Iginio Ugo Tarchetti


Iginio Ugo Tarchetti was an Italian author, poet, and journalist.

Life

Born in San Salvatore Monferrato, his military career was cut short by ill health, and in 1865 he settled in Milan. Here he entered literary study, becoming part of the Scapigliatura, a literary movement animated by a spirit of rebellion against traditional culture. He worked on several newspapers and published a torrent of short stories, novels, and poems. He contracted tuberculosis and died in poverty at the age of 29.
Tarchetti published his plagiarized translation of "The Mortal Immortal" by Mary Shelley as "The Elixir of Immortality", with small but significant changes but without attribution. He also appropriated foreign texts in the Gothic tradition, such as works by E. T. A. Hoffmann, Edgar Allan Poe and Theophile Gautier. Lawrence Venuti, who discovered the antecedents of "Mortal Immortal" while translating Tarchetti's Fantastic Tales, considers his appropriation as serving the social agenda of Scapigliatura. Fantastic Tales was the first ever translation of Tarchetti into English.

Works

Fosca, written in 1869, was the basis for Ettore Scola's 1981 film, Passione d'amore, which in turn served as the basis for James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim's 1994 musical Passion.