Customer Reviews

The Baron In The Trees

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The Baron in the Trees is one of the most enchanting novels ever written. When the Baron decides to take up his arboreal existence, one cannot help but believe he is making the right decision. Calvino fleshes out the Baron into one of the most believable characters in literature. This is an amazing feat considering the farcical lifestyle the Baron decides to adopt. Calvino takes the opportunity to create a world at once steeped in history, philosophy and politics while at the same time illustrating the everyday existence and lives of those around him. The cat skin hat, the exiles in the trees, the Napoleonic troops all brought to life with amazing detail. Memory, love and history all combine and swirl throughout the story. While there is nothing exactly magical or out of this world about this book, it is one of the best examples of magical realism I have read. I could not put this book down. Stop reading this review and buy the book.

Calvino is another of those writers I'd heard of, but would never have read had it not been for our book group's selection of this book. I'm glad to say that this is a tale enjoyable by children and adults alike, skillfully operating on several levels. The story concerns Cosimo, a noble born boy in late 18th-century Italy who one day defies his parents by climbing a tree and refusing to come back down. His life story is narrated by his younger brother, and Cosimo's adventures in the trees work both as charming tale for children, and as a metaphor for the Enlightenment for adults. Living among the treetops, Cosimo is seeking to distance himself from social traditions and norms while creating his own world and relationships. It obviously requires a little suspension of disbelief, but even those who normally hate magical realism (like me) will find it palatable. The cast of supporting characters are quirky and vividly entertaining, including his dog, militarist mother, disaster-in-the-kitchen sister, and exiled Spanish nobles. It's one of the most enjoyable (and short) piece of utopian literature I've encountered, and would make ripe reading for high school students.

Like most of Italo Calvino's fiction, "The Baron in the Trees" is pure enchantment that charms the reader into an alternate reality with the warmth of subtle humor and the pioneering spirit, similar to Borges's, that desires to explore fascinating new literary territory within the context of world history. In this novel, set in Italy in the late eighteenth century, Calvino tells the story of a young baron named Cosimo Piovasco di Rondo who lives with his eccentric family in a villa on the edge of the town of Ombrosa. One day when he is twelve years old, after an argument with his parents (about having to eat snails), he runs out to the garden and climbs an oak, declaring that he will spend the rest of his life in the trees and vowing never to set foot on the earth again.

Like an arboreal Robinson Crusoe who has chosen his fate, Cosimo determines to make his living in the contiguous group of trees that link his family's garden with those of his neighbors and the forests beyond the town. He travels between trees by climbing and jumping from branch to branch, becoming as nimble and elusive as a squirrel, while he trains himself to survive by hunting wild animals for food and clothing and building a flume to draw drinking water from a waterfall. Even in the trees he engages in activities normally reserved for people on the ground: He continues his formal education, befriends a dachshund that helps him hunt, supports a bumbling brigand's reading habit, and even has an adventure on a pirate ship without touching the deck.

Through his life in the trees, Cosimo becomes notorious throughout Europe and attains a reputation for madness that gradually turns into a strange sort of esteem. He converses with strangers, meets a group of Spanish exiles who also happen to be tree-dwellers, becomes a writer and natural scientist, and wins the hearts of many ladies who provide him with sexual gratification--in the branches, of course. Far from becoming a Rousseauian savage or a hermit, however, he remains quite civilized and gregarious; his palpable wisdom and curious residence ironically earn him more respect than he would get from the people if he were just a normal land-dwelling baron.

Calvino presents the story as a biography narrated by Cosimo's younger brother Biagio, who with affectionate patience describes in vivid detail every aspect of Cosimo's life and is quite hilarious in his explanations of their beleaguered father, militaristic mother, and gruesome, mischievous sister Battista, a "kind of stay-at-home nun." His efforts to explain Cosimo require him to delve into the mind of a political philosopher who aspires to be as influential as Machiavelli: When his father admonishes him that living in trees does not befit a nobleman, Cosimo replies that a true leader is someone who has ideas and communicates them to the people, not a man with an inherited title.

"The Baron in the Trees" may be read as a parable about withdrawing from reality and creating an isolated fantasy world in which to live free from the constraints of society as the ultimate expression of individuality, or as just a wonderful fable about a boy becoming a man on his own terms. One thing is sure: you'll never look at a tree the same way again.

