Deledda, Grazia

Deledda, Grazia (grä`tsēä dālĕd`dä), 1875–1936, Italian novelist, b. Sardinia. Her first work, a collection of short stories, was published when she was 19. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1926. Deledda's work is lyric and in part naturalistic, and combines sympathy and humor with occasional touches of violence. Her novels include Dopo il divorzio (1902, tr. After the Divorce, 1905), Elias Portolú (1903), Cenere (1904, tr. Ashes, 1908), Canne al vento [reeds in the wind] (1913), La Madre (1920, tr. The Mother, 1922), and La Fuga in Egitto [flight into Egypt] (1925).

---

Deledda, Grazia

(born Sept. 27, 1871, Nuoro, Sardinia, Italy—died Aug. 15, 1936, Rome) Italian novelist. She wrote her first stories, influenced by the verismo (“realism”) school, at age 17. In her approximately 40 novels, including After the Divorce (1902), Elias Portolu (1903), and Ashes (1904), the ancient ways of her native Sardinia often conflict with modern mores. Her later novel The Mother (1920) and the posthumously published autobiographical novel Cosima (1937) were widely admired. She received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926.