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A review by tamzinlittle
Pleasure by Gabriele D'Annunzio
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
4.0
Well, this is a great instance of right book, wrong time. I picked this up when I went to Italy in August, wanting some Italian literature to accompany me trough my trip. I didn't appreciate how dense and deep this would be- it certainly isn't well suited to constantly being picked up and put down, I couldn't think of a less appropriate beach read. This book is meant to get lost in, to read alone like your nightly prayers.
So, the first 150 pages of this book were a slog for me, I was not in the right place for them. It doesn't help that, as expressed in the book, Andrea is a chameleon and the characters are usually what helps me hold onto the story. But when I picked it up again a few weeks ago, I was able to envelope myself in the story. If you are able to become immersed in this, you will be able to see the absolute beauty and delicacy of its prose which at points left me speechless with tears in my eyes. That's one thing you most definitely cannot fault this book on. However, I can see both sides. It is still dense, it gets lost in the details and the plot can drag because of this.
I think that's what I can contrast to The Picture of Dorian Gray, which is mentioned as a foil in Penguin Classic's blurb. In Dorian Gray, no words are wasted, and even purely aesthetic descriptions contribute tightly to the story. In contrast, Pleasure can feel self-indulgent and unnecessary at times. From a point of literary merit, this could be seen to reflect Andrea's horrid self-indulgence, but from a readers perspective, it can just be infuriating at times.
I know this novel will be brilliant for future re-reads, as later in the book when I was more focused I noticed the rich symbolism sprinkled throughout. It is truly the marriage of 'base, carnal instincts' and the spiritual.
At the end, you build a type of disgust for the protagonist, and it becomes cathartic to see that all he is left with is his own lonely deception and an armoire.
So, the first 150 pages of this book were a slog for me, I was not in the right place for them. It doesn't help that, as expressed in the book, Andrea is a chameleon and the characters are usually what helps me hold onto the story. But when I picked it up again a few weeks ago, I was able to envelope myself in the story. If you are able to become immersed in this, you will be able to see the absolute beauty and delicacy of its prose which at points left me speechless with tears in my eyes. That's one thing you most definitely cannot fault this book on. However, I can see both sides. It is still dense, it gets lost in the details and the plot can drag because of this.
I think that's what I can contrast to The Picture of Dorian Gray, which is mentioned as a foil in Penguin Classic's blurb. In Dorian Gray, no words are wasted, and even purely aesthetic descriptions contribute tightly to the story. In contrast, Pleasure can feel self-indulgent and unnecessary at times. From a point of literary merit, this could be seen to reflect Andrea's horrid self-indulgence, but from a readers perspective, it can just be infuriating at times.
I know this novel will be brilliant for future re-reads, as later in the book when I was more focused I noticed the rich symbolism sprinkled throughout. It is truly the marriage of 'base, carnal instincts' and the spiritual.
At the end, you build a type of disgust for the protagonist, and it becomes cathartic to see that all he is left with is his own lonely deception and an armoire.