Edward Bulwer-Lytton 
The Last Days of Pompeii 

‘The Last Days of Pompeii’ is a love story set in that Roman town just before the famous eruption of Mount Vesuvius buried it and most of its citizens in ash. It draws a vivid portrait of the lifestyle of the Imperial Romans, their daily baths, symposia, and gladiatorial entertainments, their religious practices and their homes while presenting a busy plot full of decadent, diabolical seducers, religious fanatics, and glutinous parasites.The novel itself tells the story of the Athenian Glaucus, his love, the beautiful Ione, and a blind flower-girl Nydia, who is secretly in love with Glaucus. Threatening the love of Glaucus and Ione is Ione’s guardian, the decadent and deceitful Egyptian Arbaces, who lusts after Ione himself. An amazing historical-fiction novel, set out in a highly elaborate exquisite language.