ble Faun of the 1850’s. This randomngame of historical hopscotch makes itnall but impossible for even the educatednreader to see development in ournnation’s response to Rome.nTopics and personalities are scatterednthroughout the two volumes.nCole’s The Course of Empire is discussednin two separate chapters, andnwe get to see only three of the fivenpaintings. Margaret Fuller’s and NathanielnHawthorne’s very characteristicnreactions to Rome are found separatednin many chapters in both volumes.nVance returns to Hawthorne’s MarblenFaun and his Italian Notebooks againnand again, with many insightful comments,nbut the discussions are so scatterednwe never end up with a feelingnfor Hawthorne’s vision of the city.nIn a rather good, chapter on changingnAmerican attitudes toward BaroquenRome, Vance tells us that the 19thncentury ignored the Trevi Fountain.nChapter 16 of The Marble Faun,nhowever, mentions that during the daynthe piazza was “thronged with . . .nForestieri [foreigners], who came hithernto see the famous fountain.” Thenpassage is important for understandingnan intelligent American’s confused attitudentoward the Baroque. At first,nHawthorne condemns “the absurd designnof the fountain, where somensculptor of Bernini’s school had gonenabsolutely mad, in marble.” The nextnLIBERAL ARTSnRAINFOREST CRUNCHnThe Amazon rain forest contains anwealth of marketable nuts, roots, fruits,npigments, and oils, says Jason Clay, thenresearch director of a Boston-based organizationncalled Cultural Survival. Byncreating a market for these items. Claynand other environmentalists hope tondiscourage the timber industry andnranchers from further deforesting thenregion while making the rain forest economicallynproductive.nClay predicts that a dozen productsnbased on ingredients from the BraziliannAmazon will enter the U.S. market bynthe end of this year. He says we shouldnbe prepared for such items as assaiflavorednsherbet, cupuacu yogurt, baba-n44/CHRONICLESnparagraph begins a careful descriptionnof the fountain by noting, “after all, itnwas as magnificent a piece of work asnever human skill contrived.” An importantnscene in The Marble Faunninvolves a very positive evaluation ofnGuido Reni’s Archangel’ MichaelnTrampling Satan Underfoot. Vancennotes that the last century admirednGuido while we do not, but nevernsuggests reasons for the change.nThe omission is unfortunate becausenVance’s discussions of paintingnare usually excellent. He is less goodnon sculpture and is very disappointingnon the most important sculptor whontried to make Rome’s traditions relevantnfor great American art, AugustusnSaint-Gaudens. The important Diananwhich stood atop Stanford White’snMadison Square Garden is called “anmonumental weathervane,” and therenis no discussion of the Shaw Memorial,nthe most important version of the reliefsnon the Arch of Titus in modernntimes, and now known to all viewers ofnthe movie Glory.nIt is unfortunate but not at all surprisingnin a work of American scholarshipnthat Vance’s knowledge of Latin isnnonexistent. He mistranscribes, therebynmaking nonsense out of the inscriptionnon top of the Arch of Titus, whichnis his first illustration, and a full-pagenone at that. He mistranslates the title ofnGerome’s Ave Caesar morituri te sa-ncu oil, patchouli-root soap, copaibanshampoo, and priprioca perfume.nClay has also created a nonprofitntrading group called the Rainforest MarketingnProject, whose leading client isnCommunity Products Inc. of Montpelier,nVermont. Community Products producesna Brazilian-nut candy called RainforestnCrunch, which will become thenbasis of a new cookie that will go on salenat Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s later thisnyear. Vermont-based Ben & Jerry’snHomemade Ice Cream Inc. is also buyingnthe candy in bulk for their newestnice-cream flavor. Rainforest Crunch.n”It’s a moral reason to munch,” said Benn& Jerry’s founder Ben Cohen.nnnlutant. The Americans who came tonRome and were influenced by it in then19th century knew Latin. Of course,nHowells and Mark Twain seem morensympathetic in their mockery. Theynshare the author’s ignorance of Livynand Vergil.nNearly a full page is devoted tonHoward Fast’s novel Spartacus. Thenwords “Marxist,” “Communist,” andn”Stalinist” never pass Vance’s lips, butnwe are told that the book contains “itsnown vision of a puritanical Utopiannfuture.” I had never heard HowardnFast called a puritan before, but all isnrevealed by the bottom of the page.n”Fast asserts at one point that a societynthat finds homosexuality ‘normal’ alsonis one that finds the crucifixion of sixnthousand rebel slaves ‘normal.'” Arenwe to be spared nothing? To fit this innVance omits all reference to CharlesnFoUen McKim’s Pennsylvania Station,nAmerica’s most important work ofnpublic architecture drawn from classicalninspiration (the Baths of Caracalla).nThe idea behind America’s Rome isngrandiose, a Roman idea. Its faults aren’ those of the Iron Age of the Americannuniversity in which we are living. Itsnvirtues are those of a cultured mind ofnambition and wide sympathies, and fornthem the reader who knows and lovesnRome and America will be grateful.nE. Christian Kopff teaches Greek andnLatin at the University of Colorado innBoulder.nThe She-Devilnby Katherine DaltonnLump It or Leave Itnby Florence KingnNew York: St. Martin’s Press;n181 pp., $15.95nFlorence King, a/k/a “Fascist Flossie,”n”Ku Klux King,” and “thenthinking man’s redneck,” is the authornof Southern Ladies and Gentlemen,nReflections in a Jaundiced Eye, Confessionsnof a Failed Southern Lady, andna number of other books under hernown name and several others. She isninfamous, in a South full of unreconstructednConfederate spinster ladies, asnone of the few unreconstructed Con-n