Dalla scrivania tutta per sé al confino della Massaia

The essay retraces Masino’s life and work from 1938 until 1950 – the period of time she lived in Venice – through her private letters and memoirs (Album di vestiti). Masino transferred to Venice not of her own will, but to follow her companion, writer Massimo Bontempelli, who was compelled by the Fascist Regime to leave Rome. ìTherefore Masino’s relationship with Venice was conditioned from the political situation she lived in and deeply influenced the book she wrote in Venice from 1938 and 1941: Nascita e morte della massaia. Through the publisher’s letters and institutional documents the essay illustrates the censorship’s interventions on the text of her novel before she was allowed to publish it.