Anna Guendalina Lipparini,
known as Queen of Luanto
(Terni, February 22, 1862 – Pisa, September 8, 1914)
Anna Guendalina Lipparini, known as Queen of Luanto, was a decadent Italian writer.
“The boldest, most advanced, most risky writer that Italy has had in the last twenty years”
(The death of a well-known writer in Il Nuovo Giornale, IX, 13 September 1914)
She published her first book in 1890, “Acque forti” (collection of short stories), and collaborated with two magazines: the “Italian journal of sciences, letters, arts and theaters” and “La donna”.
As a writer pseudonym she chose Regina di Luanto, anagram of her married name (Guendalina Roti), while in everyday life she called herself Anna Roti. In 1898 Anna settled in Pisa, where she met Alberto Gatti whom, after eleven years of living together, she married in 1911. She died in Pisa in 1914, at the beginning of the First World War.
She became famous for the issues addressed without the false modesty imposed on the female sex; using crude and explicit language she described a sexist and corrupt worldly society. She examined the condition of women in public and in private, criticizing the social rules that oblige the person to follow certain conventional behaviors; in particular she narrated the passive female condition that could never cross the threshold of convenience.
On one hand, she found strong criticism from her first husband (from whom she separated), from society and in particular from the religious point of view, on the other hand she was strongly appreciated for the audacity in publishing counter-current themes.
«The novels of Regina di Luanto are always a literary event. The audacity of this writer, who fearlessly faces the most difficult problems of contemporary society and knows how to dress them in a truly fascinating art form, it is now known to all readers. “
(Rome magazine: politics, parliamentary, social, artistic, 1903)
