Virgil's Golden Egg And Other Neapolitan Miracles

Neapolitans are considered the cleverest, most imaginative, most romantic, and the most entertaining people in Italy. The world's finest men's fashions, Italy's most celebrated popular songs and plays, and a high proportion of popular and operatic singers are all from Naples. Past Italian literary awards portray an amazingly high proportion of Neapolitans receiving the greatest honours.Neapolitan creativity survived centuries of foreign occupation, widespread misery, the end of its role as a great capital city, repeated natural catastrophes, and terrible epidemics. What accounts for the creativity of Naples? The sorcerer Virgil is said to have created a Golden Egg, inside a crystal sphere, to save Naples from natural catastrophe. The egg, locked in an iron cage, was buried beneath a castle-still known as the Egg Castle -to maintain stability and to give eternal life to Naples. Michael A. Ledeen suggests some other surprising answers in a highly original exploration of Neapolitan life and death that ranges from religion to organized crime, war, and violence. Review: -Ledeen, a former consultant to the US National Security Council and the Defense Department Channels his enthusiasm for the city of Naples into a unique meditation on the origins of its creativity. His exploration touches on the city's roots, history, religion, myths, Mafia ties, customs, and finally destiny, culminating in an exuberant celebration of its rich culture.- --Book News -The essential thing to grasp, as Ledeen makes clear with his lively prose and encyclopedic knowledge of Neapolitan anecdote, is that Naples is not Italian at all... Ledeen argues that the fact of its continuous habitation means that Naples is almost a microcosm of European history; a unique record of a place that has received the marks of every passing political and cultural current without ever having been completely conquered by any.- --Richard Fernandez, pjmedia.com Ledeen, a former consultant to the US National Security Council and the Defense Department Channels his enthusiasm for the city of Naples into a unique meditation on the origins of its creativity. His exploration touches on the city's roots, history, religion, myths, Mafia ties, customs, and finally destiny, culminating in an exuberant celebration of its rich culture. --Book News The essential thing to grasp, as Ledeen makes clear with his lively prose and encyclopedic knowledge of Neapolitan anecdote, is that Naples is not Italian at all... Ledeen argues that the fact of its continuous habitation means that Naples is almost a microcosm of European history; a unique record of a place that has received the marks of every passing political and cultural current without ever having been completely conquered by any. --Richard Fernandez, pjmedia.com Ledeen, a former consultant to the US National Security Council and the Defense Department Channels his enthusiasm for the city of Naples into a unique meditation on the origins of its creativity. His exploration touches on the city's roots, history, religion, myths, Mafia ties, customs, and finally destiny, culminating in an exuberant celebration of its rich culture. --Book News The essential thing to grasp, as Ledeen makes clear with his lively prose and encyclopedic knowledge of Neapolitan anecdote, is that Naples is not Italian at all... Ledeen argues that the fact of its continuous habitation means that Naples is almost a microcosm of European history; a unique record of a place that has received the marks of every passing political and cultural current without ever having been completely conquered by any. --Richard Fernandez, pjmedia.com