'Il gran Pan non e morto': the vitality of D'Annunzio's irrepressible critics.(Gabriele D'Annunzio)(Critical Essay)

Never have the critical fortunes of Gabriele D'Annunzio stood at such a high point as during these past two decades, and, to judge by the numbers of new editions of his works being produced at the moment, his writings, at least in Italy, must now be selling in greater quantities than at any time in the past. More recent enthusiasts of the Aviator-Poet, students, critics, and others, have, particularly during the last five years, found themselves engulfed by a formidable spate of new publications: revised annotated versions of his novels and poems, important editions of previously unpublished letters, critical essays on widely varying aspects of his life and work, and new biographies.

That is not all; even when the student believes that the flood is fordable, the flow is consistently increased by the discovery of new and untouched material. Most recently the hundreds of letters exchanged between D'Annunzio and his mistress-housekeeper, Luisa Baccara, have been released from embargo, and have already excited the interest of Dannunzianists concerned with the period that embraced the Fiume adventure and the Vittoriale years (1919-38). But the Baccara and other collections were put into the shade some four years ago when a vast new hoard of autograph manuscripts was bought by the Italian State and deposited in Rome's Biblioteca Nazionale. These were part of the cache of manuscripts that D'Annunzio managed to rescue from his creditors at the Capponcina, the villa he rented at Settignano, when driven into exile in France in 1910. When he arrived in Paris, their sale, to Francesco Gentili, a renowned collector of books and manuscripts, helped provide the poet with the means to pay for his millionaire lifestyle in the French capital.

Gentili continued to buy, and (until the 1960s) his heirs in turn added to the manuscripts that Francesco had bought until, at Christies' auction in 1997, the Italian State, through the Ministero per i beni culturali, paid well over a million pounds sterling to acquire some 20,000 autograph manuscripts and other miscellanea. (1) The new archive almost doubles the already vast number of manuscripts at the disposal of students, in archives that range from the huge Vittoriale holdings to private collections. The great new mass of documents will present the opportunity for fresh interpretations and reappraisals of D'Annunzio's life and work, undoubtedly creating whole new workshops for the D'Annunzio industry. Against this background, and bearing in mind that D'Annunzio was arguably the most influential Italian writer during the period 1890-1938, it is sobering to reflect that since World War Two only one collection of his poetry (Alcyone), one novel (Il fuoco), (2) and a dribble of verse in minor anthologies, the most complete in 1893, (3) have made an appearance in Britain and Ireland. Furthermore, despite his influence on Italian politics and letters, which has been admitted by masters as renowned as Eugenio Montale, (4) his work rarely, if ever, figures in the honours courses of British universities, and to my knowledge only two higher degrees concerned with his work have ever been awarded in these islands.

The present article pauses on a varied selection, that includes seven of the more important publications of the past two years; a large number of studies necessarily goes unreviewed. One of the most notable of recent publications, its importance acknowledged by the award in 2000 (ex aequo) of Pescara's annual Premio D'Annunzio, comes out following some seventy years of anticipation. This is a volume of correspondence that rivals in its grandiosity the new hoards of manuscripts being rediscovered at present. Gianni Oliva's large and impressive edition of letters from D'Annunzio to his first (and arguably most important) publishers will satisfy many needs. (5) D'Annunzio carried on a correspondence with the Treves family for over forty-seven tempestuous years: Emilio Treves (head of the firm, and recipient of 400 letters) died in January 1916, Emilio's brother Giuseppe (96 letters) died in September 1904, and their nephew Guido Treves (223 letters) died in May 1932, six years before D'Annunzio. The poet's first letter, to Emilio, dates from February 1895, the final letter, to Guido, is dated 14 March 1932.

For many years critics have been forced to have recourse to second-hand quotations from D'Annunzio's letters to the Treves family, cited by their fortunate private owners, or by others with privileged access. Some critics have quoted from three incomplete typescript copies made by Mario Guabello from the originals in his possession for a time, and other letters have appeared in obscure journals. The splendid new edition, assembled by a team from Chieti University under the direction of Gianni Oliva, now allows us all to judge for ourselves what D'Annunzio actually wrote to the family, though only sporadically in certain footnotes are we given fragments of the relevant Treves reply. The biographical import of many of these letters is self-evident: many are of great significance as a source for tracing D'Annunzio's early psychological and literary-critical development. Thus, for instance, one of the most frequently quoted letters of D'Annunzio's early maturity was written to Emilio Treves, and concerned the poet's electoral campaign of 1897; in it D'Annunzio indicated his contempt for the stench of the electorate (the elections were held in August), and his own limitless ambition:

Torno ora da un giro elettorale; ed ho ancora piene le nari d'un acre odore umano. Questa impresa puo sembrare stolta ed estranea all'arte mia; ma a giudicare la mia attitudine bisogna attendere l'effetto a cui la mia volonta tende direttamente. La vittoria intanto e assicurata. Bisogna, mio caro, che il mondo si persuada ch'io sono capace di tutto. (p. 205)

The germ of the superman (not necessarily a Nietzschean Ubermensch), which was so strongly to influence Italian politics under Mussolini (with the disastrous results that this had in the rest of Europe), is clearly present here. Similar preoccupations contemporaneously find confirmation in the heroes of D'Annunzio's novels; they also lie at the basis of his political discourses (1897-1900), notably the Discorso della siepe and La bestia elettiva, as well as influencing the majestic poetry of the Laudi (1900-04).