Francesca da Rimini is the attempt by D'Annunzio to realize a type of woman different from others females characters during italian romanticism and the first years of the new century(you can see the differents from Francesca by S.Pellico). D'annunzio goes far and realized a poem full of sensuality, violence and poehtic lirism

Symons was a poet and critic of the Symbolist movement, and this book was meant to be a general introduction to the French Symbolists. As an introduction, it is superb--it familiarized me with the works, lives, and styles of many important Symbolist writers such as Nerval, Merimee, Villiers, Verlaine, etc. There is an appendix which includes writers that aren't really Symbolist, like Flaubert, Balzac, Goncourt, but even this appendix is informative and interesting.

However, when the work tries to go beyond a mere descriptive primer, it fails. His attempts to define Symbolism are muddled and contradictory. His "interpretations" of Rimbaud and Verlaine are just completely off base. Basically, this book is a light, basic introduction to French Symbolist authors, and it loses its charms when it tries to be critical or definitive.