11 h 49 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 11 h 49 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the man who longs to master the sky cannot escape the demands of desire?
In Gabriele D'Annunzio's Perhaps Yes Perhaps No, flight is new, dangerous, and charged with promise. Paolo Tarsis seeks fame through daring in the air. On the ground, Isabella Inghirami wants him on her own terms, while her sister Vana feels a deep attachment that strains the bond between them.
Their younger brother, Aldo, brings further unease to a family already caught in powerful emotions. Between old Italian places and the open sky, the novel explores jealousy, pride, and the pull of ruin. Paolo's ambition raises a larger question: what happens when individual will seeks to rise above ordinary morality?
What you’ll discover
- The danger of flight Enter an age when fragile machines carry human ambition into an uncertain sky.
- Two sisters, divided desires Follow Isabella and Vana as their attachments to Paolo place their sisterhood under strain.
- A family in shadow Meet Aldo, whose fragility adds another source of unease around the lovers.
- The reach of will Explore the troubling dream of a powerful individual who stands beyond common morality.
- Language rich with sensation Sink into lavish sentences filled with colour, sound, and the heat of desire.
Who will love it
Readers who love lush, musical prose, obsessive love, early aviation and Italian landscapes will find a home here. It suits admirers of opera and of stories where beauty and danger share one space.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Love begins as a wager of life
- A kiss in a ruined palace draws blood
- Two flyers and a crowd at Brescia
- A yellow rose passes between two strangers
- Grief drives Paolo beyond the limit
- In Volterra two young hearts plan to die
- Isabella returns with her lover and her lies
- Desire here feeds on cruelty
- Family and mirrors make everyone a double
- The story is told like music and myth
Who’s who
- Isabella InghiramiA fashionable, elusive young widow who loves danger and delay, and tests every lover to the limit.
- Paolo TarsisA pilot and builder of flying machines, hardened by adventure, who is torn between loyalty to a dead friend and obsession with Isabella.
- VanaIsabella's younger sister, a gifted singer who guards a secret love and a vow to a shadow.
- AldoIsabella's beautiful, musical brother, who adores his sister and burns with jealousy and fear.
- Giulio CambiasoPaolo's closest friend and rival, a fellow pilot whose short meeting with Vana changes her life.
- LunellaThe youngest sister, a wild, perceptive child who cuts paper figures with golden scissors and clings to her doll.
Formats and delivery
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- Hardcover
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Peut-être oui, peut-être non
by Gabriele D'Annunzio · 1910
A red car speeds toward a wagon of logs while the woman beside the driver treats danger as a game.
Medium level10–20 hours to readfrançais
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In short
Would you race a red car toward a wagon of logs to prove you are not afraid? That is how Perhaps Yes Perhaps No opens, on the longest day of the year, on an ancient Roman road in northern Italy.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Love begins as a wager of life
The novel opens inside a speeding red racing car. Paolo Tarsis, a pilot and builder of flying machines, grips the wheel. Beside him sits Isabella, veiled, in a straw hat with two rust-colored wings. She repeatedly answers perhaps and calls everything a game.
He asks whether she loves him, and she says she does not know. He asks whether she will stake her life, and she says she is capable of anything. Ahead, a wagon of huge logs blocks the road. He tells her he can crush them both against it, and she answers yes each time. At the last instant he swerves onto the grass. A swallow strikes the radiator and dies, and Isabella cries out for the bird. Then she laughs a shrill laugh that rings false even to her.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 9 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1910
- Language
- français
- Reading time
- 7 h 40 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
D'Annunzio, Gabriele. Perhaps Yes Perhaps No. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/perhaps-yes-perhaps-no.
D'Annunzio, G. (2026). Perhaps yes perhaps no. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/perhaps-yes-perhaps-no (Original work published 1910)
D'Annunzio, Gabriele. Perhaps Yes Perhaps No. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/perhaps-yes-perhaps-no.
@book{dannunzio2026perhaps,
author = {D'Annunzio, Gabriele},
title = {Perhaps Yes Perhaps No},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/perhaps-yes-perhaps-no},
note = {First published 1910}
}
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What is Perhaps Yes Perhaps No about?
It follows the pilot Paolo Tarsis and his obsessive love for Isabella Inghirami, set among early flying meets, the ruins of Mantua and the cliffs of Volterra, with her sister Vana and brother Aldo caught in the same web.
What does the title Perhaps Yes Perhaps No mean?
The words come from a motto carved in a labyrinth on the ceiling of the Este palace at Mantua. In the story it stands for Isabella's habit of answering questions with perhaps, and for a world where nothing is certain.
When was Perhaps Yes Perhaps No written and is it a true story?
D'Annunzio published it in 1910, when aeroplanes were a new wonder. It is a work of fiction, although it draws on real places, real flying meets and the aviation records of its time.
The author
Gabriele D'Annunzio
1863–1938 · Italian poet and novelist
Gabriele D’Annunzio (1863–1938) was an Italian novelist, poet and playwright. He was born in Pescara and died in Gardone Riviera. His novels include The Child of Pleasure (1889), The Triumph of Death (1894) and The Flame (1900). He also served as a soldier during the First World War.
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