of writers, E. M. Forster's Maurice and Thomas Mann's Death in Venice. He wrote: "The love that dare not speak its name here hardly bring itself to utter words above a whisper." Elsa Morante praised its handling of "innocent sensuality" in "this ideal boy". Saba wrote in dialect and paid close attention to language and register as his characters navigate social relations using formal and informal terms of address between employer and clerk, clerk and laborer, senior and junior clerk, and even new teenage friends. Ernesto's mother speaks to him in proper Italian rather than local dialect, while Wilder prefers German and relies on Ernesto principally for his Italian-language correspondence. Notes References Additional sources 1975 novels 20th-century Italian novels Novels with gay themes Unfinished novels Fiction set in 1898 Novels set in Trieste 1950s LGBT novels 1970s LGBT novels Giulio Einaudi Editore books