Set in 18th century Naples, based on the lives of Sir William Hamilton, his celebrated wife Emma, and Lord Nelson, and peopled with many of the great figures of the day, this unconventional, bestselling historical romance from the National Book Award-winning author of In America touches on themes of sex and revolution, the fate of nature, art and the collector's obsessions, and, above all, love. Susan Sontag became a cultural figure upon the publication of her pathbreaking collection of essays Against Interpretation in 1966. She went on to write four novels, including In America , which won the National Book Award for Fiction, as well as a collection of stories, several plays, and seven subsequent works of nonfiction, among them On Photography , Illness as Metaphor , and Regarding the Pain of Others . Her many international honors included the Jerusalem Prize in 2001 and the Friedenspreis (Peace Prize) of the German Book Trade in 2003. She died in New York City on December 28, 2004. Originally published in 1992 to widespread critical acclaim, The Volcano Lover: A Romance is set in the final decades of 18th-century Naples. Based on the real-life triangle of Sir William Hamilton, his wife Emma, and Lord Nelson, Sontag's novel explores such themes as fate, nature, art, and the obsessions of collectors and collecting. Indeed, this rich and intelligent narrative is "an historical tour de force. [Sontag's] tale of eighteenth-century romance and revolution is certain to charm readers who enjoy the postmodern potboilers of Umberto Eco and A. S. Byatt" ( Kirkus Reviews ). "A passionate and often radical novel of ideas that affords all the old-fashioned pleasures of a traditional historical novel."'” The New York Times " The Volcano Lover is a great novel. It repeatedly scales heights of complex thought, passion, and expression that few American writers ever approach, while reimagining a majestic love story in dazzling style."'” The Philadelphia Inquirer "A panoramic, passionately feminist examination of the changing shape of Western civilization since the Age of Enlightenment. Sontag's book is a sweeping, exquisitely detailed picture of Europe in the final decades of the eighteenth century."'” Chicago Sun-Times "Slippery, intelligent, provocative, and gripping."'” The Washington Post Book World " The Volcano Lover seems a novel Susan Sontag was destined to write, a shift from the moral intelligence of the essayist to the intelligent heart of the novelist. To her admirers, the novel will only confirm her originality, and perhaps win over a whole new set of readers. For The Volcano Lover is not just a thinking woman's (or man's) historical romance but a sly, luminously insightful, provocative novel."'” The Nation "A brilliant performance."'” The Chicago Tribune