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Im Schatten des Vesuv.
Unusual book
- GenresHistory
158 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
1 person is currently reading
19 people want to read
About the author
Eilís Dillon
74 books37 followersEilís Dillon (1920-1994) was born in Galway, in the West of Ireland. Her father, Thomas Dillon, was Professor of Chemistry at University College Galway. Her mother, Geraldine Plunkett, was the sister of the poet Joseph Mary Plunkett, one of the seven signatories of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, who was executed in Kilmainham Gaol at the end of the 1916 Easter Rising.
Eilís was educated at the Ursuline Convent in Sligo, and was sent to work in the hotel and catering business in Dublin. In 1940, at the age of 20, she married a 37-year-old Corkman. Her husband, Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin, became Professor of Irish at University College Cork. Eilís had always written poetry and stories, and in the intervals of bringing up three children and running a student hostel for the university, she developed her writing into a highly successful professional career. At first she wrote children's books in Irish and English, then started to write novels and detective stories. Over twenty of her books were published by Faber and Faber, winning critical acclaim and a wide readership. Her work was translated into fourteen languages.
In the 1960s, her husband's poor health prompted early retirement and a move to Rome. He died in 1970. Eilís Dillon's large historical novel about the road to Irish independence in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Across the Bitter Sea, was published in 1973 by Hodder & Stoughton in London, and Simon & Schuster in New York. It became an instant bestseller.
In 1974 Eilís married Vivian Mercier, Professor of English in the University of Colorado at Boulder. They moved to California when Vivian was appointed to a chair in the University of California, Santa Barbara. They spent each winter in California until Vivian's retirement in 1987, returning to Ireland for the spring and summer.
Eilís Dillon was active in a number of public and cultural bodies. She served on the Arts Council, the International Commission for English in the Liturgy, the Irish Writers' Union and the Irish Writers' Centre. She was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and a member of Aosdána, the State academy of writers, artists and composers. She had long argued for the establishment of such a body.
Vivian's death in 1989 was followed by the death in 1990 of Eilís's daughter Máire, who was a violinist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Despite these blows, and her own declining health, Eilís kept writing until the last months of her own life. An honorary doctorate was conferred on her by University College Cork in 1992. Her last two published works were Children of Bach (1993), a children's novel set in Hungary at the time of the Holocaust, and her edition of Vivian Mercier's posthumous Modern Irish Literature: Sources and Founders (Oxford, 1994). Her scholarly work on this book meant that her own last novel remained unfinished.
Eilís Dillon died on 19 July 1994. Of her fifty books, ten are now in print and others will shortly be republished. A special prize, the Eilís Dillon Award, is given each year as part of the Bisto Book Awards. She herself had won the main Bisto Book of the Year award in 1989 with The Island of Ghosts.
Eilís was educated at the Ursuline Convent in Sligo, and was sent to work in the hotel and catering business in Dublin. In 1940, at the age of 20, she married a 37-year-old Corkman. Her husband, Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin, became Professor of Irish at University College Cork. Eilís had always written poetry and stories, and in the intervals of bringing up three children and running a student hostel for the university, she developed her writing into a highly successful professional career. At first she wrote children's books in Irish and English, then started to write novels and detective stories. Over twenty of her books were published by Faber and Faber, winning critical acclaim and a wide readership. Her work was translated into fourteen languages.
In the 1960s, her husband's poor health prompted early retirement and a move to Rome. He died in 1970. Eilís Dillon's large historical novel about the road to Irish independence in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Across the Bitter Sea, was published in 1973 by Hodder & Stoughton in London, and Simon & Schuster in New York. It became an instant bestseller.
In 1974 Eilís married Vivian Mercier, Professor of English in the University of Colorado at Boulder. They moved to California when Vivian was appointed to a chair in the University of California, Santa Barbara. They spent each winter in California until Vivian's retirement in 1987, returning to Ireland for the spring and summer.
Eilís Dillon was active in a number of public and cultural bodies. She served on the Arts Council, the International Commission for English in the Liturgy, the Irish Writers' Union and the Irish Writers' Centre. She was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and a member of Aosdána, the State academy of writers, artists and composers. She had long argued for the establishment of such a body.
Vivian's death in 1989 was followed by the death in 1990 of Eilís's daughter Máire, who was a violinist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Despite these blows, and her own declining health, Eilís kept writing until the last months of her own life. An honorary doctorate was conferred on her by University College Cork in 1992. Her last two published works were Children of Bach (1993), a children's novel set in Hungary at the time of the Holocaust, and her edition of Vivian Mercier's posthumous Modern Irish Literature: Sources and Founders (Oxford, 1994). Her scholarly work on this book meant that her own last novel remained unfinished.
Eilís Dillon died on 19 July 1994. Of her fifty books, ten are now in print and others will shortly be republished. A special prize, the Eilís Dillon Award, is given each year as part of the Bisto Book Awards. She herself had won the main Bisto Book of the Year award in 1989 with The Island of Ghosts.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 14, 2025
Where did this short paperback come from? I don't like the start, but, it gets good. Wrong cover. Well golly.
July 20, 2023
Ein römischer Maler begibt sich zwecks eines Auftrages mit seinem jungen griechischen Sklaven in die Stadt Pompeji. Der junge Mann lernt einen Piraten kennen und sie beginnen eine Flucht zu planen. Die Pläne werden aber immer umfassender und immer mehr Menschen sollen aus der Stadt gebracht werden. Währenddessen braut sich die historisch bekannte Naturkatastrophe zusammen.
Das Buch empfand ich nicht sehr herausragend geschrieben und es blieb alles eher sehr platt. Es ist ohne Anstrengung rasch lesbar und natürlich wartet man schon auf das große Natur-Finale. Das blieb aber auch leider sehr blass.
Das Buch empfand ich nicht sehr herausragend geschrieben und es blieb alles eher sehr platt. Es ist ohne Anstrengung rasch lesbar und natürlich wartet man schon auf das große Natur-Finale. Das blieb aber auch leider sehr blass.
July 26, 2022
I got this when looking for "In the Shadow of Vesuvius" by Barbara Ker Wilson. Both are about young slaves escaping Pompei just in time when Vesuvius erupted. I don't like this one as much. There is more "plot" in the sense of escaping in a complicated way rather than just running down into the harbor and getting on a boat. But I like the characters in the other book better.
July 27, 2023
Habs nicht zu Ende gelesen :/
April 10, 2025
Library copy
Read this years ago, and was a little sad I weeded this one, but it was in very bad shape.
Read this years ago, and was a little sad I weeded this one, but it was in very bad shape.
May 11, 2012
A Greek boy named Timon is a slave to a moderately well known Roman painter who receives a commission in the town of Vesuvius. A series of events unfold that give him the chance to escape, if he would want. However, he is relatively fond of his master, and has fallen for a local Roman girl. The plot is interesting enough it compels the reader even though the end of the book is apparent for everyone that knows their history. A great young adult fiction set in ancient Rome.
August 28, 2010
Terrific YA historical fiction, about a Greek boy who's been sold into slavery and finds himself in scruffy Pompeii, where he and his master, an elderly painter, meet an assortment of odd characters. Over them, while some of them plot escape for reasons unrelated to natural disaster, looms this pretty mountain.
If anybody is thinking "used bookstore," I'd sure like a copy of this.
If anybody is thinking "used bookstore," I'd sure like a copy of this.
October 19, 2009
good book
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews