The Buried City (unearthing The Real Pompeii)

By (author) Zuchtriegel, Gabriel; Translated by Bulloch Jamie
Short description/annotation:
The director of Pompeii offers a revelatory new history of the city
Description:

''The best book on Pompeii I''ve ever read'' STEPHEN FRY

This is Pompeii, as you''ve never seen it before.

In this revelatory history, Gabriel Zuchtriegel shares the new secrets of Pompeii. Over the last few years, a vast stretch of the city has been excavated for the first time. Now, drawing on these astonishing discoveries, The Buried City reveals the untold human stories that are at last emerging.

Pompeii is a world frozen in time. There are unmade beds, dishes left drying, tools abandoned by workmen, bodies embracing with love and fear. And alongside the remnants of everyday life, there are captivating works of art: lifelike portraits, exquisite frescos and mosaics, and the extraordinary sculpture of a sleeping boy, curled up under a blanket that''s too small.

The Buried City reconstructs the catastrophe that destroyed Pompeii on 24 August 79 CE, but it also offers a behind-the-scenes tour of the city as it was before: who lived here, what mattered to them, and what happened in their final hours. It offers us a vivid sense of Pompeii''s continuing relevance, and proves that ancient history is much closer to us than we think.

Review quote:
''This is not just the best book on Pompeii I''ve ever read - it''s the best book on the glorious realities of archaeology itself. Gabriel Zuchtriegel will surely inspire a whole new generation in the field with his blend of knowledge, experience and boundless passion. It has left me panting to revisit Pompeii with the new, excited eyes that this magnificent book has given me.''
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''Zuchtriegel makes the familiar magical. He challenges us to transform our relationship with the past, and shows us a new, far more satisfying, way to think about Pompeii and its people.''
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A brilliant account of the latest discoveries at Pompeii and a deeply personal celebration of the inherent fascination of antiquity.
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Fantastic! Hugely informative, clever, thoughtful and playful
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A thoughtful, revelatory and above all deeply human account of life - and death - by the director of the most awe-inspiring archaeological site on the planet. Zuchtriegel describes the realities of his profession with such honesty and verve.
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An exceptionally moving and thought provoking book, it reads as a conversation with the past, and leads you to reflect on how that conversation changes with each generation. The Buried City is a deeply moving examination of the lives of ordinary people in Pompeii through the extraordinary objects discovered there, it is also a beautiful reflection on what Pompeii can tell us about ourselves.
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A brilliant book. A learned guide to life in Pompeii... deftly weaving the ancient with the modern. Fascinating, affable and constantly illuminating.
Review quote:
''This is not just the best book on Pompeii I''ve ever read - it''s the best book on the glorious realities of archaeology itself. Gabriel Zuchtriegel will surely inspire a whole new generation in the field with his blend of knowledge, experience and boundless passion. For this reader ... well, it has left me panting to revisit Pompeii with the new, excited eyes that this magnificent book has given me.''
Review quote:
''Zuchtriegel makes the familiar magical. He challenges us to transform our relationship with the past, and shows us a new, far more satisfying, way to think about Pompeii and its people.''
Review quote:
Fantastic! Hugely informative, clever, thoughtful and playful (like al