Pompeii’s lurid fate, together with the excavations that hinted at the way it was before Vesuvius blew, have long intrigued. But as acclaimed British historian Mary Beard observes in her informative “The Fires of Vesuvius,“ “simultaneously we know a huge amount and very little about ancient life there.“ Examining what she calls this “Pompeii paradox,“ Beard, in such separate chapters as “House and Home,“ “Earning a Living: Baker, Banker and Garum maker” and “A City Full of Gods,“ persuasively demonstrates how wishful thinking, ignorance and myth have created this confusion.