Gradiva: A Pompeiian Fancy (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Gradiva: A Pompeiian Fancy<br><br>Where had she walked thus and whither was she going? Doctor Norbert Hanold docent of archaeology really found in the relief nothing noteworthy for his science. It was not a plastic production of great art of the antique times but was essentially a Roman genre production and he could not explain what quality in it had aroused his attention; he knew only that he had been attracted by something and this effect of the first view had remained unchanged since then. In order to bestow a name upon the piece of sculpture he had called it to himself Gradiva the girl splendid in walking. That was an epithet applied by the ancient poets solely to Mars Gradivus the war-god going out to battle yet to Norbert it seemed the most appropriate designation for the bearing and movement of the young girl or according to the expression of our day of the young lady for obviously she did not belong to a lower class but was the daughter of a nobleman or at any rate was of honorable family. Perhaps - her appearance brought the idea to his mind involuntarily - she might be of the family of a patrician asdile whose office was connected with the worship of Ceres and she was on her way to the temple of the goddess on some errand.<br><br>Yet it was contrary to the young archaeologist''s feeling to put her in the frame of great noisy cosmopolitan Rome. To his mind her calm quiet manner did not belong in this complex ma chine where no one heeded another but she be longed rather in a smaller place where every one knew her and stopping to glance after her said to a companion That is Gradiva - her real name Norbert could not supply - the daughter of she walks more beautifully than any other girl in our city.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases an imperfection in the original such as a blemish or missing page may be replicated in our edition. We do however repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.