Fogazzaro, Antonio

Fogazzaro, Antonio (äntô`nyō fōgät-tsä`rō), 1842–1911, Italian novelist and poet. His first work was a verse romance, Miranda (1874). Primarily concerned with moral issues, he was particularly adept at depicting character. His famous novel Malombra (1881, tr. The Woman, 1907) reveals the conflict between the spiritual and the sensual. Piccolo mondo antico (1896, tr. The Patriot, 1906) explores the synthesis of an agnostic wife's moral sense and her husband's deep religious faith; it is considered one of the great Italian novels of the 19th cent. Its sequels were Piccolo mondo moderno (1901, tr. The Sinner, 1907), Il santo (1905, tr. The Saint, 1906), and Leila (1911). Because of their sharp comments on religion and ethics, the last two novels were placed on the Vatican Index, a list of works forbidden to Roman Catholics.

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Fogazzaro, Antonio 

Born Mar. 25, 1842, in Vicenza; died there Mar. 7, 1911. Italian writer.

Fogazzaro studied law and practiced as a lawyer. His works, which were intended to appeal to his readers’ religious sensibilities, opposed the trend of verismo. Nevertheless, Fogazzaro was influenced by verismo, as well as by romanticism.

Fogazzaro’s first important work was the romantic narrative poem Miranda (1874). The spiritualist motifs typical of his work were more pronounced in the cycle of poems Valsolda (1876) and in the novels Malombra (1881), Daniele Cortis (1885), and The Poet’s Secret (1888). Fogazzaro’s attempt to synthesize religious, moral, and social concerns is evident in Daniele Cortis, in his trilogy of novels about the Maironi family consisting of The Patriot (1895), The Little Modern World (1900), and The Saint (1905), and in the novel Leila (1910). These works revealed Fogazzaro’s dissatisfaction with the social attitudes of the Italian bourgeoisie and with the viewpoint of the official Catholic Church. Fogazzaro’s novels stressed the need to renew the church and expressed his concept of a Christian socialism. As a result they were condemned by the Catholic Church, and The Saint was included in the Index Librorum Prohibitorum in 1906.

WORKS

Tutte le opere, vols. 1–15. Edited by P. Nardi. Milan, 1931–45.
In Russian translation:
Otzhivshii mirok, part 1. Translated by T. Gertsenshtein; foreword by V. M. Friche. In Poln. sobr. soch., vol. 1. Moscow, 1911.
Vera: Novelly. Moscow, 1912.
[“Novelty.”] In Ital’ianskie novelly, 1860–1914. Moscow, 1960.

REFERENCES

Lunacharskii, A. V. “Poet neokatolitsizma.” Sobr. soch., vol. 5. Moscow, 1965.
Rubtsova, G. V. Sovremennaia ital’ianskaia literatura. Leningrad, 1929.
Storia della letteratura italiana, vol. 8. [Milan, 1968.] Pages 414–26.
Ghidetti, E. Le idee e le virtú di Antonio Fogazzaro. Padua, 1974.

E. IU. SAPRYKINA