∗ I would like to thank Lumley, Robert, Diffley, Paul and Davie, Mark for their comments on a previous draft of this article.Google Scholar

1. On the contextualization of the novel within the periodical see Namer, Fulvia Airoldi, ‘Massimo Bontempelli: una vita intensamente inoperosa’, in Letteratura e industria , Olschki, Florence, 1997, Vol. II, pp. 681–706. All the references and citations from the novel are taken from Massimo Bontempelli, La vita intensa. La vita operosa, Mondadori, Milan, 1998. All the translations from the text are my own.Google Scholar

2. See Glielmo, Roselena, La traversata dell'ironia. Studi su Massimo Bontempelli , Guida, Naples, 1994, p. 48.Google Scholar

3. Savinio, Alberto, “‘Anadioménon”. Principi di valutazione dell'Arte contemporanea’, Valori Plastici , April–May 1919, p. 8. There are strong analogies between the theorization of Metaphysical painting developed by Alberto Savinio, Giorgio De Chirico and Carlo Carrà between 1918 and 1921 (particularly in the periodical Valori Plastici) and the theoretical foundation of the periodical 900, edited by Bontempelli between 1926 and 1929.Google Scholar

4. See Marinetti, Filippo Tommaso, ‘La Nuova Religione-Morale della Velocità’, in De Maria, Luciano (ed.), Per conoscere Marinetti e i futuristi , Mondadori, Milan, 1973, p. 185. On the appeal of Milan to men of letters, see the picture of the city given by Giuseppe Prezzolini in his 1923 book La coltura italiana, where he says that Milan ‘is the most important publishing centre, has the newspaper with the widest circulation, is the stronghold of culture and of popular libraries and universities, hosts the theatrical market, has the monopoly over theatre and opera companies which normally are formed here. Any initiative which starts off in Milan can be certain of finding help, assistance and support in some circle or group activity … many centres of the Italian life are found in Milan and they could not be anywhere else, because only Milan can provide the money and the energy to make them live. For instance: the Guild of Authors and the Association of Publishers are in Milan’ (La coltura italiana, La Voce, Florence, 1923, p. 27).Google Scholar

5. See Galateria, Marinella Mascia, ‘Parodia, paradosso e qualche favilla di verità’, afterword to Massimo Bontempelli, La vita intensa. La vita operosa , pp. 311–312. Significant, with regard to the importance of the representation of Milan, are the subtitles of the two novels. While the subtitle for La vita intensa is Romanzo dei romanzi, which places the emphasis on the treatment of the genre, La vita operosa’s subtitle, Avventure del ‘19 a Milano, makes the city almost the co-protagonist of the novel.Google Scholar

6. See Fochessati, Matteo and Millefiore, Pietro, ‘La città nuova’, in Crispolti, Enrico and Sborgi, Franco (eds), Futurismo. I grandi temi 1909–1944 , Mazzotta, Milan, 1998, p. 43.Google Scholar

7. Sant'Elia, Antonio, ‘L'Architettura futurista’, in De Maria, (ed.), Per conoscere Marinetti , p. 150.Google Scholar

8. De Chirico, Giorgio, ‘Sull'arte metafisica’, Valori plastici , April–May 1919, p. 17.Google Scholar

9. See Balla, Giacomo and Depero, Fortunato, ‘Ricostruzione futurista dell'universo’, in De Maria, (ed.), Per conoscere Marinetti , p. 175: ‘By developing the first synthetic representation of the speed of the automobile, Balla has achieved the first plastic complex. This has revealed an abstract landscape made up of cones, pyramids, polyhedrons, spiral-shaped mountains, rivers, lights, shadows. Thus a profound analogy emerges between the bare force-lines of speed and the bare force-lines of a landscape.’ Google Scholar

10. Bontempelli, , La vita operosa , p. 160.Google Scholar

11. See Berman, Marhall, All That is Solid Melts into Air. The Experience of Modernity , Verso, London and New York, 1983, pp. 159–164.Google Scholar

