Daniele Varè (12 January 1880 – 27 February 1956) was an

Italia Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

n expatriate diplomat and author, most famous for the China-set novel ''The Maker of Heavenly Trousers'' (republished in 2012 by Penguin Modern Classics). He is also remembered for ''Laughing Diplomat'' ( John Murray, 1938), his autobiography as Italian

diplomat A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...

biography

Varè's father, Giovanni Battista Varè (Venice 1817 – Rome 1884), was a lawyer, of the ''L'Indipendente'' newspaper and associate of Daniel Manin: hence as an Italian nationalist he was exiled from northern Italy by the then Austrian authorities. His mother, Elizabeth Frances Chalmers, was Scottish. Varè spent his early years in the UK, returning to Italy with his Scottish mother at the age of 11. His mother had met Giambattista in Rome in 1872 and married him in 1873. Young Daniele entered the Italian Diplomatic Service in 1907 and was first assigned to China in 1912. In 1909 he married Elizabeth ''Bettina'' Chalmers of Aldbar Castle near Brechin. He returned as Italian Minister (Ambassador) to the Republican Government in China between 1927 and 1931. In

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

he had as a subordinate

Galeazzo Ciano Gian Galeazzo Ciano, 2nd Count of Cortellazzo and Buccari ( , ; 18 March 1903 – 11 January 1944), was an Italian diplomat and politician who served as Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Minister in the government of his father-in-law ...

(later to become

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 un ...

Minister of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...

). He also served in Geneva, Copenhagen and Luxembourg. In 1932, while serving as Ambassador to Denmark, he was forced to resign by the Fascist Regime as many other Italian Diplomats. Hence he originally published in English and only later in Italian.

Works

His novels include: ''The Maker of Heavenly Trousers'' (''Der Schneider himmlischer Hosen'') (1926), was followed by ''The Gate of Happy Sparrows'' (1937) and ''The Temple of Costly Experience'' (''Der Tempel der kostbaren Weisheit'') (1939), set in the early twentieth century in the Chinese capital of Peking, where the author spent two lengthy periods serving as a diplomat in the Italian Legation as a First Secretary (1912–1920) and later, Minister (1927–1931). Other works were: ''Princess in Tartary: a Play for Marionettes in Two Acts and an Epilogue'' (1940); ''Gaia Melodia. Romanzo'' (1944); ''The Last of the Empresses and the Passing from the Old China to the New'' (1947); ''Twilight of the Kings'' (1948) - memoir/reminiscences; ''The Two Imposters'' (1949) - essays/journals/memoir; ''The Doge's Ring'' (1949); ''Ghosts of the Spanish Steps'' (1955) - essays/pen portraits; ''Ghosts of the Rialto'' - essays/pen portraits (1956); ''Palma'' (1957).

References

External links

*
The Spectator's review of his biography, (Laughing Diplomat), 30 September 1938.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vare, Daniele 1880 births 1956 deaths 20th-century Italian male writers Ambassadors of Italy to China Ambassadors of Italy to Denmark Place of birth missing 20th-century diplomats 20th-century Italian novelists Italian Freemasons People from Rome