NYRB has brought out A Chill in the Air: An Italian War Diary 1939-1940, assembled from the diaries of Iris Origo by Lucy Hallett-Hughes. I do not regret buying the book, but it strikes me as very thin for $15.95-- there are 146 pages, not counting the introduction by Ms. Hallett-Hughes and the afterword by Origo's granddaughter Katia Lysy. The diary entries are perceptive and well-phrased; one sees how some, perhaps many, Italians thought as Italy drifted towards war; yet the entries are few enough, and I should say that they do not carry the heft of those in War in Val d'Orcia, written when Origo was again a perceptive spectator but also a participant with heavy responsibilities and in real danger. There is little new information in the foreword for anyone who has read Origo's Images and Shadows, and less for anyone who has read Caroline Moorehead's biography of her. The granddaughter's afterword does have some curious information about Origo's habits of work and her eccentricities.
I wonder whether NYRB might not have done better to bring A Chill in the Air out in a single volume with War in Val d'Orcia, which it has also recently brought back into print. Yet I can see that chronology would demand that the diaries of 1939 and 1940 precede those of 1943 and 1944; and some readers might quit before War in Val d'Orcia, which is by far the more substantial book.
The person who has read either War in Val d'Orcia or Images and Shadows will find A Chill in the Air worth the small price and brief reading time. The person who has read none of Origo's memoirs would do better to start with War in Val d'Orcia, to see why one might wish to read her writings, and then go on to Images and Shadows for a fuller picture of her and her world.
In your reading of any of the volumes you mention, did you perceive any parallels with today. I only ask because you mention getting an insight into how Italians thought as they drifted towards war and, having seen Salvini give a nod to Mussolini's birthday and make some fairly outrageous comments, it is hard not to wonder whether there are any similarities between the situation then and now. Worrying though that might be.
ReplyDeleteBoth diaries are set long after Fascism had established itself. Dennis Mack Smith's book on Mussolini is very good on its onset. The interesting thing is that the army and police could have shut down the March on Rome and kept the Fascists from power; but the king restrained them.
DeleteWhy anyone, even of fascist inclinations, would admire Mussolini, I can't guess. His incompetence as military leader was astonishing. And he wasn't particularly good at civil administration either. Is one supposed to admire the fashion statement?
Probably the most interesting thing I have read about Fascism this year is in a few obiter dicta of J.P. Mayer's Alexis De Tocqueville: A Biographical Study in Political Science.
I suspect any admiration for Mussolini from Italian leaders is admiration for a leader who made Italy briefly a power to be taken notice of (a bit). I don't think history repeats itself exactly and so, while we are living in very strange times, I suspect they are strange in their own special way and looking at earlier strange times - eg the descent into Fascism - to try to find a road map to navigate contemporary political confusion won't work. The one thing that is perennial is our ability for political misjudgment. But as long as violence does not break out, I don't suppose it matters too much, crossed fingers, et cetera
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