Il Duce and His Women: Mussolini's Rise to Power
Roberto Olla, Stephen Parkin (trs.)
Il Duce and His Women: Mussolini's Rise to Power
After Mussolini's ignominious end in Piazzale Loreto, most have tried to erase the memory and the actions of the once powerful dictator, while others have made an attempt to reassess his life and works, despite the indelible legacy of death, violence and destruction he left behind. But who is the real Benito Mussolini? Now that over sixty years of scholarship and an abundance of first-hand documents by his closest relations and his many lovers are available to the researcher, the elusive, contradictory and often misunderstood traits of his character are beginning to take shape into a more meaningful and better defined portrait of the man, the politician and the leader. The Duce and His Women charts the main events in Mussolini's private and public life, from his humble beginnings in Romagna as the son of a blacksmith to his years as the director of a leading Socialist newspaper and his irresistible rise to power, with a particular focus on his renowned appetite for women, and the lesser-known influence they had on his decision-making.
2.5 out of 5 based on 4 reviews
|
Omniscore:
|
| Classification |
Non-fiction |
| Genre |
History, Biography |
| Format |
Hardback |
| Pages |
450 |
| RRP |
£25.00 |
| Date of Publication |
October 2011 |
| ISBN |
978-1846881350 |
| Publisher |
Alma Books |
| |
After Mussolini's ignominious end in Piazzale Loreto, most have tried to erase the memory and the actions of the once powerful dictator, while others have made an attempt to reassess his life and works, despite the indelible legacy of death, violence and destruction he left behind. But who is the real Benito Mussolini? Now that over sixty years of scholarship and an abundance of first-hand documents by his closest relations and his many lovers are available to the researcher, the elusive, contradictory and often misunderstood traits of his character are beginning to take shape into a more meaningful and better defined portrait of the man, the politician and the leader. The Duce and His Women charts the main events in Mussolini's private and public life, from his humble beginnings in Romagna as the son of a blacksmith to his years as the director of a leading Socialist newspaper and his irresistible rise to power, with a particular focus on his renowned appetite for women, and the lesser-known influence they had on his decision-making.
Reviews
The Independent
Emilia Ippolito
"It is an interesting approach to Mussolini's biography, particularly at a time of deep crisis in Italy. The timing could not be more appropriate: only a few days before publication of the English edition, Silvio Berlusconi left the political stage. There are similarities between these two figures, both obsessed with their own image and with women. Neither showed a clear political vision or the willingness to see their homeland develop. Olla begs the question as to why, 60 years after Mussolini's death, the Italian electorate should fall again for such inconsistent political personalities."
02/12/2011
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The Spectator
David Gilmour
"Reading about this ineffable creature almost makes one warm to Berlusconi … It is a pity that author and publisher have tried to sensationalise this book. The cover claims that ‘no intimate detail is spared’ (not true) and that the text is ‘enriched by first-hand documents’ (also not true — they have already been published); and Olla states in his opening sentence that ‘this book is about sex’, before warning in a titillating way that readers should understand this before turning the pages. This is meretricious stuff, and unnecessary, because the work, though not as original as it claims, is a fine psychological study."
19/11/2011
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The Sunday Times
Dominic Sandbrook
"There is a good popular history to be written on all this; unfortunately, Olla is too rambling and disorganised a writer to provide it. Frustratingly, his book falls between two stools, neither genuinely sensationalist nor particularly insightful, although there are plenty of memorable moments. As Olla remarks, nothing could be more revealing than the Italian public’s reaction to Mussolini’s death. After the dictator and his mistress had been shot in April 1945 and hung upside down at a petrol station, their bodies were exhibited at the local morgue, where hundreds of spectators queued to see them. “Everyone,” Olla notes, “wanted to take photographs of Mussolini’s penis.”"
06/11/2011
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The Scotsman
Michael Pye
"Some of this story is as arousing as a card catalogue, some of it rests all too heavily on the great de Felice biography of Mussolini, some of it is a good, brisk summary of Mussolini’s rise to power, but the book has a problem: the best evidence for Mussolini’s life with one particular woman, and her influence, is the rather airy, insubstantial diaries of Claretta Petacci ... And Olla stops in 1936, before Claretta was established."
19/11/2011
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