{{short description|1949 novel by Vitaliano Brancati}} {{Infobox book | name = Beautiful Antonio | image = | image_size = | border = | alt = | caption = | author = Vitaliano Brancati | title_orig = Il bell'Antonio | orig_lang_code = it | translator = | illustrator = | cover_artist = | country = Italy | language = Italian | subject = | genre = | publisher = Bompiani | pub_date = 1949 | english_pub_date = 1952 | media_type = | pages = 327 | isbn = }} '''''Beautiful Antonio''''' ({{langx|it|Il bell'Antonio}}) is a 1949 novel by the Italian writer Vitaliano Brancati. Set in the 1930s and 1940s, it is about a Sicilian man who easily attracts women with his beauty but fails in his attempted career in Rome and struggles with impotence as he returns to Sicily for marriage. The book deals with themes related to Southern Italian sexual ''gallismo'' and Fascist Italy.<ref>{{cite book |last=Salvante |first=Martina |year=2015 |chapter='Less than a Boot-Rag': Procreation, Paternity, and the Masculine Ideal in Fascist Italy |editor1-last=Andersen |editor1-first=P.D. |editor2-last=Wendt |editor2-first=S. |title=Masculinities and the Nation in the Modern World |series=Global Masculinities |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=New York |pages=93–112 |doi=10.1057/9781137536105_6 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/vitaliano-brancati/antonio-the-great-lover/ |title=Antonio the Great Lover |newspaper=Kirkus Reviews |date=1 August 1952 |access-date=4 March 2025 }}</ref>
The book was first published in English as '''''Antonio, the Great Lover''''' in a 1952 translation by Vladimir Kean where some of the sexual content was omitted. A 1978 unabridged translation by Stanley Hochman was published as '''''Bell'Antonio'''''. A translation by Patrick Creagh was published in 1991 as ''Bell'Antonio'' and reissued in 2007 as ''Beautiful Antonio''.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |last=Healey |first=Robin |year=2019 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CZiRDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA75 |title=Italian Literature since 1900 in English Translation 1929-2016 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |pages=75, 324 726 |isbn=9781487502928 }}</ref>
''Beautiful Antonio'' received the 1950 Bagutta Prize. It was the basis for the 1960 film ''Il bell'Antonio'', directed by Mauro Bolognini and starring Marcello Mastroianni in the title role.<ref name=":0" /> It was adapted for the screen again in 2005 as the two-part RAI serial ''{{ill|Il bell'Antonio (TV serial)|lt=Il bell'Antonio|it|Il bell'Antonio (miniserie televisiva)}}'', directed by Maurizio Zaccaro and starring Daniele Liotti.<ref>{{cite book |last=Buonanno |first=Milly |year=2006 |title=Le radici e le foglie. La fiction italiana, l'Italia nella fiction |language=it |publisher=Rai-ERI |page=196 |isbn=9788839713919 }}</ref>
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Category:1949 Italian novels Category:Novels set in Rome Category:Novels set in Sicily Category:Italian novels adapted into films Category:Italian novels adapted into television shows Category:Novels by Vitaliano Brancati Category:Bompiani books Category:Novels about disability