Beautiful Antonio

Beautiful Antonio

Author	Vitaliano Brancati
Original title	Il bell'Antonio
Language	Italian
Publisher	Bompiani
Publication date	1949
Publication place	Italy
Published in English	1952
Pages	327

Beautiful Antonio (Italian : Il bell'Antonio) is a 1949 novel by the Italian writer Vitaliano Brancati. Set in the 1930s and 1940s, it is about a Sicilian man who easily attracts women with his beauty but fails in his attempted career in Rome and struggles with impotence as he returns to Sicily for marriage. The book deals with themes related to Southern Italian sexual gallismo and Fascist Italy. ^{[1] [2]}

The book was first published in English as Antonio, the Great Lover in a 1952 translation by Vladimir Kean where some of the sexual content was omitted. A 1978 unabridged translation by Stanley Hochman was published as Bell'Antonio. A translation by Patrick Creagh was published in 1991 as Bell'Antonio and reissued in 2007 as Beautiful Antonio. ^[3]

Beautiful Antonio received the 1950 Bagutta Prize. It was the basis for the 1960 film Il bell'Antonio , directed by Mauro Bolognini and starring Marcello Mastroianni in the title role. ^[3] It was adapted for the screen again in 2005 as the two-part RAI serial Il bell'Antonio  [ it ], directed by Maurizio Zaccaro and starring Daniele Liotti. ^[4]

References

1. Salvante, Martina (2015). "'Less than a Boot-Rag': Procreation, Paternity, and the Masculine Ideal in Fascist Italy". In Andersen, P.D.; Wendt, S. (eds.). Masculinities and the Nation in the Modern World. Global Masculinities. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 93–112. doi:10.1057/9781137536105_6.
2. "Antonio the Great Lover". Kirkus Reviews . 1 August 1952. Retrieved 4 March 2025.
3. Healey, Robin (2019). Italian Literature since 1900 in English Translation 1929-2016. University of Toronto Press. pp. 75, 324 726. ISBN   9781487502928.
4. Buonanno, Milly (2006). Le radici e le foglie. La fiction italiana, l'Italia nella fiction (in Italian). Rai-ERI. p. 196. ISBN   9788839713919.