BIOGRAPHY

.Igino Ugo Tarchetti was born in San Salvatore Monferrato (in Piedmont) on 29 June 1839. He was the fifth of eight children from a well off, but unlucky family. He attended school in the towns of Valenza and Casale Monferrato, graduating from a grammar school (the Trevisio College) run by Friars. Due to his youthful enthusiasm for the Risorgimento ideals, he joined the Piedmontese army in 1859, which would become the army of the newly formed Kingdom of Italy a year later. Tarchetti spent the next few years in the south of Italy, moving from Foggia to Salerno, Bari and Taranto, during the bloody war against brigandage. Inspired by Byron, he had already written the prose poems of "I Canti del cuore" by then.
In '63 he was moved to Varese, in Lombardy, where he had a travailed relationship with local girl Carlotta Ponti. Obstacled by Carlotta's father, the two lovers ran away to Switzerland, and even planned to commit suicide together. A local scandal ensued.
Already ill with TB, Tarchetti,- the relationship with Carlotta now over -, moved first to Milan, where he started a literary "cenacle" (one of the earliest of the Scapigliatura) with poets Giulio Pinchetti and novelist Salvatore Farina, among others.
In 1865 he was in Parma, where he met the woman who later inspired him with the character of his novel "Fosca", considered his masterpiece.
He was finally discharged from the army because of his health problems, and based himself in Milan, where he became one of the leading lights of the Scapigliatura movement, writing for a variety of newspapers and magazines, and starting in earnest his literary career, which was to last only four years.
In '65 his earliest short stories were published, and also the prose poems of "I Canti del Cuore" ("Songs of the heart") and the lyrics later collected in the volume "Disjecta" ("Dispersions") in 1879.
"Paolina", his first novel, dealt with the struggle of a working class girl in a Milan at the beginning of industrialization, exploited by rich and cruel aristocracy. In 1867 "Una Nobile Follia" ("A noble folly") was published, anticipating Tolstoy's anti-militarism and christian humanism.
"L'innamorato della montagna" ("The mountain's lover", 1868) was set in southern Italy, dealing with the relationship between love and music, like the three short stories of "Amore nell'arte" ("Artists' loves") written the previous year. "Storia di una gamba" ("Story of a leg") and "Storia di un ideale" ("The story of an ideal") are among his best short stories, of which the most influential are the five included in "Racconti Fantastici" ("Fantastic tales", published 1869) inspired by the supernatural tales of Edgar Allan Poe and E.T.A. Hoffmann.
"Fosca", written as Tarchetti was dying of TB and typhus, came out just after his death in 1869. Chapter 48 was left unfinished and was completed by Salvatore Farina, in whose house Tarchetti, practically destitute, died on 25th March '69.

Although inspired by Foscolo and Leopardi, Tarchetti is the Italian author closest to the German and English Romantics. His novels also show the rambling style of Sterne and Heine's travel writings. He was clearly influential for Italian writers such as Verga, Fogazzaro, Pirandello and Buzzati. In recent years his works, imbued with street realism and lofty mysticism, have been recognized as innovative, and incredibly modern and relevant. "Passion", based on "Fosca", a musical written by Steven Sondheim, has been a success on Broadway in 1994.
Lawrence Venuti has published translations of "Fosca" and the "Fantastic Tales" in the late 90s in the USA.
"Passione d'amore" film adaptation of "Fosca" by Italian director Ettore Scola, came out in 1982.