Landolfi, Tommaso
Landolfi, Tommaso (1908–80),Italian writer, poet, playwright and critic. From his first work, Dialogo dei màssimi sistemi (Dialogue On Great Systems, 1937), Landolfi showed his inclination for paradoxical humour and grotesque surrealism. His ten volumes of tales and novellas reveal his remarkable talent, whether it is bent to achieve stylistic preciousness, or to blend together fantastic, sardonic, and surreal elements to create a sense of anguish and of looming nightmares, as Landolfi does in Nel mar delle blatte (The Sea of Cockroaches, 1939), La spada (The Sword, 1942), and Racconto d'autunno (An Autumn Story, 1947). In this last tale the author recalls the atmospheres of the gothic narrative of such writers as E. T. A. Hoffmann, Edgar Allan Poe, and Barbey d'Aurevilly. Moralistic and metaphysical concerns permeate instead the science‐fiction tale...
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