Essays and Dialogues

Essays and Dialogues

CONTENTS. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH vii HISTORY OF THE HUMAN RACE.1 DIALOGUE BETWEEN HERCULES AND ATLAS.15 DIALOGUE BETWEEN FASHION AND DEATH.19 PRIZE COMPETITION ANNOUNCED BY THE ACADEMY OF SILLOGRAPHS.24 DIALOGUE BETWEEN A GOBLIN AND A GNOME.28 DIALOGUE BETWEEN MALAMBRUNO AND FARFARELLO.33 DIALOGUE BETWEEN NATURE AND A SOUL.36 DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE EARTH AND THE MOON41 THE WAGER OF PROMETHEUS.48 DIALOGUE BETWEEN A NATURAL PHILOSOPHER AND A METAPHYSICIAN58 DIALOGUE BETWEEN TASSO AND HIS FAMILIAR SPIRIT65 DIALOGUE BETWEEN NATURE AND AN ICELANDER.73 PARINI ON GLORY.80 DIALOGUE BETWEEN FREDERIC RUYSCH AND HIS MUMMIES.110 REMARKABLE SAYINGS OF PHILIP OTTONIERI.117 DIALOGUE BETWEEN CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND PIETRO GUTIERREZ.139 PANEGYRIC OF BIRDS.144 THE SONG OF THE WILD COCK.151 DIALOGUE BETWEEN TIMANDRO AND ELEANDRO.156 COPERNICUS:167 DIALOGUE BETWEEN AN ALMANAC SELLER AND A PASSER-BY.179 DIALOGUE BETWEEN PLOTINUS AND PORPHYRIUS.182 COMPARISON OF THE LAST WORDS OF MARCUS BRUTUS AND THEOPHRASTUS.196 DIALOGUE BETWEEN TRISTANO AND A FRIEND.206 The name of Giacomo Leopardi is not yet a household word in the mouths of Englishmen. Few of us have heard of him; still fewer have read any of his writings. If known at all, he is probably coupled, in a semi-contemptuous manner, with other foreign representatives of a phase of poetic thought, the influence of which has passed its zenith. As a contemporary of Byron, Leopardi is perhaps credited with a certain amount of psychological plagiarism, and possibly disregarded as a mere satellite of the greater planet. But if this be so, it is unjust. His fame is his own, and time makes his isolation and grand individuality more and more prominent. What Byron and Shelley, Millevoye, Baudelaire and Gautier, Heine and Platen, Pouchkine and Lermontoff, are to England, France, Germany, and Russia respectively, Leopardi is, in a measure, to Italy. But he is more than this. The jewel of his renown is[Pg viii] triple-faceted. Philology, poetry, and philosophy were each in turn cultivated by him, and he was of too brilliant an intellect not to excel in them all. As a philologist he astonished Niebuhr and delighted Creuzer; as a poet he has been compared with Dante; as a philosopher he takes high rank among the greatest and most original men of modern times. One of his biographers (Dovari: "Studio di G. Leopardi," Ancona, 1877) has termed him "the greatest philosopher, poet, and prose-writer of the nineteenth century." Though such eulogy may be, and doubtless is, excessive, the fact that it has been given testifies to the extraordinary nature of the man who is its subject. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 52356
Author: Leopardi, Giacomo
Release Date: Jun 17, 2016
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Translator: Edwardes, Charles