| Provisional Notes |
Great traveller.
Annie Vivanti's encounter with various cultures, languages, nationalities, and religions makes her literature and life experience exceptional, and, in the Italian context, unique. Born and brought up in direct contact with the English, Italian, Germanic, and American worlds, Annie assimilated and fused those different cultural and spiritual components, filtering them through the lenses of an entirely Latin sentimentalism and a purely Anglo-Saxon pragmatism.
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Annie Vivanti made her literary debut with the poetry collection Lirica (Milan, Treves 1890), published in Italy with a preface by Giosuè Carducci. The work immediately obtained immense success and tied Vivanti's name to that of the great Italian poet, to whom she remained deeply attached until his death (Bologna, 1907). In 1891 she published her first novel, Marion artista di caffè concerto (Milan, Galliums) During her English-American stay she wrote only in English, publishing stories (Perfect, 1896; En Passant, 1897; Houp-là , 1897; A Fad, 1899), novels (The Hunt for Happiness, 1896; Winning Him Back, 1904), and theatrical works (That Man, 1898; The Ruby Ring, 1900). In Italy she appeared to have abandoned literature, with the exception of the play The Blue Rose, the only clamorous failure of her very successful career. It was performed between 1898 and 1899, and never published. Her work has been received in all European languages, positive reviews
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Born in London; Daughter of the Italian refugee Anselmo Vivanti and the german writer Anna Lindau. After her marriage to the Irishman John Chartres in England in 1892, Annie spent nearly twenty years living in England and the U.S.A. |