Antonio Fogazzaro (; 25 March 1842 – 7 March 1911) was an Italian

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...

and proponent of

Liberal Catholicism Liberal Catholicism was a current of thought within the Catholic Church. It was influential in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th, especially in France. It is largely identified with French political theorists such as Felicité ...

. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature seven times.

Biography

Fogazzaro was born in

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region at the northern base of the ''Monte Berico'', where it straddles the Bacchiglione River. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and east of Milan. Vicenza is a thr ...

to a wealthy family. In 1864 he obtained a law degree in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

. He then moved to

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

where he followed the ''

scapigliatura ''Scapigliatura'' () is the name of an artistic movement that developed in Italy after the Risorgimento period (1815–71). The movement included poets, writers, musicians, painters and sculptors. The term Scapigliatura is the Italian equivalent of ...

'' movement. In 1869 he was back in Vicenza to work as lawyer, but he left this line of work very soon to be a full-time novelist. He began his literary career with ''Miranda'', a poetical romance (1874), followed in 1876 by ''Valsolda'', which, republished in 1886 with considerable additions, constitutes perhaps his principal claim as a poet. His novels, ''Malombra'' (1882), ''Daniele Cortis'' (1887), ''Misterio del Poeta'' (1888), obtained considerable literary success upon their first publication, but did not gain universal popularity until they were discovered and taken up by French critics in 1896. In Fogazzaro's work there is a constant conflict between sense of duty and passions, faith and reason. In some cases this brings the tormented soul of characters into mystic experiences. His most popular novel, ''Piccolo Mondo Antico'' (variously titled in English as ''The Patriot'' or ''

The Little World of the Past ''The Little World of the Past'' (Italian:''Piccolo mondo antico'') is an 1895 novel by the Italian writer Antonio Fogazzaro. It was the author's most successful work, considered to be his "masterpiece". Fogazzaro finished the first draft in 1884, ...

''). The novel is set in the 1850s in

Valsolda Valsolda is a ''comune'' (municipality) of about 1,400 inhabitants in the Province of Como in the Italian region Lombardy on the border with Switzerland. It is located about north of Milan, about north of Como and east of Lugano. Valsolda (''Va ...

, a small community on the shores of Lake Lugano where he spent most of his life. ''Piccolo Mondo Antico'' has delightful evocations of the landscape, and strong characterizations which reveal the inner psychological turmoil of the characters. Fogazzaro toured Italy proposing to reconcile Darwin's theory of evolution with Christianity. He found new interpretations in positivist and evolutionist theories. The

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

banned his novels ''Il Santo'' (1905) in April 1906 and ''Leila'' (1910) in May 1911. He died in 1911 in his birthplace,

Works

Novels

* '' Malombra'' (1881) * ''

Daniele Cortis ''Daniele Cortis'' (also known as ''Elena'') is a 1947 Italian drama film directed by Mario Soldati and starring Vittorio Gassman, Sarah Churchill and Gino Cervi. The film (set in nineteenth-century Italy) follows the impossible love affair bet ...

'' (1885) * ''Il mistero del poeta'' (''

The Mystery of the Poet ''The Mystery of the Poet'' (Italian:''Il mistero del poeta'') is an 1888 novel by the Italian writer Antonio Fogazzaro. It is a melodramatic story of the romance between a poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may de ...

'', 1888) * ''Piccolo mondo antico'' (''

'',

1895 Events January–March * January 5 – Dreyfus affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his army rank, and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island. * January 12 – The National Trust for Places of Histor ...

) * ''Piccolo mondo moderno'' (''The Man of the World'',

1901 Events January * January 1 – The British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia federate as the Commonwealth of Australia; Edmund Barton becomes the first Prime Minist ...

)
''The Poet's Mystery: A Novel''
(1903) * '' Il Santo'' (''The Saint'', 1905)
''The Woman''
(1907)
''The Politician''
(1908) * ''Leila'' (1910)

Other works

* '' Miranda'' (1874, verse romance) * ''

'' (1876, lyrics collection) * ''Fedele'' (1887, short story collection) * * ''L'origine dell'uomo e il sentimento religioso'' (1893, speech) * ''Discorsi'' (1898, essays) * ''Scienza e dolore'' (''Science and Suffering'', 1898, essay) * ''Il dolore nell'arte'' (''Suffering in Art'',

, essay) * ''Scene'' (1903, plays). * ''The Trilogy of Rome'' (1907) * ''Tales from the Italian and Spanish'' (1920)

Notes

* Corrigan, Beatrice (1961). "Antonio Fogazzaro and Wilkie Collins," ''Comparative Literature,'' Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 39–51. * Crawford, Virginia M. (1899)
"Antonio Fogazzaro."
In: ''Studies in Foreign Literature.'' Boston: L.C. Page & Company, pp. 219–247. * Egerton, Ruth (1911)
"Fogazzaro's Last Romance: 'Leila',"
''The North American Review,'' Vol. 193, No. 665, pp. 508–514. * Hall, Robert A. (1965). "Fogazzaro's Maironi Tetralogy," ''Italica,'' Vol. 42, No. 2, pp. 248–259. * Hall, Robert A. (1978). ''Antonio Fogazzaro.'' Boston: Twayne Publishers. * Kennard, Joseph Spencer (1906)
"Antonio Fogazzaro."
In: ''Italian Romance Writers.'' New York: Brentano's, pp. 215–248. * King, Bolton & Thomas Okey (1913)
"Literature."
In: ''Italy Today.'' New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, pp. 322–352. * Kuhns, Oscar (1904)
"The Nineteenth Century."
In: ''The Great Poets of Italy.'' Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Company, pp. 284–342. * Laphan, L.E. (1906–07)
"Fogazzaro and his Trilogy,"Part IIPart III
''The Catholic World,'' Vol. 84, pp. 240–250, 381–387, 462–476. * MacMahon, Anita (1911)
"Antonio Fogazzaro: The Man and his Work, 1842–1911
" ''The Catholic World,'' Vol. 93, pp. 516–527. * Portier, Lucienne (1937)
''Antonio Fogazzaro.''
Paris: Boivin et Cie. * Reid, Harriet (1906)
"Antonio Fogazzaro,"
''The Living Age,'' Vol. 251, pp. 139–145. * Rose, William J. (1912)
"Antonio Fogazzaro,"
''The University Magazine,'' Vol. XI, pp. 92–103. * Rumor, Sebastiano (1896)
''Antonio Fogazzaro.''
Milano: Casa Editrice Galli. * Sharp, William (1912)
"Italian Poets of Today."
In: ''Studies and Appreciations.'' New York: Duffield & Company, pp. 337–393. * Thayer, William Roscoe (1908)
"Fogazzaro and his Masterpiece."
In: ''Italica: Studies in Italian Life and Letters.'' Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Company, pp. 1–27.

External links

* *
Works by Antonio Fogazzaro
at

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