Evelina Cattermole "Contessa Lara"

The collection, published shortly after the death of her mother, is divided into six parts: the first is dedicated to the father, the second to her sister Eufrosina; the third to Pietro Giannone, a republican martyr; the fourth to Princess Elisa Poniatowska, who kept a salon also frequented by Gaetano Donizetti; the fifth to her friend Elvira Spannocchia and the sixth to Marianna Giarré, her teacher.

Right in the magazines, Evelina begins to sign herself with the pseudonym of Contessa Lara, a choice that is immediately appreciated also by the publisher Sommaruga, who publishes a collection of her verses under this name.

Slowly Evelina manages to get out of economic difficulties and starts frequenting the Florentine salons again, where she meets the poet and writer Mario Rapisardi, with whom she seems to have had a love affair, denied however by Evelina herself. In 1886, now an established poetess, she moved to various Italian cities and then settled permanently in Rome, where she lived between 1886 and 1894 a stable relationship with the young Sicilian Giovanni Alfredo Cesareo.

Meantime, in 1886 she published a new collection, "Ancora versi", and also began a profitable activity of writing in prose, which saw the publication, among others, of the collection of short stories "Così è" (1887) and the novel "L'innamorata" (1892), and also works for children, such as "Una famiglia di topi" (1895) and "Compagni di sventura" (1892).

A children's novel

Fashion column on "La Tribuna illustrata": the topic of the day is what style a widow's wedding dress should have. Evelina illustrates various models that can suit different types of women.

Also on "La Tribuna illustrata", always talking about fashion and taste.

The fact causes great uproar and many expressions of condolence everywhere. However, the writer's death is clouded by a further scandal: the funds for her burial disappear into thin air and her remains are abandoned in a mass grave.

Many of his friends made their voices heard following this latest scandal. This is the memory of Luigi Capuana on the "Fanfulla".

After the writer's death, in 1897 her last poetic collection, "Nuovi versi", was published by L. Donati, followed by other volumes in prose: "Storie di Natale" (1897), "Novelle" (1914) and a collection of letters edited by E Bottini, "Lettere intime" (1897).

From the introduction to the posthumous edition of the short stories.

The desire for love, the love-death combination, the tormented religiosity, the fear of destiny, the sense of fragility, the everyday life told with disenchantment, are the fundamental themes of the art of Countess Lara, both in the verses and in the prose. Universal themes that are still highly relevant today.