Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Nov 11, 2007

Karschtl rated it:

I'm not that much into historical novels, there are only some exceptions. For example I hugely enjoed Rutherfurds "London". I also like to read about real historical events sometimes, that's why I picked up Pompeii. Very fascinating how much power nature has. Just imagine a fountain of rock and ashes that is shot into the sky and several miles high!!!!

The (for the most part) fictional story is interesting, imaginable und enthralling to some extend. It's also informative. An More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Dec 25, 2010

Isidore added it

A sort of novelized amalgamation of some of Pliny the Younger's letters with a bit of Frontinus' "Aqueducts" and parts of Vitruvius thrown in. This book tells the story of the last days of Pompeii (as did another book entitled appropriately enough "The Last Days of Pompeii" by Edward Bulwer-Lytton).

In his take Harris paints the well known volcanic events as a sort of mystery that must be solved by a young aquarius (aqueduct engineer) named Attilius. Attilius must More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 10, 2008

Reinhold rated it:

Natürlich geht es bei Pompeji letztlich um den wohl bekanntesten Vulkanausbruch der Menschheitsgeschichte, bei dem der Vesuv im Jahr 79 n. Chr. ebendiese Stadt vollkommen unter Asche und Lava begrub. Dennoch geht Harris einen sehr interessanten Weg und lässt eine Handlung entstehen, in der zunächst der Ausbruch des Vulkans nur in Vorzeichen angedeutet wird. Die meiste Energie geht stattdessen in die Erzählung über einen Aquarius (den Bauer und Pfleger von Aquädukten), der sich darum kümmern soll More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 28, 2010

Bettie rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

11 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 19, 2008

melydia rated it:

I'm not usually much for historical fiction, but I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It is the well-known story of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, but told from a slightly different perspective: the engineer of the aqueduct, dealing with a drought, a pipe blockage, and strange smells of sulfur in the water. In addition to the science (which I found fascinating - Roman technology was amazing), there is plenty of personal and political intrigue to keep the plot rolling along. This fun little book made More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 19, 2011

Sam rated it:

The waters have stopped flowing from the aquedect - who you gonna call? Dambusters! The water engineer heads out amid widespread corruption in Pompeii, thwarts a murder plot, finds out what happened to his predecessor, falls in love, and investigates the ominous rumbling from the nearby Vesuvius.

Sounds good no? Harris is good at building up the air of menace in the days preceding the eruption. Every action can be looked at as minor compared to the devastation coming and he really do More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 26, 2008

Bruce rated it:

Think you have pressure at work? Consider Marcus Attilius Primus. He just received an important promotion from Rome. The young engineer is now the Aquarius, in charge of the immense aqueduct serving the entire bay of Naples. His predecessor has mysteriously disappeared. His workers are surly. The water supply is interrupted. And then he gets on the wrong side of one of the richest men around, a cruel former slave, the behind-the-scenes political boss of Pompeii. Of course, he does have a very be More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Feb 24, 2008

Imogen rated it:

I really liked the begining of this book and read half of it in one day hiding just below my desk at school. The opening isn't quite what you expect from a novel about a volcano but gave a really interesting insite in to life t the time as well as the worings of the rather genius roman aqueducts which i really didn't know much about. But a day later I found myself picking up a different book (never a good thing, I'm aweful at finishing one book before starting another). Pompeii just got left to More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 27, 2008

Neil rated it:

It should be a Two-For-One: A suspense novel to take to the beach; and some insight into life in the Roman Empire and the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. (And maybe a small tutorial in primitive plumbing.) Unfortunately, it turns into an 0-For-One.

The plot is serviceable. Marcus Attilius Primus is an engineer newly in charge of the section of aqueduct that services Pompeii. He investigates the mysterious failure of the water supply and along the way, discovers that his predecessor was More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 17, 2007

Lily rated it:

I read this book after doing the archaeological excavation at Pompeii and found it to be very realistic in it's portrayal of life in the city before the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. This book is centered around a geologist and hydraulic engineer that are researching they mystery of why the water in Pompeii isn't flowing like it should. I would definitely recommend this book for anyone that has visited the ruins of Pompeii or the Roman Empire or is interested in the day to day life of peo More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 03, 2011

Moray added it

Many of the observations made by Robert Harris of a bustling first century Roman society could be applied to the modern day. The characters could also be transplanted: the hero Attilius is a civil engineer and an idealistic civil servant who is immune from corruption; the villain Ampliatus is a dodgy property developer; his feisty daughter, Corelia, hates what he stands for. Real historical figures are brought to life: Pliny the Elder, who died during the eruption of Vesuvius, and his nephew More...

