Resurrection of a book
The 27th episode of the series by the Italian best-selling authors is dedicated to the story of a resurrection. That of a book.
The history of books is sometimes tortuous, almost like that of our lives, and in some cases even more so, because we can die, like books, but we cannot rise again (although without setting limits to providence), as sometimes happens to some of them.
Yes, because in some cases it is allowed to them. And when it happens it means that the book was worthy of it, that is, that the work contains valuable values, which, perhaps decades later, resurface and are still relevant for today's readers.
And these attentive readers, who rediscover these books, submit them to a new (re)reading, as if it were a second life for the book. Here in these cases we can say that the book has "risen".
The phenomenon is not new, it has already happened and could happen again. Oh God, not that there have been many works that have had this privilege. And even fewer of those who met in their first life with great public and at the same time critical success, which in itself is not very frequent, and then disappeared. But after half a century and more they have come back to life. Ilia and Alberto by Angelo Gatti is one of these.
A great best seller
The novel was released in 1930 and immediately captured the attention of readers, so much so that it was considered one of the top best sellers of those years. In 1945 it was in fact at its 13th edition, almost once a year, including the war years. Who could boast then such circulations!
And even more amazing, the book had also achieved great critical success, which is no small feat, given that generally the books that readers like most often make the great literary critics turn up their noses.
Critical acclaim
The severe literary critic Attilio Momigliano declared that Gatti's book was the best of the last half century.
And instead this time the miracle happened, given that one of the greatest critics of the century, one of the most subtle and prepared, Attilio Momigliano, declared that Gatti's novel was the best that had been published in Italy for half a century.
Statement of absolute relevance, expressed by someone who wasn't so subtle in his judgments: one of the best novels of the last 50 years! Are we kidding? What had happened.
Had Momigliano made a mistake, perhaps enchanted by an event that he intimately felt suited to him? And that, by some quirk of fate, 20 years later he would have experienced firsthand, when, widowed like the protagonist of the novel, he would have overcome the tragedy in the same way, concentrating on his activity as a critic and scholar. As he allegedly confessed in the introduction to his comment to the Betrothed released in the 1951.
Or had seen in Ilia and Alberto things that others had not been able to grasp? Or both together? These are obviously questions to which we cannot give a precise answer, but only make hypotheses.
However, the fact remained and weighed heavily on the history of the novel.
Then, from the XNUMXs the novel quickly and completely disappeared from the booksellers' windows. Other values, other concepts of life were imposing themselves on society. It is the work of a general at the top of our armed forces and a close collaborator of Cadorna, as such was Angelo Gatti, one of the protagonists of the culture of the twenty years, one of the leading experts in military art and history, later a member of that Academy of Could Italy, which for better or worse gathered the most prominent values and personalities of the twenty years, remain in the collective imagination?
Could it survive in a period in which mass reference values were rapidly turning towards secular and socialist-Marxist culture?
Its rediscovery
Thus the work disappeared from circulation. And for many decades it was completely forgotten. Then at the beginning of the nineties, Rizzoli re-proposed it in the series of "books of the Christian spirit" and a certain number of readers, not very many as in the first life of the work, but still consistent, given that in 1994 it was in its 3rd edition, they were able to read and appreciate it.
And eminent personalities of the Catholic side have rediscovered its importance precisely in this second life of his. One above all: Don Giussani, the founder and promoter of "Communion and Liberation", who defined it as the most important novel of our twentieth century. Rash judgement? Maybe! And in any case, as we have just seen, in good company.
It may therefore be interesting to get to know the book and its author, and remember that the novel is still on the market today, or in any case easily available, so that anyone interested can easily read it. Not that it's an easy read suitable for everyone, there are over 500 pages to sip slowly, but perhaps in the end one will realize that this work is worth more than many contemporary works.
The life
Angelo Gatti was born in Capua in 1875 into a military family. They directed him to their own career at the age of fifteen, first to the military school in Naples, then to the Academy of Modena, and finally, having obtained the title of lieutenant, he was transferred to serve in various cities.
Thus began that career that appointment after appointment would lead him to reach the top of the armed forces.
A solid culture and excellent writing skills
Angelo Gatti also has a solid literary and historical background, which earned him the appointment, at just 37 years of age, as professor of history and military art at the war school in Turin. At the same time he has a full-bodied and well-constructed prose, pleasant from the first and immediate reading. And his numerous military history essays prove it.
By virtue of this, in 1912 he began to collaborate with the "Gazzetta del popolo" as an expert on military issues, but also on history and literature. Two years later, the director of the "Corriere della Sera", Luigi Albertini, wanted him in his daily newspaper, where he remained for a good 12 years, always being appreciated for the acuity of his observations, the fidelity of the reconstructions, the preparation on the subject and the enjoyment of your articles.
