary titles and wrote many very popular books in the mid-1800s.  This made him wealthy and respected.

Considering some unwise romantic choices, his personal life was always in an uproar.  Even so, The Right Honorable Lord Lytton, PC is responsible for some amazing phrases that follow/haunt all writers who wish to avoid clichés.

Recognize these:

“…the great unwashed…”  

“The pen is mightier than the sword…” 

“…pursuit of the almighty dollar….” 

And, of course, 

“…It was a dark and stormy night…”

In honor of such a writer, there is a contest: The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, in which participants create the most terrible opening sentences for imaginary novels.

"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents---except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."  Bulwer-Lytton

While my copy of The Last Days of Pompeii is not a great discovery, the man Bulwer-Lytton surely is.