Story summary
The Triumph of Death summary
- 8 min read
- 11 parts
- Audio soon
George and Hippolyte flee Rome for a hermitage by the sea, but his love for her turns into dread.
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The Triumph of Death at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 7 h 15 min5 h 45 min fast, 8 h 40 min slow
- Length
- 104,100 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1894by Gabriele D'Annunzio
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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The Triumph of Death in short
The Triumph of Death follows George Aurispa, an educated man who loves Hippolyte Sanzio and cannot trust her or himself. In Rome he doubts her. At Albano he rereads his old letters.
What The Triumph of Death is about
A man has leapt from a terrace on the Pincio hill in Rome, and idle workmen watch a driver search the bloody mud below. Two lovers stop to look. Hippolyte pulls George away, and he says the dead are lucky because they have no more doubts. Within minutes he is pressing her to admit that she thinks his love is growing cold.
The Triumph of Death is a novel by Gabriele D'Annunzio, the Italian writer who died in 1938. It follows George Aurispa, a cultured young man with a weak will, and his mistress Hippolyte Sanzio through one spring and summer. You get a love story seen from inside one tormented head, a family coming apart, and vivid scenes of village belief and grief.
Who it’s for. Readers who love psychological novels, richly described landscapes and music, Italian settings, and stories where passion and thought pull against each other. It suits anyone drawn to characters who analyse every feeling.
The story in 11 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A love is doubted before it ends
The novel opens on the Pincio hill in Rome on a gray March afternoon. Hippolyte and George, lovers for almost two years, see men staring at the street below. A young man has thrown himself from the terrace, and a driver pokes at the bloody mud with a stick.
Hippolyte begs to leave. George says the dead are happy, because they have no more doubts. Then he asks whether she feels his love growing cold. He says every soul holds only so much passion, and that two lovers are always two strangers. He fears her past, her husband, and every man who looks at her.
They make peace, but the cause of the quarrel stays. The trouble lies in George, not in her. A love that demands certainty about another mind begins to die the moment it asks for proof.
- 2Start free to read
Poison from a parasite sends them away
The next morning a man named Alphonso Exili wakes George to borrow three hundred lira.
- 3Start free to read
Memory makes the past weigh on the present
On the train to Albano the lovers share a compartment with Mr and Mrs Martlet.
- 4Start free to read
A week at Albano ends in a sad return
The old hotel at Albano is full of faded furniture and mirrors that make everything look dreamlike.
- 5Start free to read
Home in Guardiagrele is a house of grief
George goes home to Guardiagrele in the Abruzzi, because his mother writes in despair.
- 6Start free to read
The dead uncle's rooms call to George
The morning after the quarrel George wakes sick and lets himself imagine dying.
- 7Start free to read
The Hermitage is a stage for a new life
Hippolyte writes that she will come anywhere George finds, and promises to be gentle and wise.
- 8Start free to read
The land shows its misery and its faith
The happiness does not last long.
- 9Start free to read
Beside the sea he begins to wish her gone
Weeks pass in idleness and heat.
- 10Start free to read
Love becomes a sickness the book will not cure
The novel's main theme is a love that feeds on itself.
- 11Start free to read
A close, repeating style tells the tale
D'Annunzio tells the story from within George's mind, so the reader feels what he sees, fears and invents.
Read all 11 key ideas now
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Check yourself
What most undermines George's relationship with Hippolyte?
Right. “George wants to possess Hippolyte's whole mind, which no one can do.”Not quite. “George wants to possess Hippolyte's whole mind, which no one can do.”
How does George respond to his father's request for a loan signature?
Right. “George sees the trick and signs anyway.”Not quite. “George sees the trick and signs anyway.”
What does the pilgrimage do to George's hope of finding relief among his people?
Right. “The pilgrimage ends his hope that his people could heal him.”Not quite. “The pilgrimage ends his hope that his people could heal him.”
Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- George Aurispa A young man of rare education and weak will who loves Hippolyte, cannot trust her, and seeks a cure for his restless mind.
- Hippolyte Sanzio George's mistress, a pale and sensual Roman woman separated from her husband, who wants to be loved wholly and to heal him.
- Demetrius Aurispa George's dead uncle, a violinist and ascetic who left him his fortune and whose memory George treats as a guide.
- George's mother A suffering woman of noble family who begs her eldest son to confront her husband and save the household.
- George's father A heavy, sensual landowner who spends the family's money on a mistress and her children.
- Christine George's gentle sister, married to a baron and anxious over her frail little son Luke and her coming child.
- Colas di Sciampagne The one-eyed farmer at San Vito who rents the Hermitage and guides the lovers among local beliefs.
- Candia Colas's pregnant daughter-in-law, who cooks for the guests and tells them of ghouls and the coming Messiah.
How it ends (spoiler)
On the night of a festival in the town of Ortona, George decides that Hippolyte must die with him. He leads her from the Hermitage through the olive trees to the edge of the cliff above the rocks. She fights him and cries out that he is a murderer, but he drags her over the edge. They fall together to their deaths, locked in each other's arms.
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Questions about The Triumph of Death
What is The Triumph of Death about?
It tells of George Aurispa and his mistress Hippolyte Sanzio over one spring and summer. George loves her but doubts her, escapes to his family home, and then to a seaside hermitage, while seeking a cure for his restless mind.
Who is Demetrius Aurispa in the novel?
Demetrius is George's late uncle, a gifted violinist and ascetic who left him his fortune. George thinks of him as his real father, and his memory and his rooms shape many of George's thoughts and choices.
Where is The Triumph of Death set?
It begins in Rome, moves to Albano, then to George's family home in Guardiagrele in the Abruzzi mountains, and ends at a house near San Vito on the Adriatic coast. It also includes the pilgrimage shrine at Casalbordino.
What does the Trabocco mean in the book?
The Trabocco is a large wooden fishing platform built on rocks near the Hermitage. Its fishermen believe a spell lies on them, and George comes to feel kinship with them, using it as a place of dreams.
Is The Triumph of Death easy to follow?
The story moves from place to place in clear sequence, with strong scenes such as the pilgrimage and the drowned boy. Its focus on George's mind and its musical passages give it a rich, absorbing voice.
Cite this edition
D'Annunzio, Gabriele. The Triumph of Death. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-triumph-of-death.
D'Annunzio, G. (2026). The triumph of death. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-triumph-of-death (Original work published 1894)
D'Annunzio, Gabriele. The Triumph of Death. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-triumph-of-death.
@book{dannunzio2026triumph,
author = {D'Annunzio, Gabriele},
title = {The Triumph of Death},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-triumph-of-death},
note = {First published 1894}
}
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