Jacques d'Adelsward-Fersen

Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen

Baron Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen (20 February 1880 – 5 November 1923) was a French novelist and poet. His life forms the basis of a fictionalised 1959 novel by Roger Peyrefitte entitled The Exile of Capri (L'exilé de Capri).

In 1903, a scandal involving school pupils made d'Adelswärd persona non grata in the salons of Paris and dashed his marriage plans. For much of the rest of his life, he took up residence on Capri, a popular destination for homosexuals/pederasts of the time including Norman Douglas, Oscar Wilde, Lord Alfred Douglas, and Somerset Maugham, in self-imposed exile with his long-time lover, Nino Cesarini. He became a "character" on the island in the inter-war years, featuring in novels by Compton MacKenzie and others. His house, Villa Lysis, remains one of Capri's tourist attractions.

Life on Capri

Giorgio Amendola, the future leader of the Italian Communist Party, who lived on Capri when he was eleven-years-old, led a small male-female gang in 1918, and wrote in his autobiography:

There were forbidden zones we were not supposed to set foot on. For instance, we were told never to draw near a white villa near [Monte] Tiberio, because [...] nasty things were happening there. Later I grasped that Fersen was meant, and his strange friendships. I was eleven years old, and the Caprian boys were of about my age. They knew very well the meaning of all these allusions.