Gabriele D'Annunzio: Defiant Archangel. By JOHN WOODHOUSE. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1998. xii + 406 pp. 25 [pounds sterling].
Was there ever a character more disreputable, deceitful, and despicable than Gabriele D'Annunzio? Possibly there was, though it is difficult to think of anyone who fits the description so exactly except in the pages of fiction. The obvious example that springs to mind is Ser Cepperello, described by Boccaccio as perhaps the worst man ever born, the essential ...