At the beginning of his life, Giacomo Leopardi was happy. In childhood, joy, rage, 'mad cheerfulness" filled his days.
Then the unhappiness fell upon him. A "diseases system" takes possession of his body. Giacomo does not feel either the nature or the beauty; the feeling, the enthusiasm fade away; human unhappiness is irremediable.
It remains only to bear: an art that he becomes, in a few years, to manage as a teacher. But his mind is in love with the contradictions of reversals and duplications. So, he continues to pursue happiness, even knowing that it is an hopeless conquest. He lives most of the rest of his life hiding the pain, the anguish, the desolation, the passions, the loneliness, the gift of being an immense genius.
Pietro Citati takes us through the life of Leopardi to the secret heart of his work. There are some biographical news and many fresh and original interpretations in this book. But above all there is, as Leopardi would like, the ability to empathize with the writer, to follow every single impulse of the text, in order to create a new vibrant and passionate work.