Old Bestseller Review: The Flame of Life (Il Fuoco), by Gabriele D'Annunzio

Old Bestseller Review: The Flame of Life (Il Fuoco), by Gabriele D'Annunzio

by Rich Horton

I ran across this book at an estate sale. It is part of a series called The Foreign Classical Romances, published by P. F. Collier. I bought it assuming it would be a romance in the old sense, which is to say a tale of adventure. I also figured reading another book in translation would be a good thing.

I guess I scored one out of two on that. Il Fuoco is a novel first published in 1900, and set in 1882/1883. It is a Romance in the sense that it is part of Italy's Romantic tradition, a late, rather decadent movement in reaction to the more realist tradition led by the great Alessandro Manzoni with I Promessi Sposa (The Betrothed.) It's also a romance in a sense because it is intensely focused on the love affair of two people, Stelio Effrena, an ambitious poet; and La Foscarina, an "aging" actress. This pair are supposedly based on the affair between D'Annunzio and the brilliant actress Eleanor Duse, though of course there are plenty of differences between the novel and real life. (For example, Duse and D'Annunzio's affair was conducted between 1894 and 1910 (with D'Annunzio being unfaithful throughout) -- Duse was 36 and D'Annunzio 31 when it commenced, while La Foscarina is only 34 in 1883 when this book is set, with Stelio Effrena a few years younger -- but a ridiculous fuss is made about La Foscarina's decaying state as an "older woman".) Apparently there was a scandal of sorts when the novel appeared, for its semi-autobiographical nature was obvious, and it was widely felt that he portrayal of Duse was cruel and unfair.

I wanted to look briefly at some of the publication details of the novel. As noted, it first appeared in Italy in 1900 as Il Fuoco, literally The Fire or The Flame. The English translation came out later the same year. The American edition was from L. C. Page & Co., and the copyright was held by the publisher (as usual in that day.) The translator appears to have been "Kassandra Vivaria", a pseudonym used by Magda Stuart Sindici, an Italian woman who was married at that time to the English publisher William Heinemann. (I do not know if Heinemann (or anyone else) published a UK edition of the book.) (I should note the Project Gutenberg attributes the translation to Dora Knowlton Ranous, an American translator, primarily from the French I think. I don't know the reason for that attribution, which they date to 1907, possibly when the P. F. Collier edition was published -- but there can be little doubt that Collier used the 1900 translation.) There is, by the way, a much more recent translation, by Susan Bassnett, a scholar of both Duse and D'Annunzio, from 1991, called The Flame. In a sense, Duse has her revenge now -- she is still revered as one of the greatest actors of her time, while D'Annunzio is little read.

I'll link to this fine piece from Susan Bassnett, on translating Il Fuoco, and on D'Annunzio in general, from a 20th or 21st century perspective, to be sure, but a very fair one, and a perspective that I think sees D'Annunzio's faults and his skill pretty accurately. 

The dating of the P. F. Collier Foreign Classical Romances is an interesting (to me) question. Abebooks listings say 1900, but that's absurd, as at least one book in the series is copyrighted 1901, and the introductory material discusses books published even later -- 1905 for a novel D'Annunzio was supposedly working on that is discussed in the biographical sketch in this book. Paul di Filippo found a newspaper advertisement for the series from 1907 -- so I'd suggest the books were published in 1906 or 1907.

Gabriele D'Annunzio (1863-1938) was a major literary and political figure in Italy. From the age of 18 he was publishing short stories and poems, and later turned to novels, journalism, and eventually plays. His politics were at that time socialist, but always very nationalist. He was elected to the Council of Deputies in 1897. He became a war hero in the First World War, as a fighter pilot (he had taken a flight with Wilbur Wright as early as 1908.) His nationalist views hardened, and he briefly took over the city of Fiume in what is now Croatia, and declared himself dictator. He was allied with Mussolini and is considered a proto-Fascist, though his political views remained ambiguous. He appears to have written little or nothing after the onset of the war.

So, what to say of The Flame of Life? It's an odd bird. The writing is florid but sometimes effective. The pace is slow, and I was tempted to skip at points, especially in the beginning. The descriptions -- mostly of Venice and points nearby -- are lovely, but the grandiose artistic theorizing is a bit tedious. I will add that as with any translated literature, one should caution that some of the prose issues may not be the original writer's fault.

The story opens in September 1882, at a festival sponsored by the Queen (or Dogaressa, wife of the Doge) of Venice. The young poet Stelio Effrena is to give an address at the festival. He is accompanied by his friend La Foscarina, a famous actress who is worried that her age (all of 34!) and her history of affairs make her increasingly ineligible to be the mistress of a younger man such as Stelio (late 20s -- just a kid!) To this point she has vowed not to make their relationship sexual. They discuss Stelio's theories about his art, and his ambitions, particularly to create a new poetic/musical ballet/drama, in which Foscarina will play the lead role. He also wants to build a new theater for his drama, and he needs a singer for his work, and a dancer. He brings up the young singer Donatella Arvale, who is also performing -- and later La Foscarina introduces him to Donatella, who is going home to care for her dying father. La Foscarina then finally agrees to become Stelio's mistress.

This sets the stage for the rest of the novel. Most of the scenes concern long conversations between the two, as they, over the next few months, spend a great deal of time together, visiting various Venetian locations, such as the island of Murano, home of the glassworks (moved there centuries before because of the danger of fire) where a master glassmaker gives La Foscarina a beautiful goblet. Their discussions turn primarily on two subjects: Stelio's artistic ambitions and theories, and La Foscarina's jealousy of Donatella Arvale, with whom she is convinced Stelio wants to have an affair. Much of this is internal dialogue, especially La Foscarina's side, as she contemplates killing herself or otherwise submitting to Stelio's desire to stray. And Stelio does make it somewhat clear that he believes it is his right as a great artist to have that freedom in their relationship.

We hear, too, of La Foscarina's early life -- poverty as a child, a full-time actress from the age of 14, early subjection to the desires of men, and her theories of acting (which are kind of method-like, actually.) Much of this is actually quite closely based on Duse. There are some passages concerning Richard Wagner, as well. Stelio is given a role at Wagner's funeral, indeed -- and Wagner did die in Venice in February 1883. Part of this is thematic -- D'Annunzio was a great admirer of Wagner, but it is clear that Stelio's aim is to create a more Italian, or more Latin, art, to succeed Wagner's Teutonic work. 

The novel ends without the melodramatic events that seemed to be hinted at, instead with La Foscarina resolved to support Stelio's projects; and apparently (with pains) also ready to bear his seemingly likely affair with Donatella Arvale. D'Annunzio had planned two more novels in what would have been collectively called The Romances of the Pomegranate, but neither ever appeared, though the biographical sketch here implies that he had written the second volume, to be called The Victory of Man. This must have simply been a mistake. I suspect the other two novels might have followed Stelio's career to its triumph, and also focused on the other two women -- Donatella Arvale and, I imagine, the dancer who would also have had a role in Stelio's magnum opus. 

So what do I think? I'm glad I read it, but it's a mixed bag. It's really very sexist, and if we accept the apparent semi-autobiographical nature of it, it suggests that D'Annunzio was fairly horrible to his lovers. The prose is overdone by contemporary standards -- and I suspect also by the standards of its time -- but it hits some powerful notes. The philosophizing is a bit grandiose, and I don't buy it, but it was sometimes interesting, and a plausible representation of the character's beliefs.