D’Annunzio and His Work.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXI, Issue XVII, 24 October 1903, Page 36

D’Annunzio and His Work.

Gabriele D'Annunzio. the leader of contemporary literature in Italy, is a poet, novelist and dramatist. He is enthusiast i<*ally praised and a» extravagant l\ condemned by the critics. His work is that of an idealist in .ove with the beautiful: the poet and interpreter of all that appeals to the senses. Ilv i> proclaimed a genius, a new star of the first magnitude in the literary tii manient. He ha- wonderful vividness in imagination ami a felicity in expressing the subtle and intangible: but he is unhealthful in his whole moral atmosphere. as shown in his work. in his

daring, his conception of life and his almost deifying of all that ministers to the delight of the senses. His work igreat in plan ami construction, and mastery in the handling of material.- 1 : but thi- exterior of beauty merely hides the white sepulchre of his morbidness and his degrading of all that is purest, sweetest and truest in life. He seems to b’elieve that art. like charity, can cover a multitude of sins. He wa> born in Pescara, on the Adriatic coast- and is still in his thirties. His first book, a collection of poems, was so daring that it seemed the work of one who had taken all the post-graduate courses in the school of 1 fe and experience—seeing all that is evil eclipsing all

that is good- rather than the work of a precocious boy of fifteen. These, quickly followed by other poems, won for him his place as the leader of presentday poets in Italy, and some even credit him with producing the greatest work since Dante. His play si. “L* (it tn ALortrt-"* ‘ f Li Giocondo,” “La Gloria.” “Francesca di Rimini,” and a few others in which Duse has starred, contain splendid lines and exquisite passages with magnificent possibilities; but they have the stupefying effect of some beautiful flower with a deadly perfume. D'Annunzio’s first novel. “Piacere,” appeared in 1886. “L’lnnocent” in 1891. ‘‘Trionfo della Morte” three years later