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Ugo Tarchetti

Iginio Pietro Teodoro Tarchetti (pen name — Ugo Tarchetti, 1839–1869) was a classic of Italian literature and one of the leading figures of the literary and artistic movement Scapigliatura.

Overview

Despite his short life, Ugo Tarchetti managed to create several significant prose works that became landmark texts for nineteenth-century Italian literature. Among his key achievements are the novel Fosca (adapted for film in 1981 by Ettore Scola under the title "Love's Passion" / "Lyubovna prystrast") and the novel Noble Madness (Italian title Una nobile follia, also published under the title "Dramas from Military Life" / "Dramy z zhyttya viyskovykh"). Although the writer never personally visited Crimea, it is to the era of the Crimean War of 1853–1856 that the novel Noble Madness is dedicated, where Crimea is depicted as the tragic factor that broke the life of the protagonist.

Key Details / Subtopics

  • The Scapigliatura movement and legacy: Tarchetti belongs to the Romantic-decadent trend in Italian literature, which opposed philistinism and traditional academicism. His works explore the dark sides of human psychology, the conflict between the individual and society, and madness.
  • The novel Noble Madness and its anti-war pathos: The work is structured as a multi-perspective narrative told by several narrators. The protagonist is the Italian artist Filippo Sporta (who hides under the name Vincenzo D.) and is conscripted into the Sardinian army for an eight-year term of service. The work sharply criticizes the military system ("Where the will is broken and a soldier trained to kill is born, a human being dies"), corruption, the lawlessness endured by soldiers, and drill.
  • Depiction of the Crimean War: The climax of the novel is the depiction of brutal battles in Crimea and on the Black Sea: the Inkerman "Slaughter" in the fog, the Sinop naval battle, the battles at Silistria, Varna, the Alma, Balaklava, on the Black River (Chornaya), Sapun Mountain, the scuttling of ships near Yevpatoria and Kherson, as well as the assault on the Malakhov Kurgan. The author depicts the harsh Crimean climate, the icy wind, cholera, and the horrors of war, when positions are reinforced with the corpses of fallen soldiers and horses.
  • The episode of the Pole's murder and the suicide: At an outpost beneath the Malakhov Kurgan, Filippo decides not to fire at the enemy, but is forced to shoot an enemy cavalryman. Before dying, the man turns out to be a young Pole forcibly conscripted into the army. This killing deeply traumatizes the hero, prompting him to desert, hide in the homes of Crimean Tatars, and later return to Italy under an assumed name. Eventually Filippo commits suicide by shooting himself in the face, so as to allow the real Vincenzo D. to rid himself of his debts and start a new life.