ABSTRACT

Massimo Bontempelli's valedictory starts innocently enough, stressing Gabriele D'Annunzio's mighty gifts, calling him a 'prodigio', a 'meteora', and emphasising that behind the intuitive genius there was also a meticulous, patient craftsman with a strong sense of duty towards art. Bontempelli's valedictory reveals that, despite superficial niceties, he had come to bury D'Annunzio, not to praise him or his followers and sponsors. Even early in his creative writing career, Bontempelli faithfully projected his own literary and intellectual vicissitudes into his characters. 'Avventura' looks like the generic term for standard fictional fare, but it is also Bontempelli's cypher for intellectual development, as witnessed by the title of his collection of essays, Lavventura novecentista. It is possible that Bontempelli's sardonic highlighting of the children's poem led to Trilussa's controversially goliardie additions to it, inspired by the actress Dina Galli, and to the eventual newspaper competition to find out who had actually written the poem.