PRAZ, MARIO

born Sept. 6, 1896, Rome, Italy died March 23, 1982, Rome Italian literary critic and essayist, a preeminent scholar of English literature. Praz was educated at the University of Bologna (1914-15) before receiving degrees from the Universities of Rome (1918) and Florence (1920). He then studied at the British Museum in London (1923-25) and taught at the Universities of Liverpool (1924-32) and Manchester (1932-34) before returning to Italy to join the faculty of the University of Rome in 1934. Praz established his reputation with the publication of La carne, la morte e il diavolo nella letteratura romantica (1930; "Flesh, Death, and the Devil in Romantic Literature"), which was translated into English as The Romantic Agony. It is an extensive analysis of the macabre, sensual, and mystical elements of Romanticism-in painting as well as in literature. Among his other notable works are Penisola pentagonale (1928; Unromantic Spain), Gusto neoclassico (1940; On Neoclassicism), Cronache letterarie anglosassoni (1950-66; "Anglo-Saxon Literary Chronicles"), La crisi dell'eroe nel romanzo vittoriano (1952; The Hero in Eclipse in Victorian Fiction), and Voce dietro la scene: Un'antologia personale (1980; "Voices Backstage: A Personal Anthology"). He also edited several anthologies and translated many authors-William Shakespeare, Charles Lamb, Jane Austen, Joseph Addison, and T.S. Eliot among them-into Italian. His autobiography, La casa della vita (The House of Life), was published in 1958.