Il Duce and His Women torrent

Il Duce and His Women - Roberto Olla [epub]

In films of him, shown decades after his death, Mussolini, with his bald, shiny pate, stout frame, and strutting manner, seems a figure more comical than irresistible, like a member of the World Wrestling Federation. Yet, as Olla convincingly asserts, the ability to project an aura of sexual dynamism helped Mussolini to rise and to maintain political power over the Italian populace.

Along the way, he cultivated relationships with a variety of mistresses, and some of them satisfied both his sexual and political impulses. Claretta Petacci, who died with Mussolini at the hands of partisans, seemed obsessed with his powerful lovemaking. Margherita Sarfatti, a Jew and a Fascist, influenced his political ideas, wrote an adoring biography, and then was discarded once Mussolini committed his government to anti-Semitism. In most of these relationships, Mussolini acted as a supreme egotist who saw these women as little more than useful and temporary appendages.

This is a well-done and timely work, since another self-proclaimed sexual athlete, Silvio Berlusconi, continues to haunt the corridors of power in Italy.

Paperback: 496 pages
Publisher: Alma Books; Reprint edition (May 1, 2013)