''The Flame'' () is a 1900 novel by the Italian writer
Gabriele D'Annunzio. It is set in 1883
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
and tells the story of a young artist and his mistress, a famous but quickly aging actress. The story was inspired by D'Annunzio's relationship with the actress
Eleonora Duse
Eleonora Giulia Amalia Duse ( , ; 3 October 185821 April 1924), often known simply as Duse, was an Italian actress, rated by many as the greatest of her time. She performed in many countries, notably in the plays of Gabriele d'Annunzio and Hen ...
. The novel contains expositions of many of D'Annunzio's theories about drama, largely inspired by
Friedrich Nietzsche and
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
.
The novel was published in English in 1900 as ''The Flame of Life''. A new translation was published in 1991 as ''The Flame''.
It was conceived as the first part in a trilogy, ''The Novels of the Pomegranate'' (''Romanzi del melograno''), but the two other books were never written.
References
External links
''Il fuoco''at
Archive.org
''The Flame of Life''(Kassandra Vivaria, pseudonym for Magda Sinici, 1900) at
Archive.org
''The Flame''(
Dora Knowlton Ranous, 1907) at
Archive.org
''The Flame''(
Dora Knowlton Ranous, 1907) at
Project Gutenberg
1900 novels
19th-century Italian novels
Italian-language books
Novels by Gabriele D'Annunzio
Fiction set in 1883
Novels set in the 1880s
Novels set in Venice
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