The Englishing of D'Annunzio or Thomas Bowdler rites again

Abstract

It was a mixed blessing for D 'Annunzio to have his works translated into English. To begin with, the plots and language of his novels, bowdlerized and censored, provided a Victorian and then an Edwardian reading public with fiction of the same type and nature as that produced by Mary Braddon, Marie Corelli, Ouida, and other purveyors of similar innocuous and romantic fiction. Indeed, one of D'Annunzio's few supportive early critics, Orio Williams, congratulated the author on his depiction of Andrea Sperelli's character in Il piacere, and opined that it would have done honour to the imagination of Ouida. Williams, naturally, intended his remark as a compliment to D'Annunzio, but it does indicate the value at which the translations were rated by contemporaries. Ouida herself declared that she felt D'Annunzio to be a soul-mate, and translated certain tracts of Il piacere which, she said, she could have written herself.