by Susan Sontag
I will not allow that I was moved by justice rather than love, for justice is also a form of love. I did know about power, I did see how this world was ruled, but I did not accept it. I wanted to set an example. I wanted not to disappoint myself. But I was afraid as well as angry, in ways I felt too powerless to admit. So I did not speak of my fears but rather of my hopes. I was afraid my anger would offend others, and they would destroy me. For all my certitude, I feared I would never be strong enough to understand what would allow me to protect myself. Sometimes I had to forget that I was a woman to accomplish the best of which I was capable. Or I would lie to myself about how complicated it is to be a woman. Thus do all women, including the author of this book. But I cannot forgive those who did not care about more than their own glory or well-being. They thought they were civilized. They were despicable. Damn them all.
By Susan Sontag
FICTION
The Benefactor
Death Kit
I, etcetera
The Way We Live Now
In America
ESSAYS
Against Interpretation
Styles of Radical Will
On Photography
Illness As Metaphor
Under the Sign of Saturn
AIDS and Its Metaphors
Where the Stress Falls
Regarding the Pain of Others
FILM SCRIPTS
Duet for Cannibals
Brother Carl
PLAY
Alice in Bed
A Susan Sontag Reader
THE VOLCANO LOVER. Copyright © 1992 by Susan Sontag. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address Picador, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
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The images reproduced in this book are, with one exception, taken from plates in Sir William Hamilton’s Campi Phlegraei, Observations on the Volcanos of the Two Sicilies. 2 Vols. Naples, 1776. Supplement, 1779. The artist was Pietro Fabris. The image here is the dedication plate in the first volume of Collection of Etruscan, Greek and Roman Antiquities from the Cabinet of Hon. Wm. Hamilton by D’Hancarville (Pierre François Hugues). 4 Vols. Naples, 1766–7.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sontag, Susan.
The volcano lover / Susan Sontag.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-312-42007-2
EAN 978-0312-42007-9
1. Nelson, Horatio Nelson, Viscount, 1758–1805—Fiction. 2. Hamilton, William, Sir, 1730–1803—Fiction. 3. Hamilton, Emma, Lady, 1765–1815—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3569.O6547V6 1992
813'.54—dc20
92-71738
First published in the United States by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
eISBN 9781466853607
First eBook edition: October 2013