Deledda, Grazia


Deledda, Grazia

(grä`tsēä dālĕd`dä), 1875–1936, Italian novelist, b. Sardinia. Her first work, a collection of short stories, was published when she was 19. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1926. Deledda's work is lyric and in part naturalistic, and combines sympathy and humor with occasional touches of violence. Her novels include Dopo il divorzio (1902, tr. After the Divorce, 1905), Elias Portolú (1903), Cenere (1904, tr. Ashes, 1908), Canne al vento [reeds in the wind] (1913), La Madre (1920, tr. The Mother, 1922), and La Fuga in Egitto [flight into Egypt] (1925).

Deledda, Grazia

 

Born Sept. 27, 1871, in Nuoro, Sardinia; died Aug. 15, 1936, in Rome. Italian writer.

Deledda was a member of the verist school. The main theme of her numerous novels and novellas is the life of the Sardinian peasants and farm laborers, which is controlled by fate in the form of overpowering passion, from which one can be saved only by religion (Elias Portolu, 1903). Her prose is characterized by delicate psychological probing and lyric descriptions of Sardinian nature. Deledda was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1926.

WORKS

Romanzi e novelle, vols. 1–4. Milan, 1955–59.
In Russian translation:
Odinochestvo. Moscow, 1912.
Pepel. Moscow, 1915.
Toskuiushchie dushi. Moscow, 1918.
Sardinskie rasskazy. Petrograd, 1919.
[Novelly]. In Ital’ianskie novelly, 1860–1914. Moscow-Leningrad, 1960. [Introductory article by B. G. Reizov.]
Svirel’ v lesu: Rasskazy. Moscow, 1967. [Article by I. Volodina.]

REFERENCE

Storia della letteratura italiana, vol. 8. Milan, 1968.