On Sunday, the New York Review of Books published an article by Italian journalist Claudio Gatti disclosing the identity of famed pseudonymous author Elena Ferrante. Fans of the writer immediately took to Twitter to denounce Gatti’s actions.
Ferrante, a nom de plume, is most celebrated for her Neapolitan Novels, a four-book series that centres on the relationship between two childhood friends who grew up in the slums of Naples after World War II.
The uninvited unmasking of the author has raised a host of questions about a woman’s right to privacy as well as the public’s inability to celebrate someone who shuns fame.
In a bold takedown published on The Cut, New York Magazine’s blog, where she compares the author’s anonymity to Kim Kardashian’s overexposure, Ann Friedman wrote: “Both Ferrante’s aversion to the public eye and Kardashian’s extreme openness were routinely dismissed as marketing gimmicks — not authentic choices that each woman made according to her desires and goals.”
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Similarly, Hannah Gold at Jezebel took issue with Gatti, writing: “Unmasking a woman who wanted no part in her celebrity, in the name of journalism, is both grandiose and cruel.”
As if to preempt any criticism, the journalist closed his piece on Ferrante saying the immense success of her books made it virtually impossible to maintain her anonymity, ultimately blaming it on “an age in which fame and celebrity are desperately sought after.”
While the author has not made any statements, her publisher, Sandro Ferri, called Gatti’s actions “disgusting” in an interview with the Guardian.
This investigation, which was the result of financial records dug up by Gatti, was yet another in a long line of speculation carried out by academics about Ferrante’s true identity.
But for her fans, the quest is and always will be moot.
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