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The Narrative of Trajan's Column by Italo Calvino
Category: History | Series: Penguin Great Ideas Ser.
'When the last fire goes out, time too will be finished' Italo Calvino was one of the most joyful and imaginative writers of the twentieth century. Here he muses on what the things we leave behind - whether waxworks or ancient graffiti, enigmatic maps or a crumbling Roman column - tell us about the gr ...Show more
The Nonexistent Knight by Italo Calvino
Category: Fiction
An empty suit of armor is the hero in this witty novella, a picaresque gem--now available in an independent volume for the first time--that brilliantly parodies medieval knighthood. Set in the time of Charlemagne and narrated by a nun with her own secrets to keep, The Nonexistent Knight tells the story ...Show more
The Nonexistent Knight and the Cloven Viscount by Italo Calvino; J. Ferrone (Editor); H. Wolff (Editor)
Category: Fiction
Two novellas: the first, a parody of medieval knighthood told by a nun; the second, a fantasy about a nobleman bisected into his good and evil halves. "Bravura pieces... executed with brilliance and brio"(Chicago Tribune). Translated by Archibald Colquhoun. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book
The Path to the Spiders' Nests by Italo Calvino
Category: Fiction | Series: Penguin Modern Classics Ser.
Pin is a bawdy, adolescent cobbler's assistant, both arrogant and insecure who - while the Second World War rages - sings songs and tells jokes to endear himself to the grown-ups of his town - particularly jokes about his sister, who they all know as the town's 'mattress'. Among those his sister sleeps ...Show more
The Queen's Necklace by Italo Calvino
Category: Fiction
'The inspector ordered that the bird be searched. One of the agents stalled saying it made him feel sick, and after some fierce pecking another withdrew sucking a bleeding finger'. In these two stories from an inventive, comic master of the form, old friends and friendly rivals Pietro and Tommasso disco ...Show more
The Road to San Giovanni by Italo Calvino
Category: Classic Fiction | Series: Penguin Modern Classics Ser.
In five elegant autobiographical meditations Calvino delves into his past, remembering awkward childhood walks with his father, a lifelong obsession with the cinema and fighting in the Italian Resistance against the Fascists. He also muses on the social contracts, language and sensations associated with ...Show more
The Road to San Giovanni by Tim (TRN) Italo; Parks Calvino
Category: Fiction | Series: Vintage Classics
The Watcher & Other Stories by Italo Calvino
Category: Fiction
In "The Watcher, " a member of the Communist Party is assigned to a polling place in Turin's Hospital for Incurables, where he observes the rejects of humanity and a grotesque parody of the democratic process. "Smog" anticipates a preoccupation with pollution so lunatic that it casts a pall even over th ...Show more
The Written World and the Unwritten World: Collected Non-Fiction by Italo Calvino
Category: Languages and Reference
A true celebration of literature in its many forms, The Written World and the Unwritten Worldbrings together essays, articles, interviews, forewords and notes from the inimitable mind of Italo Calvino. The fate of the novel, reading and translation are just some of the subjects examined in this remarkab ...Show more
Under the Jaguar Sun by Italo Calvino
Category: Fiction | Series: Penguin Modern Classics Ser.
A couple on an epicurean journey across Mexico are excited by the idea of a particular ingredient, suggested by ancient rituals of human sacrifice. Precariously balanced on his throne, a king is able only to listen to the sounds around him - sure that any deviation from their normal progression would me ...Show more
Why Read The Classics? by Italo Calvino
Category: Culture | Series: Penguin Modern Classics Ser.
"Why Read the Classics?" is an elegant defence of the value of great literature by one of the finest authors of the last century. Beginning with an essay on the attributes that define a classic (number one - classics are those books that people always say they are 'rereading', not 'reading'), this is an ...Show more