Three Plays Read Online

1889

Transfers to University of Rome where he enrols in the Faculty of Letters. After writing a number of plays (now lost) that fail to reach the stage, publishes first volume of poems in late Romantic vein, Joyful Pain; breaks off engagement to Paolina; quarrels with Professor of Latin and transfers to University of Bonn.

Giovanni Verga, Mastro Don Gesualdo (1889).

1890–1

Studies at Bonn where he obtains a doctorate in Romance Philology with a thesis on the Agrigento dialect (1891). Love affair with German girl Jenny Schulz-Lander to whom he dedicates his second volume of poetry, The Easter of Gea (1891).

1892

Returns to Rome where he lives on allowance from father and devotes himself to literature. Meets with prominent writers, including fellow Sicilian novelist Luigi Capuana.

Italo Svevo, A Life (1892).

1893–4

Brutal suppression of Sicilian peasant movement (fasci siciliani) by government of Francesco Crispi.

Shaw, Mrs Warren’s Profession (1893); Maeterlinck, Pelléas and Mélisande (1893); Federico De Roberto, The Viceroys (1894).

1894

First volume of short stories, Love without Love; translation of Goethe’s Roman Elegies; consents to arranged marriage with Antonietta Portulano, daughter of his father’s business partner.

1895–9

Birth of children: Stefano (1895), Rosalia (‘Lietta’, 1897), Fausto (1899). Begins teaching at college for girls, Istituto Superiore di Magistero (1898). Italian colonial expansion halted by defeat at Adwa (1896) in First Italo-Ethiopian War.

Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895); Jarry, Ubu the King (1895); Italo Svevo, As a Man Grows Older (1898); Ibsen, When We Dead Awaken (1899).

1900–3

Continues to write short stories, first published in magazines and then collected in volumes. Publishes two early novels The Outcast (1901) and The Turn (1902). Flooding of the Aragona sulphur mine (1903) in which his father had invested not only his own fortune but also the dowry of his daughter-in-law. At first paralysed by the shock, Antonietta descends into madness. P forced to supplement modest salary by taking in private pupils and working for magazines.

Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams (1900); Strindberg, A Dream Play (1901); Luigi Capuana, The Marchese of Roccaverdina (1901); Thomas Mann, Buddenbrooks (1901); Wedekind, Pandora’s Box (1902); Gabriele D’Annunzio, Tales of Pescara (1902) and The Daughter of Iorio (1903).

1904–7

Innovative and successful third novel The Late Mattia Pascal (1904) leads to collaboration with publishing house Fratelli Treves and major newspaper Corriere della Sera.

Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard (1904); Yeats, On Baile’s Strand (1904); Strindberg, The Ghost Sonata (1907); Synge, The Playboy of the Western World (1907).

1908–9

Publishes Art and Science and his major theoretical essay Humourism (L’umorismo, 1908) which sets off a bitter feud with Benedetto Croce. Promotion to rank of full professor at Istituto Superiore. Publishes first part of historical novel The Old and the Young (1909). Begins composition of novel One, No One, One Hundred Thousand.

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, The Futurist Manifesto (1909).

1910–14

Sicilian playwright-producer Nino Martoglio persuades him to adapt short stories for the theatre (Sicilian Limes, 1910; The Doctor’s Duty, 1912). Forced to halt circulation of new novel Her Husband (1911) because of presumed satirical allusion to Sardinian novelist Grazia Deledda. Publishes final volume of poetry (1912) and complete version of The Old and the Young (1913); continues prolific production of short stories. Italian conquest of Libya (1911–12).

D’Annunzio, The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, with music by Debussy (1911); Dino Campana, Orphic Songs (1914).

1915–16

Increased production of Sicilian dialect plays (Think it Over, Giacomino; The Cap and Bells; Liolà; The Jar). Novel Shoot (1916, later renamed The Notebooks of Serafino Gubbio) testifies to P’s interest in the cinema. Italy enters war against Austria (1915); Stefano Pirandello volunteers, is taken prisoner (1916), and begins sustained correspondence with father.

Giorgio De Chirico founds movement of ‘Metaphysical Painting’ (1915); Giuseppe Ungaretti, The Buried Port (1916); Luigi Chiarelli, The Mask and the Face (1916).

1917–20

With Right You Are, If You Think You Are (1917) begins a new series of plays in standard Italian and with bourgeois settings (The Pleasure of Honesty; The Grafting; It Can’t Be Serious; The Rules of the Game; Man, Beast and Virtue; As Before, Better than Before; All for the Best; Signora Morli, One and Two). P’s work now staged by the most prominent actors and directors: Angelo Musco (for the dialect plays), Ruggero Ruggeri, Virgilio Talli. First collection of plays published as Naked Masks (Maschere nude, 1918). Stefano returns from captivity; Antonietta, increasingly disturbed, accuses her husband of incestuous relations with Lietta, and is moved to mental home (1919) where she remains until her death forty years later. War ends (1918) with Italian victory over Austria and territorial gain of South Tyrol. D’Annunzio leads group of ultra-nationalist veterans (irredentisti) to seize port of Fiume (1919), later ceded to Italy.

Rosso di San Secondo, Puppets, What Passion! (1918); Giuseppe Ungaretti, The Joy of Shipwrecks (1919); Shaw, Heartbreak House (1919); Joyce, Ulysses (1920).

1921–2

Catastrophic Rome premiere of Six Characters in Search of an Author (10 May 1921) is followed by success in Milan later the same year. Pitoëff’s 1923 Paris production assures P’s international fame and Six Characters is translated and performed throughout Europe. Similar success greets Henry IV (February 1922). To Clothe the Naked staged in same year. First four volumes of collected short stories published under the title Stories for a Year (Novelle per un anno, 1922). Fascist March on Rome; Mussolini appointed prime minister (1922).

T.