A few weeks ago I read The Volcano Lover by Susan Sontag as part of a course I am doing on historical fiction and I was absolutely captivated by it. I had the distinct advantage of not knowing when I began that this was really the story of the love affair between Nelson and Emma Hamilton, and not knowing much about the history of their affair either. It meant that this part of the book crept up on me, once I was already engrossed in the story of the ‘volcano lover’ of the title – the Cavaliere, Sir William Hamilton, ambassador to the court of Naples.
The book begins in Naples of the 1760s and follows a small cast of characters over the next 40 years as the modern age begins and as the consequences of the Napoleonic wars and the French Revolution are felt. The Cavaliere is a collector, obsessed with the volcano Vesuvius that looms large over the city and its people, as well as collecting rare antiquities, art and anything else of value that takes his fancy. I enjoyed being immersed in his world and watching the interaction between him, his devoted first wife Catherine and the royal court. Emma Hamilton then appears, eventually becoming his second wife, and is a fascinating character long before Nelson turns up in Naples and changes all of their lives. The fact that Emma is referred to throughout as ‘the Cavaliere’s wife’ and Nelson as simply ‘the hero’ means that they somehow don’t overpower the story.
Reading up on how Susan Sontag had researched the book, it was really interesting to hear her explain that the initial spark of the story was the psychology of the collector, and that she had found the book almost hijacked by Emma Hamilton and the love triangle that develops between herself, Nelson and the Cavaliere.
It is told very much from a modern perspective, and is deliberately written with the benefit of hindsight, with the narrator looming large. Sontag describes in interviews she gave about the book that a lot of the detail ‘came in from the present’. For instance, she based some of her scenes on contemporary news stories, so that massacres in the Neopolitan revolution are taken directly from descriptions in the New York Times of the Nicaraguan revolution taking place as Sontag was writing the book.
I found it really interesting to learn about how the book was written, having first really enjoyed reading it. I was particularly struck by Sontag’s description of writing, looking things up as she went along, and doing a lot of fact checking at the end, rather than embarking on an intense period of ‘research’ at the beginning. As with all great historical fiction this means that history is a fascinating backdrop but does not get in the way of the story being told.
I’m really glad this was on a reading list for my course, as I doubt I would have come across it otherwise. I would have missed out on a great read.