Calvino never fails to mesmerize. His books suck you in and don't let go until the final word (and that final word always seems to include a touch of sadness that the novel is over). This is one of Calvino's earlier works, written in 1957, the same year he left the communist party (his reason is summed up in: "my decision to resign as a member of the party is founded on the fact that my discrepancies with those of the party have become an obstacle to whatever form of political participation I could undertake"). "The Baron in the Trees" does include some passages about disappointed political ideals (e.g., about the French Revolution), but the book touches on far too many topics to reduce it to a mere "political" novel.

The story begins, as the first line of the novel tells us, on the fifteenth of June, 1767. Cosimo Piovasco di Rondò is a member of a family whose father has sights on climbing the aristocratic ladder. In the very first chapter there is a family scuffle, during dinner, which results in Cosimo going into the trees and vowing never to come down ("And he kept his word" Cosimo's brother, who narrates the story, states). Cosimo then resigns himself to a life in the trees. After some initial mishaps (dealing with rain, bathing, food, etc), he proves himself very adaptable to living off the ground. Human adaptability seems to be at the back of the story (along with many other things); his family and town almost grow accustomed to Cosimo's darting amongst the branches. Cosimo even makes a name for himself "up in the trees" (Voltaire asks about him, and Napolean insists on meeting him). Of course the big question that comes from this action, in the very opening of the novel, is why did Cosimo go up into the trees? Why didn't he simply run away? One possible answer is that he wanted to make an example of himself. Living in the trees (especially in the 18th century) would likely make one into a spectacle. Running away wouldn't make as strong of a point, and would sever ties to his family which Cosimo does not want to do (this becomes more obvious as the novel moves on). And why does he stay in the trees? One possible answer is that which his brother gives to Voltaire: "My brother considers that anyone who wants to see the earth properly must keep himself at a necessary distance from it." Another possibility is, close to the novel's end, Cosimo is speaking with a Russian officer, who says, right after some members of his unit present him with the severed heads of some hussars, "You see.. War... For years now I've been dealing as best I can with a thing that in itself is appalling; war... and all this for ideals which I shall never, perhaps, be able to fully explain to myself..." Cosimo answers in like: "I too have lived many years for ideals which I would never be able to explain to myself; but I do something entirely good. I live on trees." Rambunctous and impetuous youth led Cosimo into the trees (he was only twelve when he took to the branches), but his ideals, once established, kept him there the rest of his life. All of us make descions in our youth that we either follow through with or abandon. Cosimo never abandoned his decision, for good or ill.

The novel reads like an adventure in places (e.g., when the feared, or imaginary, "Gian dei Brughi" is terrorizing the countryside, but evetually becomes addicted to novels - which in and of itself makes for a hilarious few chapters - Cosimo is there for almost every move); in other places it reads like a heartbreaking love story (e.g., Cosimo's nearly lifelong affair with Viola, which becomes so intense it's almost painful to read). A lot of action goes on in the trees, and the reader will likely not conclude that Cosimo has "missed something" as a result of his decision. Overall the novel is so readable that it's hard to put down (it could probably be completed in one long sitting). It has that mix of reality and fantasy that Calvino is famous for (it's easy to find references to Calvino as "one of the world's best fabulists"). Like other Calvino it's funny (Cosimo's sister serves bizarre arrangements of food to the family), heartbreaking (did Cosimo find true love in the trees or did he fail miserably?), poignant (he finds a great comrade in a small daschund he names "Ottimo Massimo" but the dog ultimately belongs to someone else), and a great read. The decisions one makes in life have impact on oneself and others, and in Cosimo's case his decision had vast impact on his immediate surroundings, regardless of the reasons why. Make a good decision for yourself and read this book.

I devoured this book yesterday, I loved it--Ok, so I was in airports and on airplanes all day, but what a great way to spend those hours. Set in the Enlightenment era of the late 18th Century in Lombardi, Italy, Calvino's novel portrays the break of the individual from Tradition by...a man living in a tree!

Calvino's writing is seamless; he has a great pacing between narrative/dialogue flow, a balance between fantasy and reality, characters that are engaging, and yes, satire.

In his collection of essays, "The Uses Of Literature," Calvino states that he wrote the protagonist, the Baron Cosimo, to be a "Don Quixote of the Enlightenment." Cosimo strives for objectivity, to distance himself from his natural world by living between earth and sky. He sets up his society and livelihood, entirely in the trees, as his own Noble Savage. He is civilized and still brutish, a lady's man and wildly single.

I think this novel could and should be taught in the colleges and high schools as Satire Literature, as Utopian Literature, as The Individual in Society Literature. If any of those themes don't appeal to you, then read it for its pleasure.

