I revisited ‘Il Piacere’ by D’Annunzio after several years, my first encounter with this novel was more than a decade ago, and over time, as Eco said, I had the opportunity to discover new parts of it.

I have always been told and explained about this novel as if it were the triumph of the ‘third woman’, the perfect union between Muti and Ferres. Yet, in these pages and in Sperelli’s tones, I have seen something entirely different.

The protagonist, the undisputed, absolute, and unique figure is solely Elena Muti. The book and Andrea’s stream of thoughts are always and sincerely directed towards her.

Ferres assumes the role of the woman who allows herself to be overwhelmed by the idealization that Sperelli carries out, and what makes her more special than other conquests is precisely her good, pious soul.

Yet, Muti is Andrea’s true female alter ego. Like the young man, she willingly allows herself to be idealized by lovers and, through deceit and beauty, she does not shy away from her own hypocrisy.

In the final pages, Andrea realizes this, he understands how similar they are.

He also realizes that he desires only her. So, all the pursuit, the courtship of other women culminating in Maria, is nothing but a journey backward towards Elena Muti.

Those who have read it will recall that Andrea is struck first and foremost by the tone of Ferres’s voice, extraordinarily similar to that of Elena. He doesn’t even see her, Maria wears a veil, but he already imagines her, as if she were a second appearance of Muti, an extension of her.

And so it continues, and Andrea, from a cowardly lover, deceives and uses Ferres to retaliate for the loss of his great love, where he had been the deceived one.

This is because, ultimately, Muti had enchanted and possessed him like no one ever had, and on Maria, he tries to take revenge, once again creating the beautiful fairy tale (that yesterday enchanted you), the one he had experienced from Elena, towards a woman who in his ideal was extremely similar to her (he forced this parallel).

Thus, there was never a third woman, contrary to how many school texts recount and misinterpret the work.

The woman has always been one, Elena Muti.