There is a book that casts a long and twisted shadow over my various interests, hobbies and activities.
It is a 500-odd pages hardback tome, wrapped in a pink dust jacket, and it’s called Pleasure of Ruins, by Rose Macaulay.
It was originally published in 1953 but my copy is an integral reprint by Thames and Hudson.
I believe other abridged editions exist.
Rosa Macaulay was a prolific novelist, a woman of learning, daughter of a famous Classical scholar.
From her bio on Wikipedia I find she was related on her mother’s side with the Conybeare family – and Conybeare is a well-known name to me, as one of Macaulay’s close relations was a well-respected (if somewhat sarcastic) paleontologist.
Pleasure of Ruins is a book about… well, you can guess.
It is at the same time a travelogue, an oral history of early archaeology, and a literate overview of how ruins and remainso of the classical past have influenced and more, furnished, so to speak, literature.
The Elizabethans and Byron haunt these pages, archaeologists and assorted royalty walk the pillared halls of Thebes, explore Roman remains, travel the Middle East…
Cover of Rose Macaulay
The language of Macauley is quirky, elegant, one imagines the lady – who was 72 when she published this book – chatting with an amused smile about far off places and distant times.
I got my copy when I was still a high-school student – one of the bookstores in which I sometimes feel like I spent my youth had a Thames & Hudson month, maybe in ’86, and I skipped a few lunches to be able to buy a few titles that fascinated me – this, one of those.
Today, interested parties can download the book for free, in various formats, from the Internet Archive.
I recommend it, as you can imagine.
I said “long shadow” – I mentioned Elizabethan references, I mentioned archaeology, the East (Middle or otherwise), travel, quirkiness.
It’s strange how, in a single volume, I can trace so many of my extracurricular interests.
I can’t say they all originated here in this pink-jaketed book – but for sure this was an important way point.
Yesterday I picked the Macaulay from its shelf – it is good inspiration for my Aculeo & Amunet stories, and I felt like re-reading a few passges.
It seemed a good, thing writing a post about it.
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