The Flame

A poet and an ageing actress in Venice, the city dissolving around them, and a love affair conducted as performance. D'Annunzio wrote it about his own affair with Eleonora Duse while it was still going on, and all Europe read the ageing actress as Duse. This edition carries Dora Knowlton Ranous's translation and 48 bound plates of painting, among them Boldini, Fattori and De Nittis, with three in-text illustrations restored and coloured.