BOOK REVIEW, IL PIACERE (PLEASURE), A NOVEL BY GABRIELE D'ANNUZIO
Today I will review Il piacere (Pleasure), a novel by Gabriele D'Annuzio (1863 -1938), an Italian writer who held an important position in Italian literature in late 19th and early 20th century. Gabriele D'Annuzio was a controversial figure and is seen by some as a forerunner to Fascism. Personally, I don't see the point in avoiding authors that are deemed controversial if their writing can be useful or educating. I sometimes feel like today we are living in Fahrenheit 451 society, where people are just looking for excuses not to read. Not that I would recommend this novel to everyone, mind you. I imagine that many a modern reader will probably struggle to understand the historical context of this novel. Historical and classical novels usually take an acquired taste and that is even more true when we speak of works that fall into Symbolism, Aestheticism, Gothic or Decadent literary category. Like The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, this is a novel that s...