Madame RACHELE BOTTI BINDA has written numerous poems, characterised by strength and originality of thought; indeed, it is delightful to find in almost all the poets enumerated in this chapter that the old sameness and conventionality have utterly disappeared and that freshness and versatility are everywhere apparent. This circumstance cannot fail to be of good augury for the future and to infuse new life into a literature which was sadly in need of freshness of thought and unconventionality of style. If some writers have been indelicate and others inartistic, these are faults that are immediately seen and easily avoided, and in view of the greater interest and appreciation bestowed by the public of late years on poetry, there is every reason to hope that the next century will witness the appearance of poets in no respect unworthy of the Country of Dante and Ariosto. CHAPTER XXIII. PROSE WRITERS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. Pre-eminent among the historians of the Nineteenth Century are CESARE BALBO and CESARE CANTU. They were both indefatigably laborious and they both devoted themselves to the elucidation of the history of their native land. MANIN'S _History of Venice_ has research and minuteness of detail without wearisome prolixity to recommend it. TOMMASO GROSSI was highly successful with his historical romance _Marco Visconti,_ but he has a tendency to become very tearful and sentimental. The plays of ALBERTO NOTA procured considerable reputation for their author, but they are not quite amusing enough for comedies and not quite Strong enough for dramas, so that they have fallen into neglect in spite of their delicacy and refinement. The Italian Stage in this Century depended too much on French importations, as did the average fiction of the day. Even at the present time, the poorest rubbish of the Boulevards has a better chance of attracting attention than the best works of indigenous authors. Extreme concessions have been made of late years to vulgar realism, but it cannot be denied that realism has called forth life-like characters and accurate descriptions. MATILDE SERAO has been particularly successful as a novelist. But the most brilliant novelist of the present day is undoubtedly GABRIELE D'ANNUNZIO. His poems are well-conceived, though not particularly musical in diction, but as a novelist he is quite the first. He excels in descriptions. Nowhere else can such word-painting be found, with the possible exception of the books of travel of EDMONDO DE AMICIS. TULLIO GIORDANA has written a most interesting monograph on Gabriele d'Annunzio's _Trionfo della Morte,_ but perhaps the best works he has produced as yet are _Il Piacere_ and _Giovanni Episcopo._ He is not always particularly happy in his choice of subjects; but if he exercises discretion in that respect, there is no saying to what height he may not in future ascend.