I love everything Italo Calvino ever wrote. His writing has a light, whimsical charm that is present no matter what his subject matter and that never fails to win me over. "The Baron in the Trees" is one of Calvino's most charming and whimsical stories, but it's also touched with poignancy and sadness, a mixture at which Calvino excelled.

When Cosimo makes his decision to live his life in the tree tops, we don't doubt that he'll do it. He's a perfectly believable character and perfectly drawn, as is his more practical, down-to-earth (literally) brother. The supporting characters are also very well-drawn and very believable. I don't know of any writer but Calvino who could make us believe in and sympathize with a person who lives out his life in the trees. Cosimo studies, endures illness and injury and even conducts love affairs from his arboreal home.

I love this book and it's one of my "Calvino favorites." It might not be quite the masterpiece that "If on a winter's night a traveler" is but it comes very close. I think it's a wonderful place to start if you've never read Calvino and you want a good idea of the charm and whimsy and pathos this extraordinary writer was capable of.

I will always remember and treasure this story.

This novel, told from the perspective of the main character's younger brother, is the story of Cosimo, a young baron-to-be in 18th-century Italy who climbs a tree to defy his parents and never comes down. The magical nature of the story is compelling, and Calvino is a marvelous craftsman of fantasy. The book does have some flaws: I had fundamental problems with Cosimo's reasons for going into the tree in the first place and deciding to remain there; it seemed to me that he spent his life in the trees out of sheer stubbornness. This explanation, in the midst of a book that seemed to be trying to say something through Cosimo's wisdom, was unsatisfying for me. But the scenes which deal with human relationships are stunning in their truth (if not their objective reality), and the arboreal world Calvino creates is one that I'd like to see. One of my students recommended this book to me, and I am grateful to him for doing so. I'm somewhat at a loss to compare this book with anything else I've ever read--but I do recommend it.

One of Italo Calvino's best and one of my all-time favorites. It's the story of a boy from a noble family who, out of disgust with people, climbs into a tree on his family's property and never comes down. He grows old in the trees but lives a full life. Extremely imaginative as only Italo Calvino can be.

Italo Calvino was one of the most underrated maestros of magical realism, where atoms fall in love and empty suits of armor walk and talk. And one of his most polished, reader-friendly stories was "Baron in the Trees," a fable about a nobleman who lives his whole life in a tree. Yes, it sounds weird -- but the result is sweet, uplifting and full of childlike wonder.

A young nobleman, Cosimo, was enraged when his eccentric sister made dinner out of his pet snails. So when his father ordered him to eat, he ran up a tree and swore to stay there forever. And he did, from his adolescence up to old age, becoming famous as the Baron in the Trees. Even at the death of his parents, he remained in the trees nearby, watching and helping -- but not coming down. Even when the Baron dies, he finds a way to ascend even higher...

Without leaving the trees, he manages to hunt animals, educate himself with great philosophers, adopts an abandoned dog, lends bestselling books to a local bandito, battles pirates who are conspiring with his uncle, has an affair with a promiscuous Marchesa, and even lives with a band of tree-dwelling Spanish exiles.

"Baron in the Trees" is a whimsical little story on the surface, until you look deeper at the message of "living in trees." Cosimo removes himself from the ground, and also removes himself from the worries of ordinary people -- social position, power, material goods. He's happy just to have friends, books, and his own private kingdom.

But even if you take it at face value, "Baron in the Trees" is an enchanting little story. Calvino's lush, detailed writing is always full of a child's wonder, and he sounds like he's living his own fantasies as he describes how Cosimo manages to sleep (a sort of fur cocoon), store his possessions and fall in live... while never stepping out of the tree. But Calvino manages to convey the bittersweetness of Cosimo's life: While he loves his odd life, he also knows that it alienates him from the rest of the world and leaves him alone.

Cosimo himself is a relatively distant character, since the whole book is through the eyes of his otherwise-unimportant brother. But he is surrounded by equally quirky characters -- his Jesuit-phobic father, "general" mother, creepy disgraced sister, and an array of book-loving bandits, odd priests, and peasants who get used to the tree-dwelling Baron.

A sweet, quirky fable about a young man who just won't come down to earth, "The Baron in the Trees" is a truly enchanting read.

A beautiful fairy tale of a book. It never devolves into heavy-handed allegory. It's original, without stinking of Cleverness. Don't know what else to say. If you're into John Crowley, Borges, Ray Bradbury, or the Brothers Grimm, then you'll love this book. You'll probably love it anyway. Have fun.