Benedetta Craveri

Adele Benedetta Craveri (born 23 September 1942) is an Italian literary critic, academic and writer. She was born in Rome, the daughter of the historian and political activist Raimondo Craveri and the writer and translator Elena Croce (herself the daughter of the philosopher Benedetto Croce). She studied literature at the University of Rome, graduating in 1969, and went on to teach at Tuscia University in Viterbo. Since 2005 she has taught at the Suor Orsola Benincasa University of Naples. Her book, Madame du Deffand e il suo mondo (1982) was translated into English by Teresa Waugh; the English version was first published in the United States. A New York Times critic described Craveri's writing as having "the subtlety of a novelist and the precision of a scholar" and the book as "a work of stunning originality". Craveri's first husband was the critic and writer Masolino D'Amico, by whom she had two daughters, one of whom, Margherita, is a well-known writer and activist. Following he...