I just received the latest issue of the London Review of Books (Vol 40,
Number 10, 24 May, 2018). In it is an article reviewing several of books
by Iris Origo. The article is entitled "The Italianness of it all," and it
was written by Tess Hadley.
Iris Origo was an upper-class Irish-American who was whisked about the world
by her parents who were trying to find a healthier climate for her father
who died in 1912 of tuberculosis when she was seven years old. Before he
died, her father urged her to find some place she liked, quit traveling, and
settle down. She married an Italian nobleman, bought a castle on 3500 acres
which included several small villages, went to work and restored everything,
including taking care of the people living there, but once that had been
done she and her less-scholarly husband became estranged. She was highly
educated, albeit by a series of governesses, and able to do anything she
liked within the framework of a male-dominated society; so she took to
writing. Tess Hadley says that her biographies are the best things she
wrote.
The first biography she wrote was A Study in Solitude: The Life of
Leopardi." Some time ago Ed Farrell said that I reminded him of Leopardi.
I don't remember why. But as a consequence I bought Canti and Zibaldone by
Giacomo Leopardi. I read several of the poems in Canti, but, as Auden
writes on in The Dyer's Hand, "A poet over thirty may still be a voracious
reader, but it is unlikely that much of what he reads is modern poetry."
As to the Zibaldone I can't recall whether Farrell urged me to read it or
not. He did warn me that it was encyclopedic and would require a major
commitment to get through it. At that time, Susan was my only major
commitment so I got no farther than sampling a few pages, but I feel guilty
over not having spent more time with.
In any case, after reading Tess Hadley's review I bought Iris Origo's
Leopardi: A Biography, which I noticed was cited in the bibliography of
Zibaldone (Page 2377).
I'm probably still not up to the major commitment of reading the Zibaldone,
but perhaps if I read Iris Origo's biography of Leopardi I shall become up
for a minor commitment and if I can't manage any more of Leopadi's poems
perhaps I can chew on a larger portion of the Zibaldone.
Jonathan Galassi, the translator of Leopardi's Canti, writes "Giacomo
Leopardi (1798-1837) is Italy's greatest modern poet, the first European
writer to portray and examine the self in a way that feels familiar to us
today. A great classical scholar and patriot, he explored metaphysical
loneliness in entirely original ways. Though he died young, his influence
was enormous, and it is no exaggeration to say that all modern poetry, not
only in Italian, derives in some way from his work." Hmm, that is something
I don't recall ever reading before."
Lawrence
Cc: Ed Farrell
