Pleasure
1889
First Published
3.49
Average Rating
338
Number of Pages
Part of Series
The Child of Pleasure (written in 1888 and published in 1889) and its protagonist Andrea Sperelli introduced Italian culture of the late 1800's to Aestheticism and a taste for decadence. Sperelli is a young count, who - like Joris Karl Huysmans' Baron Des Esseintes or Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray - following family tradition, seeks beauty and despises the bourgeois world; leads an extraordinary life, which he lives as a work of art; and rejects the basic rules of morality and social interaction. However, this extraordinary sensitivity also implies a certain corruption, evident in his sadistic superimposing of the two women: Elena Muti and Maria Ferres.
Avg Rating
3.49
Number of Ratings
7,867
5 STARS
22%
4 STARS
31%
3 STARS
28%
2 STARS
14%
1 STARS
6%
goodreads
Author
Gabriele d'Annunzio
Author · 29 books
Gabriele D'Annunzio, Prince of Montenevoso (12 March 1863 – 1 March 1938), was an Italian poet, playwright, orator, journalist, aristocrat, and army officer during World War I. He occupied a prominent place in Italian literature from 1889 to 1910 and later political life from 1914 to 1924. He was often referred to under the epithets Il Vate ("the Poet") or Il Profeta ("the Prophet"). D'Annunzio combined in his work naturalism, symbolism, and erotic images, becoming the best interpreter of European Decadence in post-Risorgimento Italy. His love affairs, relationship with the world-famous actress Eleanora Duse, heroic adventures during World War I, and his occupation of Fiume in 1919 made him a legend in his own time.
