Alfredo Oriani
1852–1909
Biography
Alfredo Oriani, born at Faenza in 1852, wrote fiction, essays and social criticism, and died at Casola Valsenio in 1909. He came from a modest landowning family and took a law degree at Naples in 1872, but he never practised. He withdrew to his family's country house instead, where he spent most of his life writing, largely out of the public eye.
His first book, Memorie inutili (1876), was a set of autobiographical tales shaped by the Scapigliatura, the bohemian movement of Milan. His later writing turned to the nation. He admired the statesman Francesco Crispi and called for Italy to be renewed by the same fervent patriotism that had built it, while scorning the comfortable moderation of the middle classes. Partly because of this nationalism, historians often count him among the forerunners of Fascism, and in 1940 the Catholic Church placed his books on the Index of prohibited works.
The site holds his book Olocausto under his name. The nationalism and the contempt for bourgeois moderation that the sources describe run through much of Oriani's writing, so readers should keep his politics in mind as they read, and treat any historical claim in the book with care.
This biography was written by a language model. The sources below are where to check it; treat details with care.
Books
Olocausto
by Alfredo Oriani
Leaving a cheap Florentine eating house after a good dinner, a stranger is stopped in the street by a woman who offers to take him to a girl. Told over five days and an aftermath, Oriani's stark novel follows a poor household that sacrifices its daughter Tina to need, and those…
Summary written by Claude Opus 5.5.