{"product_id":"2940013157965","title":"CRITICAL STUDIES","description":"CONTENTS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI. GABRIELE D'ANNUNZIO\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eII. GEORGES DARIEN\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIII. THE ITALIAN NOVELS OF MARION CRAWFORD\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIV. LE SECRET DU PRÉCEPTEUR\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eV. L'IMPÉRIEUSE BONTÉ\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eVI. WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eVII. JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eVIII. UNWRITTEN LITERARY LAWS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIX. AUBERON HERBERT\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eX. THE UGLINESS OF MODERN LIFE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eXI. THE QUALITY OF MERCY\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eXII. THE DECADENCE OF LATIN RACES\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eXIII. ALMA VENIESIA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCRITICAL STUDIES\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGABRIELE D'ANNUNZIO\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the world of letters the name of Gabriele d'Annunzio is now famous.\u003cbr\u003eThere is no cultured society which does not know something at least of\u003cbr\u003ethe author of the _Innocente_ and the _Trionfo_, and is not aware that,\u003cbr\u003ein him, one of the ablest and most delicate of living critics believes\u003cbr\u003ethat he has seen the personification of a renascence of Latin genius.\u003cbr\u003eImprisoned as his novels were in the limits of a language which, however\u003cbr\u003egreat its beauty, is but little known except in its own land, he has\u003cbr\u003ebeen extraordinarily fortunate in finding such sponsors in the outside\u003cbr\u003eworld as he has obtained in M. Herelle, in René Doumic, and in the\u003cbr\u003eVicomte de Vogüé. Never has any romance been so admirably heralded as\u003cbr\u003ethe _Trionfo_ in the _Révue des Deux Mondes_, and never certainly, since\u003cbr\u003elyre was strung or laurels were woven, was any praise ever heard so\u003cbr\u003edulcet and so lavish as that with which he, who has been called the\u003cbr\u003esecond Chateaubriand, has welcomed and introduced the new Boccaccio.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe grace and beauty of the style of the Vicomte de Vogüé, and the\u003cbr\u003eculture of his intelligence, have gained him in literature this name of\u003cbr\u003ethe second Chateaubriand. They are both incontestable. But they are apt\u003cbr\u003eto lead his readers away from the consideration of the value of his\u003cbr\u003eliterary judgments. He is a critic of exquisite delicacy and fineness,\u003cbr\u003ebut also of great enthusiasms, and these enthusiasms are at times much\u003cbr\u003estronger than his judgment and overpower it. What he admires he admires\u003cbr\u003e_toto corde_, and is apt to lose in this generous ardour his power of\u003cbr\u003eselection, his accuracy of appraisement.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis fact has been always conspicuous in all his writings on Pasteur,\u003cbr\u003eand it has been equally conspicuous in the unmeasured idolatry with\u003cbr\u003ewhich he has dipped his pen in all the honey of Hymettus to sing the\u003cbr\u003epraises of the man he loves. But this adoption of D'Annunzio into French\u003cbr\u003eliterature has, with its incontestable advantages, equal penalties and\u003cbr\u003edisadvantages for the author; for one reader outside Italy who will read\u003cbr\u003ehim in the original text, ten thousand will know him only in the French\u003cbr\u003eversion, and twenty thousand will accept De Vogüé's description of his\u003cbr\u003eworks without attempting to judge those for themselves. In the French\u003cbr\u003eversion the romances gain in certain points; their excessive detail is\u003cbr\u003eabridged, their crudities are softened down, their wearisome analyses\u003cbr\u003eand too frequent obscenities are omitted. The translations of M. Herelle\u003cbr\u003eare, as all must know, admirable in grace and elegance, but, though as\u003cbr\u003eperfect as translations which are guilty of continual excisions can be,\u003cbr\u003ethey fail to render the genius of D'Annunzio as it is to be seen and\u003cbr\u003efelt by those who read the works in the original tongue. In the French\u003cbr\u003eversion they are much milder, much more tempered, much less unbridled,\u003cbr\u003eand much less cynically nude; but they are also much less vigorous,\u003cbr\u003evirile, impassioned, and furiously scornful. Many fine passages have\u003cbr\u003ebeen esteemed _longueurs_, and have been omitted altogether, and entire\u003cbr\u003echapters have been sacrificed to the exigencies of taste or of space.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the French edition of the _Trionfo_, nearly the whole book, entitled\u003cbr\u003e_La Vita Nuova_, containing the pilgrimage to Casalbordino is omitted.\u003cbr\u003eBut without perusal of this marvellous reproduction of a scene of\u003cbr\u003eItalian fanaticism and frenzy, and of similar portions of his works, it\u003cbr\u003eis impossible to estimate fully the real D'Annunzio, and judge of his\u003cbr\u003emagnificent powers of observation and description, as well as of his\u003cbr\u003eincessant search for what is loathsome, his cruel exultation in his\u003cbr\u003eexamination of physical diseases and moral leprosies.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI know not why this pilgrimage was rejected, for it is not more indecent\u003cbr\u003ethan other portions of the book, and it is singularly true to certain\u003cbr\u003ephases of Italian life, in which all the Paganism bred in the blood and\u003cbr\u003ebone of the people is displayed, mixed with the ferocity of Christian\u003cbr\u003ebigotry. Let me here translate the opening of it:--","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47147504402672,"sku":"2940013157965","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013157965_p0.jpg?v=1763577609","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013157965","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}