11 h 11 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 11 h 11 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens to love when a man treats every feeling as a work of art?
In Rome in the 1880s, Count Andrea Sperelli lives among beautiful rooms, flowers, music and carefully chosen clothes. A poet, painter and etcher, he follows his father's teaching: make life a work of art. Gabriele D'Annunzio's The Child of Pleasure opens with Andrea waiting for Elena Muti, the former lover who still disturbs him.
Elena is now married to an English lord. Maria Ferres, the gentle, musical wife of a diplomat, longs for tenderness and comes to trust Andrea. Between these women, his pursuit of pleasure becomes a study in obsession and deceit. The question is not simply whom he wants, but whether he can stop turning love into a game.
What you’ll discover
- Rome behind elegant doors Enter a world of balls, auctions and dinners, where beauty sets the terms.
- A mind caught in beauty Stay close to Andrea's thoughts as taste and detachment shape his approach to love.
- Two women, divided desires Meet Elena's unsettling brilliance and Maria's longing for tenderness beyond her neglected home.
- Art against life Explore what happens when every gesture is chosen and every feeling polished.
- The senses at work See Rome through a painter's eye and hear it with a poet's ear.
Who will love it
For readers who enjoy rich description, psychological portraits and the mood of the 1890s, and anyone curious about Italian literature before the modern age.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A young man made into a work of art
- Waiting for Elena in a Roman winter
- A duel, a wound and a country refuge
- Two women and one divided heart
- Art, lies and the cost of living for beauty
- A style as rich as the rooms it describes
Who’s who
- Andrea SperelliA young Roman count, poet and etcher, raised to treat beauty as the only law, who wants pleasure and a cure for his bitterness.
- Elena MutiA proud, brilliant noblewoman who was Andrea's lover and left him, now married to an English lord and still able to disturb him.
- Maria FerresA gentle, musical wife of a Guatemalan diplomat, neglected at home, who longs for real tenderness and comes to trust Andrea.
- Donna Francesca d'AteletaAndrea's cousin, the Marchesa, who gives him shelter at her villa Schifanoia while he recovers and brings him into Maria's company.
- Andrea's fatherA dead but powerful influence whose teaching of taste, freedom and detachment shaped his son's whole outlook on love and art.
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- Audiobook
- 11 h 11 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 8 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Il piacere
by Gabriele D'Annunzio · 1889
In a Roman winter, Andrea Sperelli waits for a former lover as his devotion to beauty turns love into a game.
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In short
The Child of Pleasure is a novel by the Italian writer Gabriele D'Annunzio, first published in 1889 under the title Il piacere. D'Annunzio was in his twenties and already known as a poet.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A young man made into a work of art
The hero is Count Andrea Sperelli Fieschi d'Ugenta, a Roman aristocrat who is poet, painter and etcher all at once. His father raised him on a strict program. He taught him to live for art and pleasure, to trust no rule except taste, and to follow the Latin maxim Habere, non haberi, which means to have and never to be had. The boy grows up learning that feeling is a material to be shaped, like copper under an etching needle.
After his father dies, Andrea takes his place in the best houses of Rome. He is handsome, clever and rich in manners if not in morals. He collects rare books, old furniture, jewels and fine bindings. Women find him irresistible, and he finds almost all of them a pleasant amusement for an evening.
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What is The Child of Pleasure about?
It follows Andrea Sperelli, a young Roman aristocrat and artist, as he waits for a former lover, then courts a gentle married woman while the first one returns. It studies vanity, desire and a life lived as art.
Who is Andrea Sperelli?
He is the hero of the novel, a count, poet and etcher in 1880s Rome. His father taught him to live by taste and detachment, and that training leaves him charming, gifted and unable to love honestly.
What does the Italian title Il piacere mean?
Il piacere means pleasure. The English title, The Child of Pleasure, points to the hero, who has been formed by the pursuit of sensual and artistic delight and cannot imagine another way to live.
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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