Vesuvian Quest is a literary preservation project with a special interest in literature about Pompeii. Ever since the city was rediscovered in the 1700s, writers have been inspired to tell stories about it. The most famous novel to spring from this initial “Pompeiimania” was Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s novel The Last Days of Pompeii in 1834, but there have been many others before and since.
Today, we might explore Pompeii through Robert Harris’ novel Pompeii or Elodie Harper’s The Wolf Den trilogy. From Doctor Who: The Fires of Pompeii to Loki and beyond, Pompeii remains firmly in the public imagination as new discoveries – and new stories – are happening every year.
This website hopes to provide a catalogue of fictional works which take place in Pompeii, focusing on public domain/pre-1950s works. For modern works, check my Goodreads collection for an attempt at a comprehensive list. I also plan to scan a few books from my own collection and add these to Archive.org.
Where to Start?
- A big list of notable Pompeii works can be found here, which includes modern titles.
- I am building up a database of pre-1950s works including background info and where to read them. You can view this by title or by year.
- For modern works, look at my Goodreads collection where you can sort 400+ Pompeii books by publication date. I am working on tagging entries according to tropes, language, etc. There is likely a bias towards English works, as these are easier for me to find.
Some Fun Facts…
- Varney the Vampire, the first literary vampire to have pointed fangs, met his end by throwing himself into Mount Vesuvius
- The author of The Last Days of Pompeii also wrote the famous first line, “It was a dark and stormy night” for which the Bulwer-Lytton writing competition was named
- There are at least 9 books titled In the Shadow of Vesuvius, which include a Victorian mystery, a children’s time travel story, a biography of the two Plinys and a book about Naples’ football team
- The first novel to ever feature a time travel machine (El Anacronópete) included a visit to Pompeii
- There is a children’s book about a Roman inventor called Vesuvius Poovius, but this is his name and the story does not include Pompeii
- Doctor Who: The Fires of Pompeii wasn’t the Doctor’s first trip to Pompeii; he also visited in 2000 audio drama Doctor Who: The Fires of Vulcan (the stories do not contradict each other, so we can imagine Sylvester McCoy is always just out of sight during the TV episode!)
