TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
In the plain text version words in Italics are denoted by _underscores_and text in bold like =this=.
A number of words in this book have both hyphenated and non-hyphenatedvariants. For the words with both variants present the one more usedhas been kept.
Obvious punctuation and other printing errors have been corrected.
[Pg i]
[Pg ii]
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
THE TRIUMPH OF DEATH
Uniform with this Volume.
Pall Mall Gazette.—'A masterpiece. The story holds and haunts one.Unequalled even by the great French contemporary whom, in his realism,D’Annunzio most resembles, is the account of the pilgrimage to the shrineof the Virgin by the sick, deformed, and afflicted. It is a great prosepoem, that of its kind cannot be surpassed. Every detail of the scene isbrought before us in a series of word-pictures of wonderful power andvivid colouring, and the ever-recurring refrain, 'Viva Maria! MariaEvviva!’ rings in our ears as we lay down the book. It is the work of amaster, whose genius is beyond dispute.’
Daily Telegraph.—'The author gives us numerous delightful pictures,pictures of Italian scenery, simple sketches, too, of ordinary, commonplace,innocent lives. The range of his female portrait gallery is almost as wideand varied as that of George Meredith. His Ippolita, his Marie Ferrès,his Giuliana Hermil, live as strong and vivid presentments of real andskilfully contrasted women. The Triumph of Death ends with a tragedy,as it also begins with one. Between the two extremes are to be foundmany pages of poetry, of tender appreciation of nature, of rare artistic skill,of subtle and penetrative analysis.’
Daily News.—'The close of the tragedy is swift and haunting. It isimpossible to overpraise the art. Every page is enriched with descriptivepassages of effects of nature, of music, of art, that arrest the imagination andlinger in the memory. In his words seem entangled the very breath andsunshine of Italy—its translucent moonlight skies, its incomparable horizons.It is difficult by quotation to do justice to the author’s power of giving thevivid impression of a scene.’
Daily Chronicle.—'The little effects of landscape are skilfully touchedin and harmonised with the emotion of the moment. The incidentalpictures of peasant life are most interesting, and the terrible pandemoniumat the shrine of Casalbordino is described with Zolaesque vigour.’
Scotsman.—'The imaginative and penetrative force, the eloquence andthe artistic skill, are beyond question.’
Westminster Gazette.—'For a vivid and searching description of theItalian peasant on his religious side, written with knowledge and understanding,these pages could hardly be surpassed. We see their Paganism,and their poverty, and their squalor, yet also that imaginative temperwhich lends a certain dignity to their existence. The narrative is remorseless... yet it is rich and full of atmosphere. M. D’Annunzio has atender eye for natural detail; the landscape of Italy, its flowers and trees,kindle him to genuine poetry. We are left at the close of his story with afeeling that something like genius is at work. This book is one which willnot yield to any simple test. It is a work of singular