0 comments like

Jan 07, 2009

LeAnn rated it:

I'd rather give this a 3.5 (along with his other novel, Imperium), but I respect the level of research Mr. Harris engaged in as well as his adequate storytelling, so I'm happy to round up.

The main character (whose name escapes me now -- Marcus, I think) is rather a stereotypical Roman, stoic and upright. He is an aquarius, an aqueduct engineer who arrives in Misenum, a coastal town not far from Pompeii, just days before the volcano erupts. The last aquarius has disappeared and someon More...

0 comments like

Sep 18, 2011

Nikki rated it:

After a day in Pompeii -- my mother claims I walked through every single house: not true, some are inaccessible -- I heard people on the platform of the Circumvesuviana local train talking about this book. I was being fussy about everything else I was reading, so I grabbed this on the Kindle store and kicked back with it (once we eventually got back to Rome, anyway; I read The Map of Time on the Eurostar).

It's a quick read, and reasonably accurate to the interpretations of what happene More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 01, 2011

procrastin8or rated it:

Harris is best known for modern thrillers, amongst them the acclaimed Fatherland so Pompeii is a bit of a departure from his comfort zone.

I would guess that the story needs no introduction. It is a scorching summer evening in Pompeii and a natural disaster that will capture the imagination until the present day is just around the corner. The volcano Vesuvius will bury the town and several others under mountains of ash.

But before that happens, Harris wants to tell us a tale of More...

0 comments like

Jun 09, 2011

Jeruen rated it:

I am glad that I picked up this book. Not that this is one of the best books that I have read, but it was interesting nonetheless.

This novel is about an aquatic engineer, Marcus Attilius, who was in charge of maintaining the aqueduct that ran through the Roman province of Campania. This is the province where the cities of Neapolis, Herculaneum, and Pompeii are located. The novel takes place in four days, culminating in the eruption of the famous volcano, Vesuvius.

Attilius fir More...

0 comments like

Apr 26, 2011

Amanda rated it:

Pompeii is a novel set in 79 C.E., and opens two days before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. But while it is a sort of retelling of that eruption and its consequences, the eruption is not its main focus, and it contains plenty of suspense, mystery, and a decent plot. The main character, Marcus Atilius, is an aquarius, or hydrollic engineer, in charge of the Aqua August aqueduct which supplies water to Pompeii and it's surrounding towns. Atilius is sent down from Rome to find out why there is a More...

0 comments like

Feb 28, 2011

Elsje rated it:

Het verhaal
Het verhaal begint twee dagen voor de Grote Eruptie van de Vesuvius in 79 AD. Niemand heeft nog enig vermoeden welke ramp hen binnenkort zal treffen. De ingenieur die verantwoordelijk is voor het aquaduct dat de baai rond Neapolis voedt, waaraan ook Pompeii ligt, is verdwenen en dus wordt de jonge Marcus Attilius door Rome gezonden om hem op te volgen. Al snel blijkt dat er heel wat aan de hand is. Niet alleen is er ineens een grote storing in het aquaduct waardoor de plaatsen ro More...

0 comments like

Sep 12, 2010

Elizabeth rated it:

The Google summary is excellent. The book is chock full of helpful history. The protagonist Harris has created has to inspect and repair the Roman aqueduct system and there are tons of details about this system. I'd gotten interested in early Greek indoor plumbing and sewage systems when I visited Knossos on Crete in October 2001. I have noticed such things ever since and wondered why later European societies did not build upon Minoan/Greek/Roman technology.

Another development in More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 06, 2009

Jeremy rated it:

Robert Harris is one of my all time favourite writers and has never failed to impress me. Well, Ghost took a while to get used to as it departs a little from the usual genre of which Pompeii is an all time classic example. Okay, so I am a bit biased as the hero in this book is an engineer and a water engineer at that. In this book Robert Harris brilliantly describes the days up to the eruption of Vesuvius illustrating it with excerpts from scientific texts which analysed the eruption and then li More...

0 comments like

May 07, 2009

Patrick rated it:

Earth goes boom! Again!

I wasn’t sure I could take another disaster novel, yet, who can resist anything to do with Pompeii? I’ve read other books and watched Discovery, National Geographic and History Channel episodes. It’s a compelling story—with a weirdly happy ending. Albeit a couple thousand years later. Happy ending? Well, hell . . . we now have a magnificent tourist attraction and Roman Theme Park rivaling only the current tours of Atlantis (if you don’t know where that one is, More...

