"A passionate and often radical novel of ideas that affords all the old-fashioned pleasures of a traditional historical novel."--The New York Times
"A great novel. It repeatedly scales heights of complex thought, passion, and expression that few American writers ever approach, while reimagining a majestic love story in dazzling style."--Philadelphia Inquirer
"A panoramic, passionately feminist examination of the changing shape of Western civilization since the Age of Enlightenment. Sontag's book is a sweeping, exquisitely detailed picture of Europe in the final decades of the eighteenth century."--Chicago Sun-Times
"A slippery, intelligent, provocative, and gripping book."--The Washington Post Book World
"A novel Susan Sontag was destined to write, a shift from the moral intelligence of the essayist to the intelligent heart of the novelist. To her admirers, the novel will only confirm her originality, and perhaps win over a whole new set of readers. For The Volcano Lover is not just a thinking woman's (or man's) historical romance but a sly, luminously insightful, provocative novel."--The Nation
"A brilliant performance."--Chicago Tribune
"An historical tour de force. This tale of eighteenth-century romance and revolution is certain to charm readers who enjoy the postmodern potboilers of Umberto Eco and A. S. Byatt."--Kirkus Review
