The Italian author Ugo Foscolo (1778-1827) was a poet, critic, and dramatist as well as a patriot. His romantic temperament and flamboyant life characterize his role as a key transitional figure in Italian literary history.

Born Niccolò Foscolo on the Greek island of Zante on Feb. 6, 1778, he soon adopted the pseudonym Ugo. Well educated in philosophy, classics, and Italian literature, in 1792 Foscolo moved to Venice, where he immediately became embroiled in the struggle for independence. After writing "Ode to Bonaparte the Liberator" (1797), Foscolo began a life of exile, during which he fought against Austria, first in Venice, then in Romagna, in Genoa, and even in France (1804-1806).

Concurrent with his military exploits, Foscolo gave literary expression to his ideological aspirations and to the numerous amorous experiences of these years in odes, sonnets, plays, the epistolary novel The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis (1802), and the long poem On...