The Earliest Reception of Il Gioco Dei Regni in Clara Sereni’s Correspondence: Silvia Vegetti Finzi, Cesare Segre, and Bruno Visentini as Readers and Critics

This paper presents three letters sent to Clara Sereni from three readers of her novel Il gioco dei regni. These are three outstanding figures in the history and culture of Italy’s twentieth century: Cesare Segre (letter of April 7th, 1993), Silvia Vegetti Finzi (letter of August 15th,1993), and Bruno Visentini (letter of February 26th, 1993), with Clara’s reply dated March 10th and two further letters by Visentini dated March 13th and 16th. Each letter throws light on the earliest reception of Clara’s novel Il gioco dei regni and on the impact it had on readers. Furthermore, the first letter by Visentini provides new details to the still puzzling story of Emilio's – Clara’s father – escape from Rome in December 1935. Visentini’s letter also contains a detail thus far completely unknown: Emilio’s runaway was organized in Rome by “Gina,” a librarian at the Biblioteca Nazionale. I suggest that “Gina” is in fact Gina (Luigia) Risoldi.