12. Savinio, , “‘Anadioménon”’, p. 14.Google Scholar

13. Bontempelli, Massimo, ‘Fondements’, 900 , December 1926, p. 11.Google Scholar

14. Bontempelli, , La vita operosa , p. 160.Google Scholar

15. It is worth remembering that in 1926 Bontempelli defined irony not only, as already seen, as detachment and lucidity, but also as ‘transition from the concept of the work of art as subject to that of the work of art as object’ (‘Fondements’, p. 11), Glielmo, , La traversata dell'ironia , p. 46.Google Scholar

16. Bontempelli, , La vita operosa , pp. 157–158.Google Scholar

17. Ibid. , pp. 158–159.Google Scholar

18. Ibid. , p. 159.Google Scholar

19. Ibid. , p. 160.Google Scholar

20. Ibid. , p. 166.Google Scholar

21. Ibid. , p. 160.Google Scholar

22. Ibid. , p. 215.Google Scholar

23. Ibid. , p. 161.Google Scholar

24. Ibid. , p. 161.Google Scholar

25. Ibid. , p. 162.Google Scholar

26. Ibid. , p. 164.Google Scholar

27. Ibid. , p. 164.Google Scholar

28. The narrator adds: ‘Every now and then I stopped in ecstasy amongst the shouting crowd and I could hardly refrain myself from bursting out in admiration for mankind’, La vita operosa , p. 165. Although in Bontempelli's protagonist this excitement is partially due to the participation in the ‘desire to live’ which characterizes post-war Italy, the feeling of empowerment created by being in the midst of the city traffic has been described by Berman as yet another mode of adaptation to metropolitan reality. He quotes Le Corbusier: ‘On that 1st October, 1924, I was assisting in the titanic rebirth … of a new phenomenon … traffic. Cars, cars, fast, fast! One is seized, filled with enthusiasm, with joy … the joy of power. The simple and naive pleasure of being in the midst of power, of strength. One participates in it. One takes part in this society that is just dawning. One has confidence in this new society: it will find a magnificent expression of its power. One believes in it’, Berman, All That is Solid, p. 166.Google Scholar

29. Bontempelli, , La vita operosa , p. 165.Google Scholar

30. Ibid. , p. 167.Google Scholar

31. Ibid. , p. 168.Google Scholar

32. Ibid. , p. 203.Google Scholar

33. Ibid. , p. 212.Google Scholar

34. Ibid. , p. 214.Google Scholar

35. Ibid., p. 218; on the myth of Milan as the ‘moral capital’ of Italy see Spinazzola, Vittorio, ‘La “capitale morale”. Cultura milanese e mitologia urbana’, Belfagor , 36, 3, 1981, pp. 317–327.Google Scholar

36. Bontempelli, , La vita operosa , pp. 176–177.Google Scholar

37. Ibid. , p. 183.Google Scholar

38. Ibid. , p. 187.Google Scholar

39. Ibid. , p. 190.Google Scholar

40. Ibid. , p. 198.Google Scholar

41. See Spinazzola, , “‘La capitale morale”’, p. 326.Google Scholar

42. Namer, Airoldi, ‘Massimo Bontempelli’, p. 687.Google Scholar

43. Galateria, Mascia, ‘Parodia, paradosso e qualche favilla di verità’, p. 311.Google Scholar

44. Baldacci, Luigi, Massimo Bontempelli , Borla, Turin, 1967, p. 35. See also Baldacci, , ‘Massimo Bontempelli’, in Branca, Vittore (ed.), Dizionario critico della letteratura Italiana, vol. 1, UTET, Turin, 1974, pp. 383–387.Google Scholar

45. Despite the critical attitude towards Milanese society, Bontempelli avoids assuming a specifically political stance. Significant, in this respect, is the beginning of Chapter Six, where the protagonist is the impartial witness of a clash between Communists and Fascists. Having managed to find shelter from the excited crowd and having realized that his packet of cigarettes had been destroyed in the riot his only comment to the situation is: ‘This is something I am sorry about!’, La vita operosa , p. 240.Google Scholar

46. Pike, Burton, The Image of the City in Modern Literature , Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1981, p. 4.Google Scholar