Alcina and Other Stories

Translation by Brendan and Anna Connell.

The Turin born Guido Gozzano was the first and finest representative of the Crepuscolari, the poets of the twilight. Before his tragically early death from consumption at the age of thirty-five he produced two short volumes of verse, La via del rifugio and I colloqui, which quickly became renown for their quietly perfect evocations of nature, melancholy, tenderness and ­nostalgia. But unknown to most, Gozzano also wrote short stories, contes cruels influenced by Poe and Maupassant, and aesthetic prose nightmares, which display the same delicate crepuscular style and sense of tragic absurdism.

Within the pages of Alcina and Other Stories, the reader will find The Real Face, the bizarre fate of a promising young artist whose works grow too close to nature; A Romantic Story, a Gothic tragedy; and The Soul of the Instrument, a Symbolist fairy tale after the manner of Lorrain or Wilde; along with other dark and fantastic pieces.

An exquisite item for those interested in Italian poets of the early twentieth century and the various literary movements which bloomed in that country in the years following the Fin de siècle.