During the last few weeks i’ve noticed with great pleasure that many people have started reading Dante, Ferrante and Calvino’s works, so I decided to make a list of Italian books which are still famous but maybe less known outside if their country of origin.
Here are my takes:
– The Betrothed (I Promessi Sposi) by Alessandro Manzoni. Set in Milan during the years of Spanish Rule, two young lovers, Renzo and Lucia, are planning to marry, when their plans are interrupted by rich Don Rodrigo, who wants the lady for himself.
– Zeno’s Conscience (La Coscienza di Zeno) by Italo Svevo. It follows the thoughts and experiences of tormented Zeno Cosini, through his psychoanalytical sessions and addiction to tobacco, all narrated from the point of view of an unreliable narrator, Zeno himself. James Joyce was a close friend of Svevo’s.
– The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio. One of Dante’s contemporaries, this medieval collection of short stories contains the stories told by a group of seven young women and three men who, to escape from the ongoing Plague epidemic, decide to shelter in a secluded villa outside of Florence.
– The Prince (Il Principe) by Niccolò Machiavelli. A political and philosophical treatise first published during the 16th century, it’s an examination of leadership and government, our willpower as humans and preservation.
– The Late Mattia Pascal (Il Fu Mattia Pascal) by Luigi Pirandello. The protagonist, Mattia, after a long period of optimism and prosperity, falls in a depressive state due to a series of deaths and misfortunes, from the death of his mother to his loveless marriage.
– The Moon and The Bonfires (La Luna e Il falò) by Cesare Pavese. The Protagonist, known by the nickname of “Anguilla”, has just returned home following the Second World War. He notices how the village and landscape haven’t changed since his departure, whilst its residents are deeply altered by the passing of time and the war.
– The Solitude of Prime Numbers (La Solitudine dei Numeri Primi) by Paolo Giordano. It touches upon the complex relationship between a man and a woman who have known each other since their early childhood, both marked by traumatic experiences which follow them until adulthood.
– I’m not scared (Io non ho paura) by Niccolò Ammaniti. A raw portrayal of the loss of childhood innocence through the eyes of a boy who, in 1978, discovers that his father has kidnapped another child, which leads him to slowly rebel against his father figure and the conditions in which he grew up in.
– Family Sayings (Lessico Famigliare) by Natalia Ginzburg. Similar to Ferrante’s “My Brilliant Friend” is a semi autobiographical account of the author’s daily family life during the fascist period through the post war years, twisted with she and her parents’ habits, language and personalities.
– Pleasure or The Child of Pleasure (Il Piacere) by Gabriele D’Annunzio. The account of a young nobleman’ escapades with multiple women, all whilst being married. His desire to posses both her mistress and wife leads him to playing a gambler’s game with affection, in the end meditating on the meaning of loving and being loved.
– Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto. An early epic poem, narrates the adventures of a christian knight known as Orlando, having as background the war between Charlemagne’s paladins and the Saracen army. It’s a mixture fantasy and realism, as many setting are life like when his own trips are based on mythology. Like Dante’s Divine Comedy, it’s divided in cantos.
– If This is a man (Se questo è un uomo) by Primo Levi. A record of Levi’s ten month experience at the German Concentration camp of Auschwitz, through violence, famine and death. It the first novel in the Auschwitz Trilogy.
– Boys Alive, or The Street Kids, or The Ragazzi (Ragazzi di Vita) by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Set in Rome during the fifties, a daring novel of rebellion and youth, told by a teen boy, Riccetto, who walks among the eternal city’s bumpy and dirty streets, followed by his group of friends, all aged by life’s violence.
– The Mistress of the Inn (La Locandiera) by Carlo Goldoni. A comedic theatre piece about a coquette, similar to Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.
– The Shape of Water: Inspector Montalbano (La Forma dell’acqua) by Andrea Camilleri. The first of Inspector Montalbano’s appearances, is a compelling story of Sicilian Crime. After the discovery of an engineer’s body, later oddly deemed as a death by “natural causes”, the detective goes on a labyrinthine quest through corruption and vengeance to uncover the truth.
– The Poetry of Petrarch (Il Canzoniere) by Francesco Petrarca. A collection of poems first appeared in latin, has as its central theme the poet’s love for Laura, a young woman who he had met in a Church in Avignon. The Canzoniere is considered to have been a great influence for Europe’s Reinassance.
– The House by the medlar tree (I Malavoglia) by Giovanni Verga. The chronicles of a hardworking yet poor family of fishermen in Sicily told through a text composed of heavy dialect, the story slowly adapting itself onto each character’s point of view and personality.
– The Poems of Giacomo Leopardi. One of Italy’s most beloved and celebrated artists, Leopardi’s “All’infinito”, “A Slivia” and “Il Passero Solitario” are just three of the poems that inspired a generation of modern poets. Leopardi’s isolated life due to his precarious health gave him the prompt to create works of a desperate and melancholic vein.
Feel free to add other books to the list.
by lady_jane_08