L'umorismo, not merely a theoretical treatise on humor, is also Pirandello's introspective clarification and confession of the genesis and motives of his art. As such, it provides the best approach to his creative writings. Shortly after the publication of this essay in 1908 began the long dispute with Croce, whose negative attitude toward Pirandello was to influence many followers of aesthetic criticism. Although Croce's opposition cannot be attributed to preconceived hostility, he issued a sharply dialectical dissection of the essay and failed to recognize that Pirandello's theory cannot be dealt with in terms of logic and philosophical exegesis alone. The style, too, is significant, and for the very reasons that motivated Croce's disapproval, namely because Pirandello makes use of imagery as well as of philosophical definitions—a dichotomy that reflects the author's complex temperament. Tilgher, on the other hand, understood the anti-intellectualistic nature of Pirandello's art and published a stimulating interpretation of his theatre, one that was at first recognized as valid by the playwright himself. Often regarded as a “revelation” of Pirandello to the world and to himself, this interpretation should be more properly viewed in the light of Tilgher's own theory of the critic's preeminence and farsighted leadership in literature. In fact, after a period of “complicity,” Pirandello firmly reasserted his autonomy and rejected all implications of the critic's insistent patronage.