On August 24th, 79 AD Vesuvius, a volcano overlooking the Bay of Naples, erupted. The surrounding towns, including Pompeii and Herculaneum, would eventually be covered in ash and preserved for centuries, rediscovered in the 19th century and still revealing new information about the ancient world today.
recommended by Classicists, historians, writers
Here are some book recommendations about the ancient Roman town of Pompeii, from our interviews with Classicists and writers and also including books for kids. (If you catch the bug and want to start reading some of the inscriptions—Pompeii is known for its ancient graffiti—you can also have a look at our interview about books for learning Latin).
For a good book about what life was like in ancient Pompeii, there’s Pompeii by Mary Beard, which won the prestigious Wolfson History Prize in 2008:
Pompeii by Robert Harris is the best thriller we’ve read about Pompeii (If you love it, Harris also wrote a trilogy about Cicero, starting with Imperium):
A 19th-century bestseller about Pompeii:
A good novel for kids about the eruption of Mt Vesuvius, part of the Roman Mysteries series:
For a guide to Pompeii that focuses on the visuals, Joanne Berry’s The Complete Pompeii is a good choice. The book does cover the history, but does so in the context of illustrations:
There are also many beautiful coffee table books about Pompeii. Most recently, Inside Pompeii by Luigi Spina, an Italian photographer, was named a best architecture/design book of 2023 in the Financial Times:
August 24, 2024
Five Books aims to keep its book recommendations and interviews up to date. If you are the interviewee and would like to update your choice of books (or even just what you say about them) please email us at [email protected]
