THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF SAVOY

by Robert Katz ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 20, 1971

The prosaic details of politics and diplomacy are rarely permitted to impinge on this history of the ""leaf-eating, tortoise-like House of Savoy"" with royal weddings, funerals, fox-bunts and soirees occupying the stage most of the time. Perhaps it's just as well since author Katz has little but contempt for Italy, that ""ridiculous imitation of a Great Power."" The Risorgimento, for example, ""was nothing but the advance of the New Oppression,"" an orgy of false idealism which saw ""not a moment of glory."" Wild-eyed Mazzini led straight to power-crazed Mussolini and his ""nationalist dialectics would one day be the cornerstone of Fascist philosophy""; in the interim, the regimes of Depretis, Crispi and Giolitti were the sorriest of excuses for parliamentarianism. Katz fills in the amours of Victor Emmanuel II, Humbert II and Margherita -- with particular attention to that lady's ""intolerance, bigotry, chauvinism, xenophobia and religious fanaticism."" On Victor Emmanuel III and Yolanda and the luckless Humbert III whose thirty-four-day reign brought the dynasty (""nine hundred years of earthbound cunning, parsimony, phlegmatism (sic), fragility, incredible selfishness"") to a close. Those seeking a more judicious appraisal of the role of the monarchy in the making of the modern Italian state should stick to the standard works of Dennis Mack Smith and Salvemini.

Pub Date: May 20, 1971

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1971

Categories: NONFICTION