The Last Days of Pompeii was first published in three volumes in 1834 by Richard Bentley. Bulwer-Lytton was inspired by the painting The Last Days of Pompeii by the artist Karl Briullov, who had visited the site of the eruption in the 1820’s and made a series of sketches, which he used to create his final work. Bulwer-Lytton saw the painting when he visited Rome and was so struck by it that he determined to write a novel on the subject. The author centres the narrative on events leading up to the volcanic eruption, in which he contrasts different religious beliefs and cultures. Bulwer-Lytton admitted that he mixed the creative with the historical in order to satisfy the public interest in the classical Roman lifestyle. He focused in particular on the opulence or grandeur of the time period, which he believed appealed to Victorian readers. He pays meticulous attention to detail in attempting to render the specifics of the classical world, while also clearly romanticising elements of the work to create a more attractive and interesting canvas for his contemporary audience.
The narrative focuses on the Athenian nobleman Glaucus, who arrives in a busy and ostentatious town and quickly falls in love with the beautiful young Greek woman, Ione. Their potential happiness is thwarted by Ione’s cruel and manipulative former guardian Arbaces; an Egyptian sorcerer, who has already corrupted Ione’s brother by encouraging him to join the vice-laden priesthood, Iris. Glaucus rescues the slave girl Nydia from captivity and she then falls wildly in love with him. The plot then involves the murder of one of the central characters and the attempt to frame Glaucus for the crime. The novel was widely read during the nineteenth century, inspiring two theatre productions: Errico Petrella’s opera Jone in 1858 and the ambitious and grand 1887 adaptation at the Queen’s Theatre, which attempted to feature a dramatisation of the eruption of Vesuvius on stage.