First translation into English of Gabriele D'Annunzio's earliest masterpiece. The Book of the Virgins is one of D'Annunzio's very first collections. Remarkable for its descriptive powers, and almost unbearably vivid in colour and detail, it is a compelling account of self-knowledge and coming-of-age. Recovering from a near-fatal illness, a young woman feels drawn to experience for herself all that life has to offer. Spurning her old saintly ways, she determines to explore the beauty and energy in everything around her. But as she senses the first stirrings of passion, so too comes tragedy, and with it, the realisation that to truly live, she must embrace life in all its brutality.