HardCover. Pub Date :2013-07-04 Pages: 704 Language: English Publisher:. Penguin Classics Goliarda Sapienzas The Art of Joy was written over a nine year span. from 1967 to 1976 At the time of her death in 1996. Sapienza had published nothing in a decade. having been unable to find a publisher for what was to become her most celebrated work. due to its perceived immorality One publishers rejection letter exclaimed:. Its a pile of iniquity The manuscript lay for decades in a chest finally. being proclaimed a forgotten masterpiece when it was eventually published in 2005.This epic Sicilian novel. which begins in the year 1900 and follows its main character. Modesta. through nearly the entire span of the 20th century. is at once a coming-of- age novel. a tale of sexual adventure and discovery. a fictional autobiography. and a sketch of Italys moral. political and social past. Bo...