Giacomo Leopardi Summary

Leopardi, Count Giacomo(1798–1837) Count Giacomo Leopardi, the Italian poet and prose writer, was one of five children born to Count Monaldo Leopardi and Marquise Adelaide Antici, in Recanati, ... Read more

Conte Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837), Italy's greatest romantic poet, had encyclopedic interests. His critical writings, correspondence, philological studies, and notebooks of literary and philosophical... Read more

In the following essay, Corrigan discusses Leopardi's reputation in England in the mid-nineteenth century. «The first time an Englishman ever mentioned the name of Leopardi in print w... Read more

In the following essay, Pesaresi discusses the critical debate on whether or not Leopardi was a Platonic thinker, noting that the relationship between ethics and aesthetics in the poet's work w... Read more

In the following essay, Singh traces Leopardi's brief journey from a period of youthful and comforting illusions to maturity and the necessity of abandoning those illusions in favor of a pursui... Read more

In the following essay, Stancati examines the relationship of Leopardi's linguistic theory to his study of various thinkers of the French Enlightenment. Giacomo Leopardi's “rat... Read more

In the following essay, Urbancic discusses an especially tumultuous time in Leopardi's life that was followed by a period of calm during which he composed the lyric poems of the “grandi ... Read more

In the following essay, Perella ponders Leopardi's relative obscurity outside his native Italy despite the poet's influence on Anglo-American literary culture. E chiaro nella valle il... Read more

In the following excerpt, Perella examines Leopardi's many references in his lyric poetry to light, which he equated with happiness. 1 Taking both day and night settings, the number of refer... Read more

In the following essay, Gerato traces Leopardi's increasingly negative assessment of reason, which the poet came to identify as the source of humanity's unhappiness. Illusion is perha... Read more

In the following essay, Bonadeo explores the two phases of Leopardi's views on nature; the poet originally considered nature a benign force, but later began to see nature as hostile toward huma... Read more

In the following excerpt, Bini discusses Leopardi's writings as a synthesis between poetry and philosophy, maintaining that earlier critics have mistakenly considered the two aspects of his wor... Read more

In the following excerpted introduction to his translation of Leopardi's poetry, Vivante summarizes the poet's life and method of composition. There are books to have near, and Leopar... Read more

In the following essay, Perella deems Romantic desire and the philosophical longing for the infinite as central to Leopardi's poetry. Un vértigo espantoso se apoderó de mi, y c... Read more

In the following essay, Williams discusses Leopardi's perception of the legitimate sources of human merit and solidarity in a world devoid of true purpose and meaning, as illustrated in his poe... Read more

In the following excerpt, originally published in 1882, Arnold compares Leopardi with the English poets Lord Byron and William Wordsworth. We will take three poets, among the most considerable of o... Read more

In the following essay, Singh considers the philosophical significance of suffering and inspiration in Leopardi's theoretical writings on poetry. In so far as modern poetry is concerned, Leo... Read more

In the following essay, Lowry examines Leopardi's poetic development within the historical context of Italian versification, paying special attention to the works “All'Italia ... Read more

In the following essay, Sowell explicates the poem “La vita solitaria,” concentrating on Leopardi's use of literary allusion, and on the poem's theme of personal isolation ... Read more