Gabriele d'Annunzio

Starred review from May 20, 2013
The Italian modernist writer and demagogue embodies some of the most dynamic—and sinister—impulses of the early 20th century, according to this dazzling biography. Historian and critic Hughes-Hallett (Cleopatra: Histories, Dreams, and Distortions) delves into D’Annunzio’s lurid contradictions: he was a brilliant, scandalous literary celebrity whose works embraced medieval archaisms and machine-age futurism; a ruthless seducer of women; an avowed Nietzschean superman and an effeminate voluptuary who loved fashion, furnishings, and flowers; and a blood-thirsty militarist who helped propel Italy into World War I with his pro-war oratory and reveled in the carnage he witnessed at the front. The book climaxes with a captivating account of D’Annunzio’s 1919 seizure of power in the city of Fiume, a febrile episode part Summer of Love and part Nuremberg rally that pioneered the politics and aesthetics of later Fascist regimes. Hughes-Hallet tells the story through vignettes that unfold in intimate, novelistic detail; her patchwork narrative spotlights the raucously entertaining soap opera of D’Annunzio’s life, but gels into a shrewd, challenging analysis that links his sadomasochistic psyche to his pitiless ideology. The result is a resonant study of the themes of power, masculinity, violence, and desire that made D’Annunzio such a striking emblem of his age. 53 illus. & 1 map. Agent: Felicity Rubenstein, Lutyens & Rubenstein.

Starred review from June 15, 2013
A dexterous delineation of the celebrated Italian writer Gabriele D'Annunzio (1863-1938), who mastered poetry, drama, fiction, nonfiction, women and war but stumbled elsewhere. A journalist, critic, cultural historian and biographer, Hughes-Hallett (Heroes: A History of Hero Worship, 2004, etc.) crafts an appealing combination of genres, blending elements of biography, fiction, and cultural, social and military history to create about as complete an image as possible of this most protean personality. The more we read of this man's accomplishments, failures, ambitions, weaknesses and obsessions, the more remarkable it is that he can be imprisoned in print. But the author manages to simultaneously incarcerate and liberate him in her pages. She begins with a 1919 military mutiny led by D'Annunzio (she returns to these events 400 pages later for a more thorough treatment): He and his followers took over and occupied the city of Fiume (now the Croatian seaport Rijeka). It didn't last. At times, the author's narrative technique resembles a photo album: She continually pauses to offer snapshots of her subject's life, career and enormous sexual appetite. Moreover, she grasps time by the throat, bends it to her purposes, often advancing thematically rather than chronologically. By the end, however, we have learned about her subject's background, his writing career (some have called him the greatest Italian writer since Dante), his war exploits (he was a fearless pilot in World War I, earning citations for bravery), his choreography with the fascists (he met several times with Mussolini), his profligacy (in every sense) and his astonishing literary productivity. Due to the volume's design, some will not find it useful as a standard reference book (we must search for dates), but most readers will delight in touring the deep, tangled wood of a most astonishing life with a most engaging and learned guide.

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Starred review from July 1, 2013
The subject of this long, busy biography kept notebooks from early on and extraordinarily faithfully. D'Annunzio (18631938) also deliberately became one of the first modern celebrities, hard on the heels of Oscar Wilde, and as such he was voluminously documented. Add his many volumes of verse, best-selling novels, and very popular plays, and he offers his chronicler an embarrassment of source material. Hughes-Hallett paints a richly detailed portrait of an eminently civilized sociopath, incapable of restraining his appetites for sex, excitement, and the most exquisite furnishings and utterly insensible to the emotional and financial damage he caused. He went through houses, furnishings, clothes, jewelry, artworks, horses, cars, and airplanes (not boatshe never could conquer seasickness) as if they were water, almost never fully paying for any of them. His mistresses were legion, and among them were some of the era's most famous performers. And then there were his one-night (or shorter) stands, all recorded, often obscenely, in his notebooks. A national chauvinist who lauded unending warfare and violence, he spearheaded the drive to get Italy into WWI and for 15 months of 191920 was the dictator of the Italian-majority Yugoslavian city, Fiume. In the process, he inspired the rising Mussolini, of whom he seldom approved but didn't criticize because Il Duce paid for every extravagance of his last 15 years. D'Annunzio is appalling but, as Hughes-Hallett presents him, completely enthralling.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)