Um Pouco Sobre Gabriele D'Annunzio

Curioso, há muito tempo atrás li um livrinho caindo aos pedaços de Gabriele D’Annunzio, acho que publicado pelo clube do livro, algum tempo depois fui barrado na fronteira e não pude visitar Rijeka, cidade que ele tomou de assalto logo após a I Guerra mundial. Segue um pouco mais sobre essa figura singular da literatura italiana: Perhaps to compensate for his not-so imposing physique, lack of good looks, and plebeian background, Gabriele D’Annunzio (1863-1938) embraced excess in everything he did. And he did many things: novelist, playwright, poet, aviator and sailor, a genuine war hero, a narcissist, a drug addict, a gifted rabble-rouser, debt-evader, and a noted womanizer. He was also ahead of his time, exhibiting so many of the behavioral traits not openly admired until our present day: selfishness, self-centeredness, sexual promiscuity, ostentatiousness, love of violence, and a narcissistic dictatorial bent. A master of self-publicity, he aimed to shock and dazzle Europeans with his politics, conventional and unconventional sexual gymnastics, heroic and nearly-impossible military feats, and his writing. His life was a contrast between sophisticated urban civility and a crude and violent behavior. He was seldom out of the limelight, shaping taste, societal mores, literature and, after Mussolini’s rise to power, proving an annoying competitor to the dictator for public attention.