Background
Guglielmo Petroni was born on October 30, 1911, in Lucca, Tuscany, Italy. He was a son of Bruno Petroni and Giuditta (Santini) Petroni, both business proprietors.
(This classic of war literature is the story of Guglielmo ...)
This classic of war literature is the story of Guglielmo Petroni - not only his experiences in the hands of Fascist police and the Gestapo, but a meditation on the survival and growth of his compatriots and his nation. Terror, uncertainty, the fear of death and the brutality he encounters at nearly every turn are all described in concrete terms, but the author's restrained tone, informed by a sense of paradox and the absurd, conveys a depth of feeling, that makes this memoir all the more remarkable. The original book, "Il Mondo È Una Prigione", was published in 1949.
https://www.amazon.com/World-Prison-Guglielmo-Petroni/dp/0810160501/?tag=2022091-20
1999
Guglielmo Petroni was born on October 30, 1911, in Lucca, Tuscany, Italy. He was a son of Bruno Petroni and Giuditta (Santini) Petroni, both business proprietors.
Petroni grew up, working in his family's business. He began an apprenticeship as a shoemaker with his older brother at the age of thirteen, but a creative drive had spurred him into a secondary career as a painter.
As a young man, Guglielmo began writing poetry and moved to Rome in 1935. He found work as an editor of the journal "Perspettive" and published collections of his poetry and short stories. Since the early 1920's, Rome was the capital of an Italian Fascist dictatorship, headed by Benito Mussolini. Like many other intellectuals of the era, Petroni became a firm Communist in opposition to this.
When Italy's alliance with Nazi Germany drew the country into World War II, Petroni joined an anti-fascist resistance movement. In 1943, when Rome was occupied by German forces, Petroni was arrested for taking part in a political demonstration. He was held in the Via Tasso jail, a notoriously brutal place, until the city was liberated by Allied Forces in June of 1944.
Petroni resumed his writing career with "La Lettere da Santa Margherita", but it was the 1949 publication of "Il Mondo È Una Prigione", that brought him critical acclaim. A quasi-memoir, the work chronicles Petroni's prewar political awakening, the sense of disillusionment of his generation and the trauma of the war years. He explains how he came to be a part of the underground resistance movement and details, in excruciating terms, his harsh life inside prison. Subjected to torture for refusing to divulge the names of others in the resistance, Petroni starved in his cell and once woke up, covered in blood, for he had shifted in his sleep and crushed hundreds of bedbugs. Other times he was lucky to have a rudimentary bed at all. Guglielmo survived by retreating deeply into his own mind.
Petroni wrote several other novels, that explore the Italian identity and wartime strains. In "La Casa si Muove ("The House Is Moving"), published in 1950, an isolated, meditative landowner, named Ugo Gattegna, manages to hide from the outside world and the carnage of World War II. When a mysterious refugee appears, he provides him with shelter, but as the German army retreats northward, Gattegna refuses to leave his farm and is shot.
In Petroni's 1955 novel, "Noi Dobbiamo Parlare" ("We Must Speak"), the conscientious Natalia attempts to convince her uncle, Venturino, to provide for his destitute parents. He beats her for her insolence, but eventually agrees to her entreaties. In the end, emotionally spent by the battle, Natalia rejects her suitor's marriage proposal.
Petroni's numerous other published works include "Fabio Failla" (1967), "Le Macchie di Donato" (1968), "La Morte Del Fiume" (1974), "Il Nome Delle Parole" (1984), among others.
Several collections of Petroni's verse were also published during his lifetime, the final of which, "Terra segreta: Tutte le Poesie", appeared in 1987.
(This classic of war literature is the story of Guglielmo ...)
1999An avowed leftist, Guglielmo became a member of anti-fascist movement in Italy during World War II. He suffered for his political beliefs and the frank terms, in which his fiction condemned Italy's bleak Fascist period.
In 1945, Guglielmo married Carla Luisa de Vecchi. Their marriage produced two children - Paolo and Luca.