The great Italian masterpiece of sensuality & seduction, published in a new English translation
- the first since the Victorian era
- that puts the sex back in Pleasure. Like Oscar Wilde`s Dorian Gray, Andrea Sperelli lives his life as a work of art, seeking beauty & flouting the rules of morality & social interaction along the way. In his aristocratic circles in Rome, he is a serial seducer. But there are two women who command his special regard: the beautiful young widow Elena, & the pure, virgin-like Maria. In Andrea`s pursuit of the exalted heights of extreme pleasure, he plays them against each other, spinning a sadistic web of lust & deceit. Gabriele D` Annunzio was born in Italy in 1863. He published poetry & short stories from a young age, quickly gaining a reputation for his frank treatment of erotic subjects. He married in 1883 & had three children, but separated from his wife & began an infamous affair with the actress Elonora Duse. After stints as a journalist & politician, he enlisted as a fighter pilot in World War I, subsequently losing an eye in a flying accident. He became increasingly nationalistic & politically active after the war, & his views had a strong influence on Mussolini. In 1922 he survived a murder attempt, when an unknown assailant defenestrated him. He died in 1938. Lara Gochin Raffaelli is a senior lecturer at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Alexander Stille is a frequent contributor on Italy to The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, & The New Yorker & the author of several books, including The Sack of Rome. He lives in New York.