Iginio (or Igino) Ugo Tarchetti (Italian pronunciation: [iˈdʒiːnjo ˈuːɡo tarˈketti]; 29 June 1839 – 25 March 1869) was an Italian author, poet, and journalist of the first generation of Lombard line. Long forgotten by Italian literary critics, Tarchetti's work is undergoing critical reappraisal in recent years. Tarchetti is considered the first practitioner of Gothic fiction in Italy.
Life
Born in San Salvatore Monferrato, his military career was cut short by ill health, and in 1865 he settled in Milan. His experiences as a volunteer officer in the army between 1859 and 1865 led to the novel Una nobile follia (1867), which provides a courageous denunciation of the conscript army at a time when the armed forces were a potent, if fragile, symbol of Italy's Unification. The work caused an uproar in the press, and copies were openly burned at many Italian military barracks.
In his last few years Tarchetti lived a peripatetic existence between Turin and Milan, eventually settling in the latter and working frenetically to earn enough to be a full-time writer. He worked on several newspapers and published a torrent of short stories, novels, and poems.
He also set up two short-lived journals, the Piccolo giornale and Palestra musicale, and contributed to many others. He became one of the leading figures of the Scapigliatura, producing serialized novels and stories which reveal a restless, eclectic personality and aspire, like other works of the group, to deprovincialize Italian literature by turning to foreign literary models. His works reveal the influences of the German Romantics, and particularly of E. T. A. Hoffmann.
