Captain Corelli’s Mandolin: Chapter 35 Summary & Analysis

An unnamed Italian pamphleteer calls readers to celebrate the achievements of Mussolini. The pamphleteer writes that Mussolini was a cruel child who tortured animals, stabbed a boy, and started visiting brothels as soon as he reached puberty. He raped a virgin and accused her of not resisting well enough, and then he became a schoolteacher. However, Mussolini developed a taste for cards, alcohol, and mistresses, and fled to Switzerland to escape military service. The pamphleteer points out that there, he encouraged soldiers to desert, which is consistent with his current demand to shoot deserters.

The pamphleteer points out that the Duce believes his own propaganda, so of course his subjects do too. Mussolini came up with a political ideology that insists one must act and think up reasons afterwards. He wrote a novel in a style similar to Poe's, which all the publishing houses refused to publish because it was too sophisticated for them. He became an editor for a newspaper and discovered that he could create the news himself. He married his half-sister, fathered a child with her, and became known as "The Madman"--though he, of course, isn't actually mad.

In 1915, Mussolini again avoided joining the war effort. He claimed that the Austrians bombed a hospital just to get at him, the most important man in Italy. Mussolini stole money to fund his campaign and since his election, he has carried out an average of five acts of political violence per year. Purportedly, he stopped a lava flow on Mt. Etna by wishing it to stop. He pretends he's not going bald and stands on a hidden stool to look taller. Mussolini is a saint; he's declared himself greater than Aristotle, Michelangelo, and Bonaparte. All of his speeches contradict each other, but that just means that everyone can find some bit of his policy to support.

Mussolini has made it illegal to do many of the things he's done. He sends troops to fight invented enemies without proper equipment, despite having signed peace treaties. He mocks Hitler but takes orders from him. Italian troops are dying as the British sink their fleets, but the Italians are winning. Commanders only figure out what's going on with their divisions by listening to the BBC. The pamphleteer asks soldiers to weep for their country, which is being led by a lunatic.