COPYRIGHT

      4th Estate

      An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

       www.4thEstate.co.uk

      This ebook first published in Great Britain by 4th Estate in 2013

      Copyright © Lucy Hughes-Hallett 2013

      Map © John Gilkes

      Cover shows d’Annunzio, 1919 (postcard, 14 x 9cm) by Ivo Tijardović (1895–1976)

      The right of Lucy Hughes-Hallett to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks.

      Source ISBN 9780007213955

      Ebook Edition © March 2017 ISBN: 9780007356515

      Version: 2017-03-17

       PRAISE

      From the reviews of The Pike:

      ‘A magnificent portrait of a preposterous character whose life is a scarcely credible saga of ambition and outrageous exploits … His biographer has done him full justice’ FRANCIS WHEEN, Mail on Sunday

      ‘A bland chronology is the opposite of Lucy Hughes-Hallett’s beautiful, strange and original structure. The Pike sets out the inner life of this fascinating man in a dazzling jumble of fragments and obsessions … An extraordinarily intimate portrait of him … we feel we are inside his life … If you want to understand fascism, you must start with d’Annunzio; and if you wish to understand him, then here is your book’ DANIEL SWIFT, New Statesman

      ‘Hugely enjoyable … Hughes-Hallett has a great talent for encapsulating an era or an attitude with an arresting one-liner … The fact that almost 700 pages flew by bears testimony to how pleasurable and readable those pages were’ TOBIAS JONES, Sunday Times

      ‘A deeply evocative new biography … She is a strong match for her subject, something that so many of the women in d’Annunzio’s life were lamentably not. Her style is rich, ironic and pugnacious; she jousts willingly with him and the reader becomes a spectator of this subtle and fascinating contest’ Economist

      ‘Hughes-Hallett dances her way through this extraordinary life in a style that is playful, punchy and generally pleasing’ IAN BIRRELL, Observer

      ‘It takes courage to write a biography like this one … its exhilarating virtuosity [is] d’Annunzian in the best sense’ JONATHAN KEATES, Sunday Telegraph

      ‘Engrossing and superbly written … Lucy Hughes-Hallett has written an eminently readable biography. Its strength lies in her ability to tease out and examine the strands of D’Annunzio’s complex personality in ways that continually illuminate how creativity can coexist with inhumane thought and action’ CHRISTOPHER DUGGAN, Times Literary Supplement

      ‘Exceptional … Hughes-Hallett has done an admirable job’ STUART KELLY, Scotsman

      ‘A vivid picture of the flow of ideas and inspirations in d’Annunzio, the meshing of work and character. The whole is an enthralling curiosity, much like d’Annunzio’s final epic monument to himself, the Vittoriale villa above Lake Garda’ ROBERT GORDON, Literary Review

      ‘[A] richly kaleidoscopic biography … In this scintillating study, full of wit and irony, she plumbs the depths of D’Annunzio’s horrible fascination’ PIERS BRENDON, The Oldie

      for Lettice and Mary, with love