SOURCE: Olster, Stacy. “Remakes, Outtakes, and Updates in Susan Sontag's The Volcano Lover.” Modern Fiction Studies 41, no. 1 (spring 1995): 117-39.

In the following essay, Olster analyzes the imagery and the romantic form of The Volcano Lover, examining the novel within the context of postmodern theories and focusing on Sontag's use of language to depict the continuity of human experiences and actions through the ages.

Our friend Sir William is well. He has lately got a piece of modernity from England which I am afraid will fatigue and exhaust him more than all the Volcanos and antiquities in the Kingdom of Naples.

—James Byres to the Bishop of Killala, 14 June 1786¹

The “piece of modernity” in question was Emma Hart, formerly Emily Hart, formerly Emy Lyon, recently arrived in Naples after having been dispatched from London by her erstwhile protector Charles Greville in an attempt to exchange the financial burdens of...