Editing Gabriele D'Annunzio (section)

== Literature ==
[[File:Nunes Vais, Mario (1856-1932) - Gabriele D'Annunzio sdraiato mentre legge.jpg|thumb|D'Annunzio reading in a photo by Mario Nunes Vais]]
At the height of his success, D'Annunzio was celebrated for the originality, power and decadence of his writing. Although his work had immense impact across Europe, and influenced generations of Italian writers, his ''fin de siècle'' works are now little known, and his literary reputation has always been clouded by nationalistic ideals, and he had his strong detractors. A ''[[New York Times]]'' review in 1898 of his novel ''The Intruder'' referred to him as "evil", "entirely selfish and corrupt".<ref>{{cite news|title=D'Annunzio.; Books That Prove Him to Be Entirely Selfish and Corrupt|work=The New York Times|date=5 March 1898|page=RBA145}}</ref> Three weeks into its December 1901 run at the Teatro Constanzi in Rome, his tragedy ''[[Francesca da Rimini (play)|Francesca da Rimini]]'' was banned by the censor on grounds of morality.<ref>{{cite news|title=D'Annunzio's Tragedy Prohibited by Censor.; Further Performances of Francesca da Rimini at Rome Forbidden on Moral Grounds|work=The New York Times|date=31 December 1901|page=5}}</ref>

A prolific writer, D'Annunzio's novels in Italian include {{lang|it|Il piacere}} (''The Child of Pleasure'', 1889), {{lang|it|Il trionfo della morte}} (''The Triumph of Death'', 1894), and {{lang|it|Le vergini delle rocce}} (''The Maidens of the Rocks'', 1896). He wrote the screenplay to the feature film ''[[Cabiria]]'' (1914) based on episodes from the [[Second Punic War]]. D'Annunzio's literary creations were strongly influenced by the French [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolist]] school, and contain episodes of striking violence and depictions of abnormal mental states interspersed with gorgeously imagined scenes. One of D'Annunzio's most significant novels, scandalous in its day, is ''Il fuoco'' (''The Flame of Life'') of 1900, in which he portrays himself as the [[Nietzsche]]an Superman (''[[Übermensch]]'') Stelio Effrena, in a fictionalized account of his love affair with [[Eleonora Duse]]. His short stories showed the influence of [[Guy de Maupassant]]. He was also associated with the Italian noblewoman [[Luisa Casati]], an influence on his novels and one of his mistresses.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}

[[File:Gabriele d&#039;Annunzio-L&#039;armata d&#039;Italia-Carabba-1916.png|thumb|D'Annunzio's book ''L'armata d'Italia'', published by Carabba in 1916]]
The 1911 ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' wrote of him:{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}
<blockquote>The work of d' Annunzio, although by many of the younger generation injudiciously and extravagantly admired, is almost the most important literary work given to Italy since the days when the great classics welded her varying dialects into a fixed language. The psychological inspiration of his novels has come to him from many sources—French, Russian, Scandinavian, German—and in much of his earlier work there is little fundamental originality.<p>His creative power is intense and searching, but narrow and personal; his heroes and heroines are little more than one same type monotonously facing a different problem at a different phase of life. But the faultlessness of his style and the wealth of his language have been approached by none of his contemporaries, whom his genius has somewhat paralysed. In his later work [meaning as of 1911], when he begins drawing his inspiration from the traditions of bygone Italy in her glorious centuries, a current of real life seems to run through the veins of his personages. And the lasting merit of D'Annunzio, his real value to the literature of his country, consists precisely in that he opened up the closed mine of its former life as a source of inspiration for the present and of hope for the future, and created a language, neither pompous nor vulgar, drawn from every source and district suited to the requirements of modern thought, yet absolutely classical, borrowed from none, and, independently of the thought it may be used to express, a thing of intrinsic beauty. As his sight became clearer and his purpose strengthened, as exaggerations, affectations, and moods dropped away from his conceptions, his work became more and more typical Latin work, upheld by the ideal of an Italian Renaissance.</p></blockquote>

In Italy, some of D'Annunzio's poetic works remain popular, most notably his poem ''La pioggia nel pineto'' ("The Rain in the Pinewood"), which exemplifies his linguistic virtuosity as well as the sensuousness of his poetry. His work was part of the [[Art competitions at the 1912 Summer Olympics#Literature|literature event]] in the [[Art competitions at the 1912 Summer Olympics|art competition]] at the [[1912 Summer Olympics]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/920848 |title=Gabriele D'Annunzio |work=Olympedia |access-date=22 July 2020}}</ref>