Publisher's Synopsis
This gripping epic poem recreates the last days of Pompeii with all the wit and humour of an erudite disaster movie. Czech poet Vladimir Janovic brings to life characters from the mosaic of the floor of the House of the Tragic Poet in the final hours before the volcano erupts and the lava flows. Vladimir Janovic writes: 'The mosaic shows a group of six young men about to enact a satyr play. I am trying to tell the story of this small theatrical company as it prepared its dramatic offering for the summer feast of the Vulcanalia, an offering intended to appease the god of fire. But we are in the year AD 79, a few days before the eruption of Vesuvius.' Translator Ewald Osers calls the poem 'a quite remarkable achievement: the accuracy of archaeological detail combined with the sensitive recreation of the characters and the atmosphere lend the work a persuasiveness and a credibility that, heightened by Janovic's powerful poetic language, grip the reader almost as if he were reading a thriller. And it is not, of course, only about the last days of Pompeii: it is about real people, about human relationships, about life and death, and about tragic poetry as one of man's ways of coping with life and death.' First published in Czech in 1984, The House of the Tragic Poet appears at the same time as a companion volume, The New Czech Poetry.
