DE MARCHI, EMILIO. – Novelist, born in Milan on 31 July 1851, died there on 6 February 1901. He served as secretary of the scientific-literary academy of his city, municipal councillor of the moderate faction, and member of the boards of orphanages and pious institutions.
Turning to journalism (he was among the founders of *La Vita Nuova*), he created the Italian serial novel. To counter extremist propaganda, after 1898 he published *La buona parola*, a series of popular readings. In his novels (*Il cappello del prete* [1888]; *Demetrio Pianelli* [1890]; *Arabella* [1892]; *Giacomo l’idealista* [1897]; *Col fuoco non si scherza* [1901]), though working within the tradition of Manzoni, he absorbed the influences of French and Fogazzaroesque verismo and revealed himself as a courteous and precise narrator. *L’Età preziosa* (1887), a collection of admonitions to youths aged fourteen to twenty, stands as one of the most agile and effective manuals of education. He also wrote essays and a play and translated La Fontaine’s fables into verse. His Catholic outlook never attained Manzonian serenity: “a wise counsellor when speaking as an educator, his works of art conclude in torment and desperate anguish. His intuition of life, as reflected in his art, was painful” (B. Croce).