The Pike: Gabriele d'Annunzio, Poet, Seducer and Preacher of War

Description

WINNER OF THE 2013 SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION, THE 2013 DUFF COOPER PRIZE, THE POLITICAL BOOK AWARDS POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR 2014 AND THE 2013 COSTA BOOK AWARDS BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR The story of Gabriele D'Annunzio, poet, daredevil - and Fascist. In September 1919 Gabriele D'Annunzio, successful poet, dramatist and occasional politician with an innate flair for the melodramatic, declared himself the Commandante of the city of Fiume in modern day Croatia. He intended to establish the utopian modern state upon his muddled fascist and artistic ideals and create a social paradigm for the rest of the world. It was a fittingly dramatic pinnacle to a career that had been essentially theatrical. In her new book Lucy Hughes-Hallett charts the enthralling but controversial life of D'Annunzio - acclaimed poet and author, legendary seducer and charmer - who lived an extravagant and debt-ridden life, and became a military and national hero. He evolved from an idealistic poet, who allied himself with the Romantic aesthetic, to an instigator of radical right-wing revolt against democratic authority. D'Annunzio's colourful story is also a political parable: through his apparently contradictory nature and the eventual failure of the Fiume endeavour, a picture is created of the politically turbulent Europe of the early 20th century and of the poison of emergent fascism. As in the successful Heroes, Hughes-Hallett takes the story of a memorable character's life to explore the society and politics of the times in which he lived. She raises questions concerning the figure of the 'superman', the cult of nationalism and the origins of political extremism and war. At the centre however stands the flamboyant and charismatic D'Annunzio: a figure as deplorable as he is fascinating.

Lucy Hughes-Hallett is the author of Cleopatra: Histories, Dreams and Distortions which was published in 1990 to wide acclaim, Heroes: Saviours, Traitors and Supermen, published in 2004, which garnered similar praise, and The Pike, publishing in 2013. Cleopatra won the Fawcett Prize and the Emily Toth Award. Lucy Hughes-Hallett reviews for the Sunday Times. She lives in London.

'Hard to beat ... a biographical tour de force ... a rich, voluptuous treat ... a triumph, the biography of the year' Robert McCrum, Observer, 'Books of the Year' '[The Pike] dramatically extends biography's formal range to encompass a daunting theme' TLS, 'Books of the Year' 'This is a magnificent portrait of a preposterous character ... deplorable, brilliant, ludicrous, tragic but above all irresistible, as hundreds of women could testify. His biographer has done him full justice' Francis Wheen, Daily Mail 'A cracker of a biography, an extraordinary story of literary accomplishment, passionate war-mongering and sexual incorrigibility... In less skilled hands this could have been a disaster; in fact it works wonderfully well' Spectator, 'Books of the Year' 'Beautiful, strange and original ... an extraordinarily intimate portrait' New Statesman 'Hugely enjoyable ... Hughes-Hallett has a great talent for encapsulating an era or an attitude ...That almost 700 pages flew by bears testimony to how pleasurable and readable those pages were' Sunday Times 'A splendid subject for a biography ... Hughes-Hallett dances her way through this extraordinary life in a style that is playful, punchy and generally pleasing ... In death, as in life, the amazing story of D'Annunzio is painted in primary colours, but with the darkest shadows' Observer 'A riveting biography ... It must have been so tempting to be judgmental, but Hughes-Hallett allows us to judge for ourselves' Antonia Fraser, Daily Mail, 'Books of the Year' 'Not only an inspired telling of a life that becomes more repellent with each page, it illuminates early 20th-century Europe in brilliant, unexpected ways' Observer 'Electrifying ... a fascinating portrait ... Hughes-Hallett relates his journey from romantic idealist to Right-wing warmonger with flair and insight' Daily Express