HER HUSBAND

A rather acerbic 1911 novel, its author’s fifth, that’s at best a minor addition to the remarkable oeuvre of the Italian Nobel prizewinner (1867–1936) better known for his revolutionary plays. Based on the experiences of Pirandello’s contemporary (and fellow Nobel laureate) Sardinia’s Grazia Deledda, it’s a satirical look at a successful woman fiction writer from humble origins who’s shepherded through Rome’s ineffably pretentious—and vicious—literary circles, circa 1900. There’s a kind of muted nobility in protagonist Silvia Roncella’s sturdy resistance to the literati’s allure, but the character of her (eponymous) husband and manager, officious Giustino Boggiolo, is too obviously a straw man employed for what may have been Pirandello’s settling of old literary scores. Readable and frequently amusing, but not one of Pirandello’s important novels.