Eugenio Montale, the Fascist Storm, and the Jewish Sunflower

‘Hertz succeeds admirably in revealing the rich and complex tapestry hidden behind the Clizia Cycle.’

Rossella Riccobono, Modern Language Review vol 111:02:2016

“Eugenio Montale, the Fascist Storm, and the Jewish Sunflower is the first book that deals extensively in English with the myth of Clizia, the central figure in Montale’s mature poetry, and a kind of ironic modern Beatrice to the poet’s Modernist, agnostic Dante. This is a compelling story, both biographically and artistically, and Hertz artfully interweaves the poet’s personal and aesthetic themes. His book is an original and important addition to Montale criticism in our language and will help readers read Montale in a more complex and holistic way.” Jonathan Galassi, translator of Collected Poems, 1920–1954: Eugenio Montale, Otherwise: Last and First Poems of Eugenio Montale, and The Second Life of Art: Selected Essays of Eugenio Montale

“Eugenio Montale, the Fascist Storm, and the Jewish Sunflower is a joy to read – the prose style is elegant and charming, recreating with panache, drama, and

colour the context in which Montale worked. The advantage of David Michael Hertz’s approach is that it brings the poems to life for readers who do not yet know them, explaining their

meaning in a lively and delightful way.” Clodagh Brook, Department of Italian Studies, University of Birmingham

“As a Dante scholar, Irma Brandeis was a prime expositor of Italian literature as well as a lover and muse of Eugenio Montale, the greatest Italian poet of the twentieth century.

But the Fascist storm separated them when Mussolini entered into an alliance with Hitler in 1938 and accepted his anti-Semitic policies. Miss Brandeis, the “Jewish sunflower,”

was obliged to return to America, never to see her innamorato again. While in America she continued to publish and comment on Montale’s poetry, even on some of the

poems which she inspired. This contextualization of history and myth provides a major entry to David Michael Hertz’s brilliant study of Montale’s poetry. It was through the alembic of separation that the real-life Irma rose to the level Beatrice occupied in the poetry of Dante and Laura in that of Petrarch.” Ricardo Quinones, Josephine Olp Weeks Professor of Literature, Emeritus, Claremont McKenna College