* This article is based on the winning entry in the Society’s post-graduate essay competition, 2015.
The metaphor of the beast appears in all literary texts exploring the relationship between the active and the contemplative lives, but in particular the Pirandellian image of the ‘mala bestia’ [‘evil beast’] represents the frightful and humorous materialization of the presence of evil in his writing. In this article a focus on the figure of the ‘mala bestia’ will allow us to discover intertextual links between Pirandello's works and a number of books in his personal library as well as certain authors he reviewed.
The metaphor of the beast appears in all literary texts exploring the relationship between the active and the contemplative lives, but in particular the Pirandellian image of the ‘mala bestia’ [‘evil beast’] represents the frightful and humorous materialization of the presence of evil in his writing. In this article a focus on the figure of the ‘mala bestia’ will allow us to discover intertextual links between Pirandello's works and a number of books in his personal library as well as certain authors he reviewed.