0 comments like

Apr 19, 2009

Rick rated it:

This is the first of two novels that Harris has set in Ancient Rome. He is a successful writer of thrillers, at least two of which have been made into movies (Enigma and Fatherland) and very good at his trade, if Pompeii is any indication. In Pompeii the readers know what the novel’s characters do not: Mount Vesuvius is going to explode and ruin everything long before the significance of the disappearance of the aquarius of the Augusta Aqueduct will result in a public scandal that could ruin pol More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 11, 2009

Nancy (Hrdcovers) rated it:

POMPEII.....BEFORE AND AFTER

After visiting Pompeii, on a recent trip to Rome, I was eager to read something about that fateful day in August,79 AD, when Mt. Vesuvius erupted suffocating an entire city with ash and rocks. If you've been to Pompeii, you've probably left there with an eerie feeling and a desire to learn more. This was the impetus in my searching out some historical fiction surrounding this event and Robert Harris' book looked like it might be the right one for me.
More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 01, 2011

Harmonybites rated it:

It's obvious to me that Harris did his homework--even before I got to a list of his sources in his Acknowledgments at the end of the novel.

He picked an interesting character to carry most of the story, or at least someone in an interesting position to see signs of impending doom. Marcus Attilius is an "aquarius"--an engineer in charge of maintaining the Aqueduct that feeds water into the area of the Bay of Naples--which includes Pompeii. The last man holding his position sud More...

0 comments like

Jan 24, 2012

Randy rated it:

Robert Harris's novel, Pompeii, is set during the two days prior the destruction of Pompeii. It would have been easy for Harris to fixate on the eroticism of Pompeii but instead his plot centers around the all too prevalent themes of political corruption, nepotism, and jealousy. Attilius, a Roman engineer , is charged with finding out why the waters to several towns near Pompeii have stopped running. As the water stoppage is spreading, Mt. Vesuvius is entering its final stages prior to its cata More...

6 comments like

Jan 10, 2011

Karen rated it:

A more appropriate title for this book would be “Amazing Roman Engineering Feats: The Aqueduct”. Don’t’ get me wrong- I think what the Roman engineers accomplished by providing running water to cities along the dry Southern Italian coast was nothing short of amazing and I did enjoy the story; however the majority of the book is about the aqueducts.

Marcus Attilius, an “Aquarius” (aqueduct engineer) is sent from Rome to Misenum because their region’s Aquarius is missing. What he finds More...

0 comments like

Dec 02, 2011

Graham rated it:

A tremendous book, one of my reads of the year (a difficult thing, considering how many good books I've encountered recently) and one of the finest historicals I've ever read. Harris turns out to be an eminently readable author who has a way of making dry facts and figures interesting, as the text is interspersed with engaging descriptions that do nothing to slow the breakneck narrative down.

The reason that POMPEII is such a good read is that it works without the volcanic eruption - More...

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 25, 2011

Ed rated it:

Enjoyable page-turner with vivid characters and a likeable (though not always plausible) protagonist. As I began reading this book I was prepared to say that historical novels would probably become my new 'thing.' I really liked the period detail (though I'm in no position to judge its accuracy, Harris clearly did some homework and really brought the Roman Bay of Naples alive) and it made the book compelling in a way that one set in 21st Century New York City will never (ever) be.

The More...

5 comments like

Dec 03, 2010

Megan rated it:

This is an amazingly researched book about Pompeii and it's surrounding cities, set two days before the famous eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. The protagonist is engineer Attilius, newly in charge of the Aqua Augusta (the aqueduct that brings water to the landlocked cities in the Bay of Naples). I can't remember the figures but this aqueduct was remarkably efficient and kept something like hundreds of thousands of people hydrated over miles and miles of dry earth. I never thought I could be so fascina More...

0 comments like

Apr 23, 2009

Mike rated it:

This is entertaining historic fiction built around the trouble-shooting efforts of Marcus Attilius, aquarius (ie hydrologist in today's language), who discovers strange goings on in the magnificently engineered Aqua Augusta. Marcus takes the job held by a now disappeared predecessor. More alarming to him, and intriquing to the reader, are the natural phenomena that begin to upset the aquaduct, most tellingly on the slopes of Vesuvius. Robert Harris has so deeply researched his subject, yet so a More...

0 comments like

Jan 07, 2008

Rosianna rated it:

Absolutely fantastic, and entirely unputdownable. At first you're unsure what kind of route Harris is going to take on Vesuvius' eruption as it opens with talk of aqueducts and engineers, but in the space of a few hundred pages, he recreates the bay of Naples vividly and realistically, so you really do feel get an idea of the timescale and the emotions, all built in to this great read.

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

reviews