The Volcano Lover

This year does not look promising for compiling a year-end wrap-up of the best books I read, since it took me well over two months to finish Susan Sontag' s The Volcano Lover.

Not that it is a boring book, because it isn't at all, but it is very dense. And not the sort of book you can use to read a few chapters in before drifting off to sleep. No, this is a wide-awake, must pay strict attention to it book.

Superficially about the love triangle of Sir William Hamilton , Emma Hamilton, and Admiral Horatio Nelson, the book's main theme is a discussion of collecting and the temperaments required to be collectors.

It is a wide-ranging and intriguing work, made more so as it is historical. When I finished it, I had to go and check out biographies of Nelson to see pictures of him, and Emma. She was a great beauty in her day, being the muse of many painters including George Romney.

My favorite parts are the early chapters dealing with Sir William's first wife, and her romantic involvement via music with her young admirer, William. It was sheer poetry.

And the final chapters of the book are wonderful, recapping the story through the first-person recollections of several characters, a change from from the previous chapters told by the omnipresent narrator.

I do recommend this book, but only if you have a vast amount of time and attention to give it. But you will be rewarded for your patience.