Naples: Life, Death & Miracles vol. 1

This is volume 1 (A-D) of the second edition of the four-volume encyclopedia, Naples: Life, Death & Miracles. The entire set contains 690 separate essays, anecdotes and observations about Naples, Italy and cover history, music, literature, architecture, mythology, biography and general culture and traditions. They are meant to inform as well as amuse, and they range in style from the lighthearted to the serious and scholarly. The combined volumes cover everything from Driving in Naples to an Oral History of Naples in WWII, the San Carlo Theater, Greeks in southern Italy, lives of great writers and composers, the importance of dialect, etc. Is the entrance to Hell really here? Was Shakespeare a Neapolitan? Why do Neapolitans call themselves Parthenopeans? What is the hidden city beneath Naples, and can you really trip and fall into it? Why do they call it the Egg Castle? These and almost any other question you can think of will be answered somewhere in these entries. The volumes have ample graphics and are well indexed. The entries are in alphabetical order but can also provide a casual, jump-in-anywhere reading experience; they can serve as an encyclopedia or a guide. The entries have ample graphics.