Compelled by the embarrassed condition of his father's affairs to procure the means of self-support, he, at the age of sixteen, joined the army in Dalmatia; but three years afterwards he returned to Venice, where he soon made a reputation for himself as the wittiest member of the Granelleschi society, to which the publication of several satirical pieces had gained him admission. This society, nominally devoted to conviviality and wit, had also serious literary aims, and was especially zealous to preserve the Tuscan literature pure and untainted by foreign influences.
The displacement of the old Italian comedy by the dramas of Pietro Chiari (1700-1788) and Goldoni, founded on French models, threatened defeat to all their efforts; and in 1757 Gozzi came to the rescue by publishing a satirical poem, La tartana degli influssi per l'anno 1756, and in 1761 by his comedy, Analisi riflessiva della fiaba L'amore delle tre melarance, a parody of the manner of the two obnoxious poets, founded on a fairy tale. For its representation he obtained the services of the Sacchi company of players, who, on account of the popularity of the comedies of Chiari and Goldoni--which afforded no scope for the display of their peculiar talents--had been left without employment; and as their satirical powers were thus sharpened by personal enmity, the play met with extraordinary success.
Struck by the effect produced on the audience by the introduction of the supernatural or mythical element, which he had merely used as a convenient medium for his satirical purposes, Gozzi now produced a series of dramatic pieces based on fairy tales, which for a period obtained great popularity, but after the breaking up of the Sacchi company were completely disregarded. They have, however, obtained high praise from Goethe, Schlegel, Madame de Staël and Sismondi; and one of them, Re Turandote, was translated by Schiller.
In his later years Gozzi set himself to the production of tragedies in which the comic element was largely introduced; but as this innovation proved unacceptable to the critics he had recourse to the Spanish drama, from which he obtained models for various pieces, which, however, met with only equivocal success.
His brother Gasparo was also a well-known writer of the time.
His collected works were published under his own superintendence, at Venice, in 1792, in 10 volumes; and his dramatic works, translated into German by Werthes, were published at Bern in 1795. See Gozzi's work, Memorie inutili delta vita di Carlo Gozzi (3 vols., Venice, 1797), translated into French by Paul de Musset (1848), and into English by JA Symonds (1889); F Horn, Über Gozzis dramatische Poesie (Venice, 1803); Gherardini, Vita di Gasp. Gozzi (1821); "Charles Gozzi," by Paul de Musset, in the Revue des deux mondes for November 15, 1844; Magrini, Carlo Gozzi e la fiaba: saggi storici, biografici, e critici (Cremona, 1876), and the same author's book on Gozzi's life and times (Benevento, 1883).
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