Aldo Palazzeschi's literary production, characterized by its versatility and originality, is among the best known of twentieth-century Italian literature. Both an affirmed poet and prose writer, Palazzeschi resisted categorization throughout his career, from his early involvement and subsequent withdrawal from the avant-garde futurist movement to his later, more canonically "realist" fiction. Certain features, however, remain constant in his works as a whole; Palazzeschi's fantasy affects all his writings, and his concept of humor, a kind of laughter mixed with melancholy, pervades many of his works. Other themes explored in his works are sexuality, the dialectic between the young and the old--as well as between the human and the animal--and the concept of the individual set apart from society by virtue of his or her difference.

Palazzeschi was born Aldo Giurlani in Florence at via Guicciardini on 2 February 1885 to a family of means. His father, Alberto Giurlani, owned a...