Books, not only a lover of the Duce: Margherita Sarfatti among the great of the ‘900

Relegated to the role – really too narrow for her – of Mussolini’s lover, Margherita Sarfatti was one of the most important female figures in Italian culture of the twentieth century. Talking about his life and works is now “Twentieth century. Fascism, America and art in Margherita Sarfatti” by Claudio Siniscalchi (Altaforte Edizioni, 164 pages, 13 euros), from tomorrow in bookstores, with a preface by Francesco Borgonovo. “Claudio Siniscalchi’s book has the merit of giving Sarfatti back what Sarfatti belongs to. It does so with scientific rigor and literary sensitivity. With academic punctuality and a taste for the story”, underlines Borgonovo in the preface, who remembers her as a “woman of many talents, highly cultured and brilliant, editor of prestigious magazines, animator of a literary salon where she welcomed some of the most flamboyant minds of her time. And again, polyglot, promoter of great art, capable editorialist “. Of course, fascism did not believe until the end in the Novecento movement, launched and animated by Sarfatti, but the imprint, the action, the taste, the vision of Sarfatti – the thesis of Siniscalchi – have guided Italian art and diffusion of the artistic avant-gardes in the beautiful country. The author traces the key steps of the rise and fall of this unique woman, who started from feminism, then attracted to Catholic modernism, socialism, nationalism and interventionism, and finally landed on fascism, always maintaining an autonomous position. Sarfatti, Siniscalchi writes, joined the regime out of conviction and not out of convenience. A price she paid with the damnatio memoriae. After leaving Italy in November 1938 for Paris and having failed to repair in the United States, Sarfatti settled in Latin America. “Margherita Sarfatti – Siniscalchi writes – returns to Italy in March 1947. She Passing through Milan she asks Indro Montanelli to accompany her to Piazzale Loreto. she streaked with tears “. Her time has vanished, as has the spirit of that time. This book gives her back all the well-deserved greatness of her, almost always silent until now.