The independence of judgment
Also striking is his independence of judgment, his objectivity, in an environment, the military one, traditionally not particularly inclined towards such characteristics. So much so that, for example, when Italy enters the war, he makes no secret of some perplexity, but as a good soldier he never backs down and carries out his task with the utmost dedication.
These characteristics of his are noticed and appreciated by the general in chief of the Italian army, Luigi Cadorna, who wants him among his closest and closest collaborators, and puts him at the head of the structure that had the task of recounting the events of the war. And Gatti carries out this role with great scruple and dedication, not even escaping from sometimes pointing out shortcomings and perplexities in the management of the armed forces and its leaders.
The defeat of Caporetto
A particular period is obviously the one linked to the defeat of Caporetto, which he records with great meticulousness down to the smallest detail, highlighting how the responsibilities of others, in particular General Pietro Badoglio, had not been of little importance in the tragedy.
Marriage and its tragic outcome
In this period, at the beginning of 1917, he marries Emilia, the future Ilia of his novel: a marriage that will prove to be of extraordinary intensity, love and correspondence. No children would have been born, but the union would have ensured for the couple a truly exemplary period of fullness, joy and harmony.
Which among other things is not even very easy to estimate, given that the two came, from a social, cultural and religious point of view, from opposite backgrounds. She, for example, was very Catholic, he was an atheist and a member of Freemasonry.
Discharge from military life
The post-war period also proved to be a very intense period of life. Meanwhile, General Cadorna, replaced by General Diaz at the top of the army, wants him as his personal assistant in the inter-allied war council of Versailles, to which he had been called to belong.
Gatti followed him and assisted him in the work, but the following year, in 1919, he left the army and dedicated himself to his professional life as a journalist, essayist, one of the most competent in matters of military history, writer and editorial officer.
The tragedy
However, this life so intense, fulfilling and full of satisfactions suddenly takes a dramatic and completely unexpected turn. After ten years of perfect conjugal union, his wife disappeared in 1927, within a few days, due to fulminant meningitis, initially mistaken for simple flu. It is a tragedy of catastrophic proportions for the spouse, which plunges him into the most complete, total and irreducible despair.
A period of terrible prostration begins for him, from which he slowly begins to re-emerge, approaching that faith that had meant so much to his wife. Thus he rediscovers her role as inspirer, who guides him, albeit in another dimension, towards the acceptance of death, in the absolute conviction of finding her again at her side in the new and eternal dimension, in the light of faith.
This is the theme of the novel. This is the journey he takes and which he describes in his masterpiece: a novel with a classic style, to which the masters of the late nineteenth century with whom he trained, Tommaseo and Fogazzaro are no strangers.
The Turn to Literature
After leaving his military career, he devoted himself to writing and also to fiction. The Merchant of the Sun is his latest novel.
From this moment Gatti, while not neglecting his commitments as a historian and scholar of military matters, also testified by the conferences he held on these subjects, later published and even posthumously, devoted himself mainly to literature. He writes articles and essays, directs a military history series for Mondadori, but literature is his privileged sector of intervention.
Appointment as academician of Italy
His activity did not go unnoticed, so much so that in 1937 he was nominated as a member of the Italian Academy, the most prestigious cultural institution in the country. There are 60 members who are part of it. The title of excellence is reserved for them, attributed only to prefects, ministers and the secretary of the single party, and the bonus of 3.000 lire a month, triple what was the dream of the time ("if I could have a thousand lire per month"). On the other hand, there is only the obligation to participate in the pompous meetings, wearing a uniform described down to the smallest detail in the institution law.
In the meantime, other works, some essays, some stories and another novel come out, The Merchant of the Sun in 1942.
He died in Milan in 1948 at the age of 73.
Ilia and Alberto
«What to say at this point of the novel, if not to quote some phrases expressed by Momigliano in the magazine "Pegaso" of February 1931, immediately after the publication of the book. But not before a simple observation on the tastes of the readers of the XNUMXs, which shouldn't have been so low-key, if they were able to distinguish, in the immense consumer publishing production, even the rare gems, even what was really worth reading. Who knows if today we would be able to do the same...
In the book resonates everywhere a lofty and rested wisdom of life.
The harmony and artistic richness of this book has few comparisons in the Italian novel of the last 50 years.
But anyone who hasn't read this book has already experienced, in the few quotations I've made, the thrill that big words give.
The prose of this book is calm, full, affectionate, animated by a melancholic warmth, relieved by an unusual longing for the imperishable: it is one that arises from within, from a strong experience. We are too accustomed to novels born of the profession not to close this one with emotion and admiration. Attilio Momigliano
