Stories of Southern Italy

by Carr, Ella

• ISBN13: 9780593535516
• ISBN10: 0593535510
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2022-10-18
• Publisher: Everyman's Library

Summary

This dazzling hardcover collection brings to life the magnificent southern regions of Italy, from Naples to Sicily, as seen through the eyes of literary greats from Ovid and Virgil to Elsa Morante and Elena Ferrante.

Southern Italy has long inspired one of the most vigorous literary traditions in Europe. Visitors since antiquity have sought to capture the extraordinary natural beauty and cultural riches of the region, and in this wide-ranging collection such notable foreign visitors as Goethe and Somerset Maugham sit alongside many of Italy’s finest writers, including Luigi Pirandello, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Elio Vittorini, and Anna Maria Ortese.
 
The stories here range across the regions of Sicily, Calabria, Campania, Apulia, and Basilicata. Theocritus, Virgil, and Ovid describe a Sicily populated by Cyclopes and sea monsters. In an excerpt from The Smile of the Unknown Mariner, Vincenzo Consolo depicts an island on the frontier of Italian unification. The South’s legendary legacy of organised crime enlivens the stories of Leonardo Sciascia and Joseph Conrad. Curzio Malaparte and Norman Lewis immortalize the wreckage of Naples and the indomitable spirit of its people during World War II, and Elena Ferrante gives us a spectacular portrait of a poor but vibrant Neapolitan neighborhood in an excerpt from the best-selling My Brilliant Friend. Collectively, these entertaining tales provide a portal into a fascinating place in all its drama and beauty.
 
Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket.

Author Biography

ELLA CARR is an editor at Everyman's Library in the UK, and author of the guide Florence Walks. She has contributed to a number of travel and hotel guides, and to publications including The Oldie and Exberliner. She is the editor of the Everyman's Library Pocket Classic collection Stories of Florence.

Table of Contents

Preface by Ella Carr

MYTHOGRAPHY
THEOCRITUS, The Cyclops (Idyll XI)
VIRGIL, Helenus Warning (from the Aeneid )
OVID, The Rape of Proserpina (from the Metamorphoses)

SICILY
GIOVANNI VERGA, His Reverence
LUIGI PIRANDELLO, Citrons from Sicily
VITALIANO BRANCATI, My Grandfather
ELIO VITTORINI, From Conversations in Sicily
GIUSEPPE TOMASI DI LAMPEDUSA, The Siren
LEONARDO SCIASCIA, The Wine-Dark Sea
VINCENZO CONSOLO, The Tree of the Four Oranges
DACIA MARAINI, From Bagheria
PETER ROBB, A Market

CALABRIA
NORMAN DOUGLAS, Old Morano
CORRADO ALVARO, From Revolt in Aspromonte
VITO TETI, Clouds and Back Streets

BASILICATA
CARLO LEVI, From Christ Stopped at Eboli

APULIA
NICOLA LAGIOIA, From Ferocity

CAMPANIA
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE, From Italian Journey
JOSEPH CONRAD, Il Conde
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM, The Lotus Eater
CURZIO MALAPARTE, The Plague
ANNA MARIA ORTESE, A Pair of Eyeglasses
ELSA MORANTE, From Arturo’s Island
NORMAN LEWIS, From Naples ’44
ELENA FERRANTE, From My Brilliant Friend