The Montale Siblings and the Great War

Giuseppe Gazzola’s focus on the Montale siblings offers a unique examination of the military experience of the famous poet Eugenio Montale and his three brothers. As Gazzola notes, all four took part in the military operations against the Austrian army on the eastern Alpine sector in the period 1915–1919. Their sister Marianna, in her correspondence with pen friends from different cities, left a remarkable account of this family saga, which becomes even more interesting when we consider that the writer in the family, Eugenio, used to be extremely reticent about his participation in the First World War. In this chapter, Gazzola draws attention to the role of Marianna in recording the story of her family, and reconstructs the war experience of Eugenio Montale and his brothers according to available documents.