Died 1956 | ||
 | ||
Books The Maker of Heavenly Trousers | ||
Daniele Varè (1880-1956) was an Italian expatriate diplomat and author, most famous for the China-set novel The Maker of Heavenly Trousers (1935) which was republished in 2012 by Penguin Modern Classics. He is also famous for the Laughing Diplomat (John Murray, 1938) his autobiography as Italian diplomat.
Varè's father was an Italian nationalist, exiled by the Austrian government. Varè spent his early years in the UK, returning to Italy with his mother at the age of 11. He entered the Italian Diplomatic Service in 1907 and was first assigned to China in 1912. He returned as Italian Minister (Ambassador) to the Republican Government in China between 1927 and 1931. In Beijing he had as a subordinate Galeazzo Ciano (later to become Benito Mussolini's Minister of Foreign Affairs). He also served in Geneva, Copenhagen and Luxembourg.
In 1932, while serving as Ambassador to Denmark, he was forced to resign by the Fascist Regime as many other Italian Diplomats. Hence he originally published in English and only later in Italian.
Novels
The Maker of Heavenly Trousers (Der Schneider himmlischer Hosen), was followed by the The Gate of Happy Sparrows (1937) and The Temple of Costly Experience (Der Tempel der kostbaren Weisheit) (1937), set in the early twentieth century in the Chinese capital of Peking, where the author spent two lengthy periods serving as a diplomat in the Italian Legation as a First Secretary (1912-1920) and later, Minister (1927-1931).
Other works were: The last of the Empresses and the passing from the old China to the new (1947); Ghosts of the Spanish Steps (1955); Ghosts of the Rialto (1956);The Two Imposters (1949); Palma (1957); Twilight of the Kings (1948); Princess in Tartary : a play for marionettes in two acts and an epilogue (1940); Yehōnala. Storia dell'imperatrice Tzu-Hsi e del trapasso dalla vecchia Cina alla nuova (1933); Gaia melodia. Romanzo (1944); The doge's ring (1950).