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

I purchased the book on bookseller's recommendation but found it a difficult read, probably due to its structure and the myriad of people, places and foreign names. However, when this audio book was released, decided to give it another go. It is long, very long (too long!) - a convoluted tale about an arrogant and repellent character but it is firmly placed in the historical and social context of events in Italy and surrounding countries. I found the clarity of the narrator made it far more accessible and interesting, kept my interest AND I finished it! A long and complex book but worth listening to.

I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in modern history, biography, Italy or the origins of fascism.

I thought it was very well written and rigorously researched. The subject, D'Annunzio, is so complex and full of contradiction that it must have been a daunting task to try and cover every aspect. He is also at times utterly repellant in his behaviour and his utterances, but Lucy Hughes-Hallett manages to maintain a completely neutral tenor and yet retain one's interest.

Although the first 'kaleidoscopic' section with its 'staccato' approach may have worked well in writing, it made for difficult and confusing listening. Purportedly trying to imitate the multi-faceted personality and career of the D'Annunzio, it didn't really succeeded in this any better than the remaining, chronological narrative.

The one sour note for me was in the reading performance. Overall it was very good and the Italian words were well pronounced and unobtrusive. However I was disappointed by what I see as a lack of professionalism when it came to pronouncing words in other languages, obviously less familiar to the reader, particularly French. Very well known French figures and places had their names completely mangled. If you don't know how to pronounce something, why not check beforehand? Even some of the English was poorly pronounced. I blame the producers as much as the reader and this is certainly not the first time that my pleasure in listening to a good book has been marred but this problem.

It's really two books: (1) the story of a grotesque rake who reinvented himself as a WW1 war hero, and (2) the bizarre Fiume experiment in which an Austro-Hungarian border town chose d'Annunzio as its figurehead and so became the crucible for a wild social experiment which was later plagiarised wholesale by Mussolini and his fascists. Part (2) is the one to recommend, but can only be understood in the light of (1).

The Great Beast, by John Symonds.
Gabriel d'Annunzio was the man Aleister Crowley would have loved to be. The former was far more talented and successful, but no less flamboyant and depraved.

The narrator has a beautiful voice, but voyaging the book with her is like a stroll through a badly-cleared minefield, one mispronounced word after another exploding in your face.

Yes definitely. To explore the antecedents to Fascism (and thence Nazism), as well as the Aesthetic Movement, popularised by Oscar Wilde, not to mention Futurism. Plus Garibaldi, all of which spawned the spores which blighted the 20 century with global wars. Oh yes-- and the superstar Sarah Bernhardt, allegedly one of d'Annunzio's legion of lovers.
I still cannot understand what the Italians saw in this awful man, and that's a research project in itself.

The book is valuable not only for its detailed (and sometimes boring) account of the comings and goings of a fin-de-siecle Italian poet and playwright in the Byronic mould, but for its history of the Fiume Occupation and the subsequent rise of Mussolini and fascism. D'Annunzio was never a fascist (in spite of the party's unfailing attempts to claim him) but fascism was 100% "d'Annunzian".