Gadda, Carlo Emilio

Gadda, Carlo Emilio (kär'lō āmē'lyō gäd'dä) [key], 1893–1973, Italian novelist. Although trained as an electrical engineer, Gadda devoted his energies to writing. His difficult style, deliberately obscure, precludes a wide audience. A fascination with words led him to use phonetic tricks (e.g., deliberate misspellings, dialects) to distort and mock formal writing and produce a fresh realism. Gadda's early works are collected in I sogni e la folgore (1955). His best-known novel is Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana (1957, tr. That Awful Mess on Via Merulana, 1965). His Acquainted with Grief appeared in English in 1969.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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