The Triumph of Death

Gabriele D'Annunzio

jun 2021 · Graphic Arts Books

Información sobre este eBook

The Triumph of Death (1894) is a novel by Gabriele D’Annunzio. The third in a cycle of novels exploring the lives of the Italian bourgeoisie, The Triumph of Death was inspired by the author’s interpretation of the work of Friedrich Nietzsche and Walter Pater. Considered a central text of Italian Decadentism, the novel has earned comparisons to the work of Oscar Wilde and Joris-Karl Huysmans. “When she perceived a group of men leaning against the parapet and looking down into the street below, Hippolyte stopped and exclaimed: ‘What has happened?’ With a slight gesture, betraying fear, she placed her hand involuntarily on George's arm as if to restrain him. After watching the men a moment George said: ‘Someone must have leaped from off the terrace.’” After witnessing a suicide, Giorgio Aurispa leaves Rome and his lover Ippolita to return to his family in Guardigrele. Reminded of the beauty of the mountains where he was born, he is soon drawn into conflict with his father, a vain nobleman who has left his mother for a mistress and spent every last penny of their immense family fortune. Reminded of his uncle’s tragic death, overwhelmed with his responsibilities as a son, Giorgio flees the mountains for the coast, buying a home in San Vito Chietino where he attempts to pick up where he left off with Ippolita. Gloomy and paranoid, Giorgio struggles to regain his sense of beauty, the only thing in life he ever loved. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Gabriele D’Annunzio’s The Triumph of Death is a classic work of Italian literature reimagined for modern readers.

Acerca del autor

Gabriele D’Annunzio (1863-1938) was an Italian poet, playwright, soldier, and political figure. Born in Pescara, Abruzzo, D’Annunzio was the son of the mayor, a wealthy landowner. He published his first book of poems at sixteen, launching his career as a leading Italian artist of his time. In 1891, he published his first novel, A Child of Pleasure, followed by Giovanni Episcopo (1891) and L’innocente (1892), which earned him a reputation among leading European critics as a member of the Italian avant-garde. By the end of the nineteenth century, he turned his efforts to writing for the stage with such tragedies as La Gioconda (1899) and Francesca da Rimini (1902). Radicalized during the First World War, D’Annunzio used his experience as a decorated fighter pilot to spread his increasingly nationalist ideology. In 1919, he spearheaded the takeover of the city of Fiume, which had been ceded at the Paris Peace Conference. As the leader of the Italian Regency of Carnaro, he sought to establish an independent authoritarian state and to support other separatist movements around the globe, but was forced to surrender to Italy in December 1920. Despite his failure, D’Annunzio inspired Mussolini’s National Fascist Party, which built on the violent tactics and corporatist system advocated by the poet and his allies. Toward the end of his life, D’Annunzio was named Prince of Montenevoso by King Victor Emmanuel III and served as the president of the Royal Academy of Italy.