The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Child of Pleasure, by Gabriele D'Annunzio

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Title: The Child of Pleasure

Author: Gabriele D'Annunzio

Commentator: Ernest Boyd

Translator: Georgina Harding
Arthur Symons

Release Date: December 4, 2006 [EBook #20015]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Produced by Chuck Greif, Juliet Sutherland and the Online
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[Transcriber's note: although a number of obvious typographical errors
in the printed work have been corrected, the original orthography of the
book has been retained. This includes a number of compound words,
normally hyphenated, which retain their hyphenlessness.]

_The_
CHILD OF PLEASURE

GABRIELE D'ANNUNZIO

TRANSLATED BY
GEORGINA HARDING

VERSES TRANSLATED BY
ARTHUR SYMONS

INTRODUCTION BY
ERNEST BOYD
[Illustration: The Modern Library logo]
THE MODERN LIBRARY
PUBLISHERS :: :: NEW YORK
_Manufactured in the United States of America
Bound for_ THE MODERN LIBRARY _by H. Wolff_

INTRODUCTION

It is characteristic of the atmosphere of legend in which Gabriele
d'Annunzio has lived that even the authenticity of his name has been
disputed. It was said that his real name was Gaetano Rapagnetta, and the
curious will find amongst the Letters of James Huneker the boast that he
was the first person to reveal to America the fact that d'Annunzio's
name was "Rapagnetto"--a purely personal contribution to the legend.
Yet, the plain fact, as proven by his birth certificate, is that the
author of "The Child of Pleasure" was born at Pescara, on the 12th of
March, 1863, the son of Francesco Paolo d'Annunzio and Luisa de
Benedictis. _Il Piacere_, to give this novel its Italian name, was
published when d'Annunzio was only twenty-six years of age, and except
for an unimportant and imitative