1900, Gabriele D’Annunzio, The Flame of Life, L. C. Page, Boston, First English Edition

Gabriele D’Annunzio

The Romances of the Pomegranate

The Flame of Life

translated by 

Kassandra Vivaria

Published by L. C. Page & Co Boston in 1900

First English Edition, First Printing

Linen hard binding

403 + 7 + 12 pages

13 cm x 19.5 cm

General Gabriele D’Annunzio, Prince of Montenevoso OMS CMG MVM ( 1863 – 1938), was an Italian poet, playwright, orator, journalist, aristocrat, and Royal Italian Army officer during World War I. He occupied a prominent place in Italian literature from 1889 to 1910 and later political life from 1914 to 1924.

About the book: The Flame (Italian: Il Fuoco) is set in 1883 Venice and tells the story of a young artist and his mistress, a famous but quickly aging actress. The story was inspired by D’Annunzio’s relationship with the actress Eleonora Duse. The novel contains expositions of many of D’Annunzio’s theories about drama, largely inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche and Richard Wagner. The novel was published in English in 1900 as The Flame of Life. A new translation was published in 1991 as The Flame. It was conceived as the first part in a trilogy, The Romances of the Pomegranate (Romanzi del Melograno), but the two other books were never written.