Il piacere Quotes

“And in the kisses, what deep sweetness! There are women's mouths that seem to ignite with love the breath that opens them. Whether they are reddened by blood richer than purple, or frozen by the pallor of agony, whether they are illuminated by the goodness of consent or darkened by the shadow of disdain, they always carry within them an enigma that disturbs men of intellect, and attracts them and captivates them. A constant discord between the expression of the lips and that of the eyes generates the mystery; it seems as if a duplicitous soul reveals itself there with a different beauty, happy and sad, cold and passionate, cruel and merciful, humble and proud, laughing and mocking; and the abiguity arouses discomfort in the spirit that takes pleasure in dark things.”
― Gabriele D'Annunzio, The Child Of Pleasure

“Perché ella voleva partire? Perché ella voleva spezzare l'incanto? I loro destini ormai non erano legati per sempre?
Egli aveva bisogno di lei per vivere, degli occhi, della voce, del pensiero di lei... egli era tutto penetrato da quell'amore, aveva tutto il sangue alterato come da un veleno, senza rimedio.
Perché ella voleva fuggire? Egli si sarebbe avviticchiato a lei, l'avrebbe prima soffocata sul suo petto.
No, non poteva essere... Mai! Mai!”
― Gabriele D'Annunzio, The Child Of Pleasure

“If they told me right now to abandon all vanity and all pride, every desire and every ambition, any dearest memory of the past, the sweetest future enticement, and to live uniquely in you and for you, without any tomorrow, without any yesterday, without any other bond, without any other preference, out of the world, entirely lost in your being, forever, until death, I would not hesitate, I would not hesitate. Believe me. You have looked at me, spoken with me, and smiled and answered; you have sat beside me, and you have been silent and thought; and you have lived, alongside me, your eternal existence, that invisible and inaccessible existence that I do not know, that I will never know; and your soul has possessed mine right down to the depths, without changing, without even knowing it, like the sea drinks a river... What does my love do for you? What does love do for you? It is a word that has been profaned too many times, a sentiment that has been falsified too many times. I do not offer you love. But will you not accept the humble tribute of religion that the spirit addresses to a nobler and higher being?”
― Gabriel D'Annunzio, The Child of Pleasure

“He wanted to possess not the body but the soul of that woman; and to possess her entire soul, with all her tenderness, all her joys, all her fears, all her anguish, all her dreams, in other words, the entire lief of her soul; and to be able to say: I am the life of her life.”
― Gabriel D'Annunzio, The Child of Pleasure

“She has a great and rare virtue: she is cheerful, but she can understand the sufferings of others and also knows how to soothe them with her mindful compassion. She is, above all, an intellectual woman, a woman of refined tastes, a perfect woman, a friend who is not a burden. She takes perhaps a little too much pleasure in witticisms and clever phrases, but her arrows always have a golden point and are shot with inimitable grace. Certainly, among all the worldly ladies I have known, she is the finest; among all my friends, she is my favorite.”
― Gabriel D'Annunzio, The Child of Pleasure

“gli sorrise d’un sorriso cosí tenue, direi quasi cosí immateriale, che non parve espresso da un moto delle labbra, sí bene da una irradiazione dell’anima per le labbra, mentre gli occhi rimanevan tristi pur sempre, e come smarriti nella lontananza d’un sogno interiore. Eran veramente gli occhi della Notte, cosí inviluppati d’ombra, quali per una Allegoria avrebbeli forse imaginati il Vinci dopo aver veduta in Milano Lucrezia Crivelli.”
― Gabriele D'Annunzio, Il piacere

“In the austere pages of the Revue des Deux Mondes he carefully explained to his readers that d'Annunzio's lewdness must not be confused with the obscenities of Zola, whereat Ouida protested that they were alike in their complacent preoccupation with mere filth. The Frenchman is the sounder critic, it must be said, for while d'Annunzio frequently parallels some of the most unclean—in the literal, not the moral sense—scenes and incidents in Zola, his attitude about sex is as unlike Zola's as that of the late W. D. Howells. Only in "Nana" did Zola describe the life and emotions of a woman whose whole life is given up to love, and then, as we know, he chose a singularly crude and professional person, using her career as a symbol of the Second Empire. D'Annunzio has never described women with any other reason for existence but love, yet none of his heroines has poor Nana's uninspiring motives.”
― Gabriele d'Annunzio, Il piacere

“il verso è tutto e può tutto.”
― Gabriele d'Annunzio, Il Piacere

“La convalescenza è una purificazione e un rinascimento. Non mai il senso della vita è soave come dopo l'angoscia del male; e non mai l'anima umana più inclina alla bontà e alla fede come dopo aver guardato negli abissi della morte.”
― Gabriele d'Annunzio, Il piacere

“A strange sentimental excitement had overcome him; all the lyrical peaks of his spirit had ignited and were flaming; the hour, the light, the place, all the surrounding things suggested love to him; from the farthest end of the sea right to the humble maidenhair fern of the fountains, a single magical circle was being drawn; and he felt that its center was that woman.”
― Gabriel D'Annunzio, The Child of Pleasure

“She was a woman of abundant and varied learning, with an extensive imagination, the colorful speech of those who have seen many countries, lived in diverse climates, met different people. And Andrea felt an exotic aura envelop her form, felt a strange seduction emanating from her, an enchantment composed of the vague phantasms of the distant things she had looked at, of the sights she still preserved in her mind's eye, in the memories that filled her soul. And it was an indefinable, inexpressible enchantment; it was as if she carried in her person a trace of the light in which she had been immersed, of the scents she had breathed, of the idioms she had heard; it was as if she carried within her, mingled, faded, indistinct, all the magic of those lands of the sun.”
― Gabriel D'Annunzio, The Child of Pleasure

“Tutti quegli oggetti, in mezzo a’ quali egli aveva tante volte amato e goduto e sofferto, avevano per lui acquistato qualche cosa della sua sensibilità. Non soltanto erano testimoni de’ suoi amori, de’ suoi piaceri, delle sue tristezze, ma eran partecipi. [...]
Come una fiala rende dopo lunghi anni il profumo dell’essenza che vi fu un giorno contenuta, cosí certi oggetti conservavano pur qualche vaga parte dell’amore onde li aveva illuminati e penetrati quel fantastico amante.”
― Gabriele D'Annunzio, Il piacere

“Se il teatro dell’amore era immutato, perché sarebbe mutato l’amore?”
― Gabriele D'Annunzio, Il piacere

“Count Andrea Sperelli-Fieschi of Ugenta, the sole heir, continued the family tradition. He was, in truth, the ideal type of young Italian gentleman of the nineteenth century, the legitimate defender of a lineage of gentlemen and elegant artists, the last descendant of an intellectual race.
He was, as it were, completely impregnated with art.”
― Gabriele D'Annunzio, Il Piacere

“The protagonist of Pleasure, Andrea Sperelli, is an alter ego of the young D’Annunzio: a poet and refined aesthete, a dandy, a seducer, a slave to beauty and pleasure, utterly immoral and yet curiously appealing.”
― Alexander Stille, Il piacere

“he had the sudden thought of holding Donna Maria’s hands in his, to rest his forehead against her heart and feel her console him wordlessly, mercifully. That need for pity, refuge, sympathy, was like the last piece of the soul that did not resign itself to perishing.”
― Gabriele D'Annunzio, Pleasure

“La mia tristezza attraeva la sua tristezza, come la luna attrae le acque del mare.”
― Gabriele D’Annunzio, Il Piacere