oscarina in "The Flame
of Life," Ippolita in "The Triumph of Death" are superb incarnations of
the one and ever varied problem which troubles the world in which
d'Annunzio lives.

An American critic, Mr. Henry Dwight Sedgwick, once demanded in tones of
passionate scorn that d'Annunzio be tried before a jury of
"English-speaking men," and he called the tale: "Colonel Newcome! Adam
Bede! Bailie Jarvie! Tom Brown! Sam Weller!"--notes of exclamation
included, from which one was to conclude that the creator of Sperelli,
Hermil and Aurispa would slink away discomfited at the very sound of
those names. Yet, on the other hand, can one imagine Andrea and Elena,
Giorgio and Ippolita arguing with our advanced thinkers of the moment:
Is Monogamy Feasible? or Can Men and Women be Friends? D'Annunzio is not
to be approached either in a mood of radical earnestness or of
evangelical fervor. He must be regarded as an artist of sensations, an
Italian of the Renaissance set down in the middle of a drab century. He
began his life by a quest for perfect physical pleasure through all the
senses, and inaugurated its last phase with a gesture of military
courage which was not only a retort to those who, like Croce, had called
him a dilettante, but an earnest of his conviction that he was a great
artist of the lineage which bred men who were simultaneously great men
of action.

Ernest Boyd.

BOOK I

CHAPTER I

Andrea Sperelli dined regularly every Wednesday with his cousin the
Marchesa d'Ateleta.

The salons of the Marchesa in the Palazzo Roccagiovine were much
frequented. She attracted specially by her sparkling wit and gaiety and
her inextinguishable good humour. Her charming and expressive face
recalled certain feminine profiles of the younger Moreau and in the
vignettes of Gravelot. There was something Pompadouresque in her manner,
her tastes, her style of dress, which she no doubt heightened purposely,
tempted by her really striking resemblance to the favourite of Louis XV.

One Tuesday evening, in a box at the Valle Theatre, she said laughingly
to her cousin, 'Be sure, you come to-morrow, Andrea. Among the guests
there will be an interesting, not to say _fatal_, personage. Forewarned
is forearmed--Beware of her spells--you are in a very weak frame of mind
just now.'

He laughed. 'If you don't mind, I prefer to come unarmed,' he replied,
'or rather in the guise of a victim. It is a character I have assumed
for man