Luigi Pirandello was born in 1867 in Girgenti, now Agrigento, on the island of Sicily. His father was a sulfur dealer and expected his son to take up his trade, but Luigi excelled in his academics and was allowed to pursue higher education. He entered the University of Rome in 1887, later transferring to Bonn University where he completed a doctoral thesis on his native Sicilian dialect.
Pirandello translated Goethe's Roman elegies as his first creative effort. After meeting up with the Sicilian novelist Capuana, Pirandello focused his attention on naturalistic fiction. The Outcast, in 1893, was his first novel and contained the roots of themes that would appear in his later writing.
The...
