Ento 17th Century Decadence Il Seic

The The last Manzonians and some close imitators of the French were issuing a few scarcely read novels when the dispute about "realism" aroused attention and stimu lated writers. Zola's claim of having lighted a new lamp was not questioned; yet Italian literature in every age has shown a direct ob servation of life. What more realistic than some passages in Dante, Boccaccio and Ariosto? Except for the first few imitations from the French, Italian realism,— or •naturalism,* as they call it, developed in a purely Italian man ner. Individualism is the keynote of the Italian character, and is reflected in that mirror of ciety, fiction. Love, to the Italian, is the effect of physical sensation, though this often afteti war4:1 develops into a sentiment. In Rovetta's novel

Giovanni Verga and Luigi Capuana were the first champions of the realistic Italian novel. Verga's representations of simple semi-civilized Sicily are truly Italian. De Roberto, a follower of Verga, has traced an historic picture of Sicilian life. Matilde Serao, after attempting the sentimental novel and the Zolian methods of observation, has successfully blended these two fictional elements in 'Sum- Giovanna della Croce.' Enrico Butti has given remarkable studies of the modern conscience. Antonio Fogazzaro's novels are an honor to Italy, they unite realistic observation and spiritual insight. Gerolamo Rovetta faithfully represents a so ciety lacking in noble ideals; his characters are as often sordid as wicked. Salvatore Farina is optimistic, Grazia Deledda feelingly describes her own Sardinia, and De Amicis presents familiar scenes of soldier life and street-car episodes.

In the beginning of the 20th century D'Annunzio occupies the first position among Italian writers. He is the most widely read and the most imitated, and he has made incursions into almost every form of literary composition. In his lyric poetry bright images and harmonious rhythm partly conceal the cold ness; adopting Greek elements in his tragedies, a vague theory of heredity replaces classic fatality, and the undaunted will is substituted for heroic virtue. But D'Annunzio the com plex, refined, egoist and sceptic, cannot grasp the grandiose simplicity of antiquity,— the transcendental self-abnegation which is the finality of tragic art. The pathos of Mila di Codrio, the sentiment of even the devotion of Maria Versa are tainted with artifi ciality.

The immorality and cruel individualism of D'Annunzio are less repugnant when read in his novels than when spoken in his plays. is a prose poem to the goddess Aphrodite. Trionfo della Morte' is D'Annunzio's greatest novel. What reintegra tion of life in symbols, what evocations of beauty! Yet what emptiness! What half troths! Half-truths presented with beauty, harmony and volu/'ti in gorgeous golden pictures. Le Vergini delle Rocce> is dream stuff, impersonations of virtues; the castle, the landscape, the glory of spring-blossoming, the symphony of water, the grandeur of majestic hills,. the splendor• of sunsets! It is a new species of literary composition. is also a dream of beauty. Venice has never been sung with complete comprehension of her seduction. D'Annunzio is the apostle of the pagan interpretation of life and beauty. He satisfies the Italian craving, for elegance of style and purity of language. But he gives a false Impression of life; he generalizes from accidentals; though he is keenly alive to the lesser sensations, he is ignorant of the majesty of the human soul, and his glittering phrases contain no solution of life's great problems.

Satisfactory criticism by the Anglo-Saxon of Italian literature is difficult, the viewpoints, both moral and aesthetic, being so different. In the Italian _psychology there is much latent paganism, This• is evidenced in the persistence of classicism in literature; it accounts for the popularity of D'Anminizio. In Italy it is often asserted that the national literary development tends toward a return to Cinquecento ideals, the ideal of the artist careful only for the pre cepts of his own art. But since no nation does ever return to a previous state, and since those predominant factors of modern literature, the novel and the drama,, must inevitably reflect the nation's life and be occupied with the themes which appeal to 'the national conscience, Italian literature will doubtless give increas ing attention to social and economic conditions and the relations of the individual to society. Writers on these subjects will seek for a philosophy of life and emphasize rather the emotion of ideas "-an the emotion of sentiment. For others, like Fogazzaro, the soul of man Will be the arena of suprenie strife, and the law of the soul, the relentless despotism of Conscience, the subject of supreme interest; While still others, of the D'Annunzio school, will insist on the °humanise ideal of "Art for Art's sake," and find in Joy, Art and Beauty, the °fullness of life," and the subjects for litera ture.