Vittorini, Elio

Vittorini, Elio (ĕ`lyō vēt-tōrē`nē), 1908–66, Italian novelist, b. Syracuse, Sicily. Between 1934 and 1941 Vittorini translated the works of D. H. Lawrence, Poe, Faulkner, Hemingway, T. S. Eliot, W. H. Auden, and others. His first novel, In Sicily (1938, tr. 1949), caused his imprisonment by the Fascist government. Vittorini's works, among them The Twilight of the Elephant (1947, tr. 1951) and The Red Carnation (1948, tr. 1952), make a serious attempt to assess the Fascist experience. His later works include The Dark and the Light (1956, tr. 1961); Diario in pubblico (1957), essays; and Le città nel mondo (1969).

Bibliography

See D. Heiney, Three Italian Novelists (1968).

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Vittorini, Elio

(born July 23, 1908, Syracuse, Sicily, Italy—died Feb. 13, 1966, Milan) Italian novelist, translator, and critic. He left school at age 17 and later learned English while working as a proofreader. He became, with Cesare Pavese, a pioneer in translating the works of U.S. and English writers into Italian. His novels of Neorealism mirror Italy's experience of fascism and the social, political, and spiritual agonies of the 20th century. Conversation in Sicily (1941), which clearly expresses his antifascist feelings, is his most important novel.