Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 137.djvu/78

72 == A QUARTETTE OF ITALIAN NOVELISTS. ==

is a favourite complaint in this country, a complaint which has assumed almost the shape of an axiom, that there is no such thing as a modern Italian literature; and since for some years past the study of that liquid language has grown unfashionable, for reasons only known to the fickle goddess of fashion, no contradictions have been put forth against a dictum that is both narrow-minded and erroneous. For while we who in this country still learn the language of the

"'bel paese dove il si suona,'"

are set to cut our linguistic teeth upon the classics, Petrarch, Dante, Ariosto; or are supplied, in the shape of lighter literature, with the equally classic romances of Manzoni, D'Azeglio, Grossi, – there has arisen with the unity of Italy, and the new hope, power, strength, that legitimate freedom and emancipation from the hateful Austrian yoke has given to the Italians, a virile and vigorous new school of writers, poets, dramatists, critics, novelists, whose very names are unknown in our country. It is therefore high time that we revised our views; and for this purpose we propose to introduce our readers to four novelists, who are, each in his sphere, the leading writers of modern Italy.

In making our selection, we have chiefly sought to find a representative of every school. From our dealing only with these four it must by no means be inferred that modern Italy does not own other writers as excellent in their way. Such a supposition would do great injustice to authors like Barrili, the prolific, the easy, amiable, versatile raconteur, who spins forth romances treating of the prehistoric lake-dweller and the gilded youth of modern Genoa, the Queen of Sheba and Roman drawing-rooms; to Enrico Castelnuovo, the graceful writer of short humorous scenes from everyday life; to Capuana, the unflinching, powerful, at times even brutal realist; to De Amicis, the traveller, the laudator of military life and the virtues of the house of Savoy; to Rovetta, whose 'Mater Dolorosa,' a tale of modern life, has secured him at one bound a foremost place; to Camillo Boïto, with his short strong studies that blend modern realism with bygone romanticism; to Caccianiga, the writer of tendency romances that protest against the current Radical inclination in Italian politics; to D'Anmmzio, the hot-passioned Neapolitan; to De Zerbi, to Petruccelli della Gattina, to De Renzis, and others too many to enumerate. Nor must we forget the ladies who are taking so honourable a place in current literature, where, beside the two of whom we shall speak, G. Pierantonio Mancini, Bruno Sperani, Emma Perodi, Ida Baccini, have made their mark.

The reason why novel-writing, in the modern sense, has been later to blossom in Italy than in other cultured European States, must be sought in yet one other cause beside the political, and that is, the nature of the Italian written language, which was not that spoken of the people, and was therefore ill adapted as a vehicle in which to convey a record of their doings. It is, indeed, only quite recently, with the unity of Italy, the introduction