The Intruder (L'innocente)

"I believe that the three writers of the nineteenth century who had the greatest natural talents were D'Annunzio, Kipling and Tolstoy." - James Joyce.

Tullio Hermil is a Nietzschean superman: handsome, intelligent, and powerful, he believes himself to be superior to other men and beyond the reach of their judgment. A dandy and an aesthete, Tullio is repeatedly unfaithful to his loving and innocent wife Juliana, who bears his ill-treatment and infidelity with patience.

At last, growing weary of his debauchery, Tullio decides to attempt a reconciliation with his wife, but he is horrified to find that, in a single weak moment, Juliana has succumbed to the advances of another man and has gotten pregnant. And when the baby - the Intruder - arrives, Tullio begins to contemplate an unspeakable crime that will lead to deadly results.

First published in Italian in 1891, The Intruder (L'innocente) was controversial because of its questionable morality.