New-York tribune., 1920-03-14
~ ABRIELE D'ANNUNzIO re-
vsals himself 60 America Is
never before through tho


which Doubleday, Page & Co. viii pub
,;sh on March co. The few works with
which English-speaking people are ia
miliar. such as "The Flame Of Life"
and sThe Triumph Of DEATH" all in
tensely autobiographical. picture to us
tho dreamer, the sensitive artist, the
noet with his studio Of art treasures
and fifty silk dressing robes.
But we did not know the flaming SOL
der poet who SO possessed tho imagi-
sation Of young Italy that he could al
most create q national crisis with q
GESTURE. These stories furnish . new
Interpretation Of him. They arc more
than autobiographical; they are pic
tures Of the life Of the province from
which be came, the Italy which pro-
duced him.
The stories are introduced by Joseph
Hergesheimer. He seized upon the dif-
ference between the Latin and Anglo
Saxon mind. differences as old as tho
racss themselves, and shows why one
must recognize these If he would ap-
prsciate the beauty Of Latin literature.
Marblehead and Pescara
Hergesheimer says, "The attitude Of
mind necessary to complete enjoy
n.nt Of the tales In this book must
first spring from the realization that,
as stories, they are as different from
cur own short imaginative fiction as
the town of Pescara, on the Adriatic
Sea, Is different from Marblehead, in
Massachusetts, It Is true that fdnda-
mentally the motives Of creative writ
ing, st least in the western hemi-
sphere, are practically everywhere
alike; they are what might be called
the primary emotions. hatred and envy,
lcve and cruelty, lust, purity and cour-
age.
But men are not 30 much united by
The deeper bonds OF common human
.ty ss they are separated by the super
fetal aspects and prejudices Of society.
TIE New England town and Pescara, at
heart very much the same, are far
apsrt in the overwhelming trivialities
Of civilization. and Signor d'Annunzio's
tales, read In local etata Of being,
might az we'll have remained untrans-
lated. But this difference. Of course,
lies II the writer, not in his material,
and Gabrielle d'Annunzio Is the special
and peculiar product of modern Italy.
"No other country, no other history
would have given birth to a genius
made up of such contending and utterly
opposed qualities. 1t is exactly as If all
the small principalities that were Italy
before the Risorgimento. all the alnaz-
Mg contradictions of stark heroics and
depraved nepotism. the fanaticism and
black blood and superstition, with the
interpretive and febrile wearinesa Of
a very old land, were bound into dan
nunzio's being"
But when one haa realized tho Latin
view point, Of which there Is no moro
vivid exponent than d'Annunzio, there
is another difference which strikes him.
This 10 a difference in method. The
English or American writer Of short
stories seizes upon q character, disen-
tangles him and his story from the
overwhelming details Of the existence
around him. isoiates him, intensifes ths
significance Of each act until his story
stands out as logically completed bit
Of life, magnifed until 1t loses all con-
nection with the vaster life Of which It
is part. But Il Is this overwhelming
reality Of lie en- masse that intrigues
d'Annunzio. The story is only one of
many !ntr1cately related parts. 1t
emsrges for q moment and Is lost again
without purpose, without beginning and
without end.
No Stirring Plots
"Thess are not stories at ALL" aays
Hergesh elm er, ain tho sense of an in
d!vidual coherent action with the STIR
ring properties Of plot. The interest
10 not cunningly seized upon and stimu-
lated and bat1ed up to satisfactory
finale. The formula that constitutes
the base Of practically every applauded
story here-A determination opposed to
hopeless odds but invariably triumphant
is not only missing from Tales OF
My Native Town. in the majority OF
cases it Is controverted. For the great
sr part man 10 the victim Of inimical
powers, both within him and about.
and fate, ora rather circumstances, 10 too
heavy for the defiance Of any indi-
udual.
what, actually. has happened is
that d'Annunzio has not disentangled
these coherent fragments from the
mass Of life. He has not lifted his
tales into the crystalized isolation of
short story-they merge from the
beginning and beyond the end into the !
general confusion Of existence; they |
are moments. significantly tragic or
humorous, selected from the whole in /
eomprehenseible sweep Of q vastly |
larger work. and presented as naturally !
a possible. However, they are not
without form. In reality these tales
are woven with an infinite delicacy, an
~ Ike all art. essentially artificial
ous definite interest in them. the |