Naples: Life, Death & Miracles

by Jeff Matthews

This is volume 1 of Life, Death & Miracles--a Personal Encyclopedia, a collection of 111 separate essays, anecdotes and observations about Naples, Italy. The items cover history, music, literature, architecture, mythology, biography and general culture and traditions. They are meant to inform as well as amuse, and they range in style from the lighthearted to the serious and scholarly. The combined volumes cover everything from Driving in Naples to an Oral History of Naples in WWII, the San Carlo Theater, Greeks in southern Italy, lives of great writers and composers, the importance of dialect, etc. etc. Is the entrance to Hell really here? Was Shakespeare a Neapolitan? Why do Neapolitans call themselves Parthenopeans? These and almost any other question you can think of will be answered somewhere in these entries. The volumes are meant to provide a casual, jump-in-anywhere reading experience; yet they are well indexed and can serve as an encyclopedia or a guide. The entries have ample graphics.

ebook

First published February 25, 2012