Per Non Dormire
Bertie: You can’t be a successful dictator *and* design women’s underclothing.
Jeeves: No, sir.
Bertie: One or the other. Not both.
Jeeves: Precisely, sir.
I wonder if Jeeves & Wooster are talking about Gabriele d’Annunzio? His story is certainly an interesting one. Where else but in Italy could a poet turn into a dictator and a dictator to a fashion designer in the blink of an eye?
In the Great War, Italy participated on the side of the Entente - France, Great Britain, Russia, and later the USA. The Italian army suffered from bad leadership and heavy losses in the battles against Imperial Austria and Germany, especially at the north-eastern border, made famous by Ernest Hemingway, who adapted his own experiences there in his novel A Farewell To Arms.
After the armistice, the Italians expected to be awarded for their efforts with a generous chunk of Croatia and Slovenia, among other parts of the collapsed Empire. However, the US president and great peace negotiator Woodrow Wilson had other plans. He advocated “national self-determination” for the small nations in the Balkans. The result was an entirely new state: Yugoslavia.
Now, some Italian veterans were not happy about this development…
They set their eyes on Fiume, today Rijeka in Croatia. It had for a long time been part of the Austrian Empire, used by the land-locked Hungarians as their port. As in all Adriatic towns, the population was mixed, and a large part was Italian.
In 1919, some war veterans, fired by fanatical patriotism and led by the poet, ace pilot and bonvivant Gabriele d’Annunzio, took over the city from the British and the French troops that had been keeping the peace there. With a grand gesture, d’Annunzio presented Fiume to his fatherland.
President Wilson had suggested that Rijeka-Fiume be set up as an independent state, as a buffer zone between Italy and Yugoslavia. d’Annunzio disagreed. The Italian government was not pleased and commanded him to leave. d’Annunzio declared himself dictator of his new anarcho-fascist state. Italy put a blockade on Fiume. d’Annunzio read poetry, inspected military parades and partied. Italy signed the Treaty of Rapallo with Yugoslavia. d’Annunzio declared war against Italy.
We can all guess how it ended. The Fiumean people opposed him - he lost his own rigged elections - his “legionnaires” deserted him. On “Bloody Christmas” 1919, Italy sent the warship Andrea Doria into the Fiumean harbour. It shelled the headquarters of the dictator a few times. That is all it took.
Gabriele d’Annunzio went on to inspire Benito Mussolini and others who were more down-to-earth, more cunning, more deadly.
Gabriele d’Annunzio on the web:
Superman, Supermidget
- Disrespectful and highly entertaining biography by Cali Ruchala.
www.gabrieledannunzio.net
- Respectful biography and portrait gallery of the “warrior bard”, in Italian and English.
www.gabrieledannunzio.it
- A very fine website, in Italian.
Il Vittoriale
- d’Annunzio’s palace and museum at Lago di Garda. Has to be seen to be believed.
“Per non dormire”
- The man also found free time to design sexy nightgowns - “not for sleeping”.
January 28th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
What a marvelous, historical caveat, flavoring d’Annuzio and his era. And perhaps, he could have designed ” stilettos, not for walking.” I like the Dux, similar to he later, Il Duce, as well as the leon d’oro, reminiscent of the golden lion vis a vis Haile Salassi of Ethiopia. You say Gabriel’s ghost must have taken over. How cool. It’s as if his hand was moving yours, on a ouija board, in the yes-and-no of the subconscious, decision-making process. Your observations are, to quote a song by Tina Turner, Simply the Best.