Criticism > Drama Criticism > Pirandello, Luigi - Biographical Information

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Pirandello was born in Sicily to a prosperous sulphur merchant. Although his father initially sent him to study commerce at the local technical institute, Pirandello found the subject uninteresting and transferred to an academic secondary school, where he excelled in oratory and literature. After graduation, Pirandello attended universities in Palermo, Rome, and finally Bonn, where he earned a doctorate in Romance philology. After his father arranged Pirandello's marriage to Antonietta Portulano, the daughter of a business partner, the couple settled together in Rome and had three children. To support his family, Pirandello was forced to take a position as professor at a women's normal school. In 1904 he realized his first critical success with the novel Il fu Mattia Pascal (The Late Mattia Pascal), but this was overshadowed when his father's sulphur mines, in which Pirandello was heavily invested, were destroyed in a flood....

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1. Introduction
2. Biographical Information
3. Major Works
4. Critical Reception
5. Principal Works
6. Author Commentary
7. Overviews And General Studies
8. Six Characters In Search Of An Author
9. Critical Commentary
10. Henry Iv
11. Further Reading
12. Copyright

1. Drama