Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma

Review
Author(s): Michele Cantarella
Review by: Michele Cantarella
Source: Books Abroad, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Apr., 1933), p. 225
Published by: Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40074155
Accessed: 21-06-2016 18:59 UTC

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 BOOKS IN ITALIAN
(For other boo\s in Italian, see "Head-Liners")
• Carlo Meucci. Casanova Finanziere:
Avventure di denaro e d'amore. Milano.
Mondadori. 1032. 25 lire. - The jolly Paduan
student with Spanish blood in his veins was
destined to lead a varied and checkered career
and leave a name for himself in history little
to be envied. The literature concerning Casa'
nova's amorous adventures fills many volumes,
but until the present work by Carlo Meucci
the side of his life as financier has been little
dwelt upon. Casanova dabbled in a dozen dif-
ferent professions, as abbot, preacher, ecclesi'
astical secretary, lawyer's clerk, merchant, co-
median and magician
the leads in Venice whence he escaped to
Paris determined to discover the magic powder
of "pirimpimpina.'' Fortune soon favored him,
and the impecunious adventurer became one
of the wealthy financiers of his time. At the
end of three years, however, "l'aquila e diven*
tata un'oca" . . .what else was to be expected
of a Casanova! The story is wittily told, but
even Meucci peppers his pages with the shady
side of the Venetian's life. - The Italian Liter*
dry Guide Service. Anacapri, Italy.
• Federico Vittore Nardelli. L'Uomo Se*
greto. Vita e Croci di Luigi Pirandello.
Milano. Mondadori. 1932. 25 lire. - In a
comparatively short time Nardelli has given
us two biographies of the most outstanding
Italian writers. The first, Gabriel, the Archan*
gel, written in collaboration with Arthur
Livingston, was published in the United
States; the second, UUomo Segreto, has just
appeared in Italian. These two subjects were
not chosen at random but because of the
dramatic contrast offered by the public and
private lives of these two great men. D'An*
nunzio, the prototype of the superman, whose
source of inspiration is love; and Pirandello,
the enigma, whose creative medium is suffer*
ing.
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The biographer has stressed the tragic side
of Pirandello's life to the almost total exclusion
of its brighter moments in order to prove that
the philosophy of the great Italian writer is
the fruit of his experience and that his char*
acters, plots and dramatic situations, far from
being cerebral and artificial have been drawn
from real life, not a few of them from the
author's own life.
Nardelli, convinced that autobiography is
an instinct in writers, ransacked Pirandello's
works for passages to confirm the involuntary
confidences and information which he had
gleaned. The effort to permit Pirandello's
works to illustrate his life causes the author
to quote too much and too often. This, and
the comments in parentheses which occur at
least once on every page, jar the reader and
distract him. On the whole, to those who do
not expect depth or scholarly dimensions this
volume will prove interesting for the informa'
tion which it imparts. - Michele Cantarella.
Smith College.
• Arturo Cronia. Lazar K. Lazarevic.
Roma. Istituto per l'Europa Orientale.
(Piccola Biblioteca Slava, No. XVIII). 1932.
5 lire. - An excellent summary of the life and
works of Lazar K. Lazarevic, one of the out'
standing writers of Serbia in the middle of
the nineteenth century. To this is added a
very satisfactory evaluation of the significance
of this novelist's work. The volume speaks
well for the growing interest in Slavonic
studies in Italy. It is also almost the only study
made of this author in any other than a
Slavonic language and as such it will be of
value to all students of the cultural life of
Serbia and the Serbs in the last century. -
Clarence A. Manning. Columbia University.
• Mario Rapisardi. Raccolta di poesie scelte
dai poemi e dalle liriche, con introduzione