Conversation pieces

Mario Praz (Italian: [ˈmaːrjo prats]; 6 September 1896 in Rome – 23 March 1982 in Rome) was an Italian critic of art and literature, and a scholar of English literature. His best-known book, The Romantic Agony (1933), was a survey of the decadent, erotic and morbid themes that characterised European authors of the late 18th and 19th centuries (see Femme fatale for a reference of one of his chapters). The book was written and published first in Italian as La carne, la morte e il diavolo nella letteratura romantica in 1930; and the most recent edition was published in Florence by Sansoni in 1996.