Bread and Wine (Signet Classics) [Paperback]

Ignazio Silone (Author), Eric Mosbacher (Translator), Irving Howe (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1977

One of the 20th century's essential novels depicting Fascism's rise in Italy.

Set and written in Fascist Italy, this book exposes that regime's use of brute force for the body and lies for the mind. Through the story of the once-exiled Pietro Spina, Italy comes alive with priests and peasants, students and revolutionaries, all on the brink of war.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Signet Classics (June 1, 1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451525000
• ISBN-13: 978-0451525000
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #877,895 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deceptively simple, October 22, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Bread and Wine (Signet Classics) (Paperback)

The book is deceptively simple in its language and plot, all of which merely serve to veil deep meaning and thought. The story takes place before WWII, when Mussolini is at the height of his fascist power and the country is preparing for a war with Ethiopia. The protagonist Pietro Spina, after having been forced to flee and live abroad because of his contrary political views, returns to Italy to spread the message of Communism. He goes into hiding disguised as a priest, Don Paolo, in the small mountain village of Pietrasecca. His casual views win the heart of all the villagers, and everyone he meets opens up to him (they all want him to hear their confessions, but he refuses on grounds that he does not have permission from the pope). As the novel progresses and as he comes to better know the peasants and their needs, his doctrinaire Communist views slowly change to one that takes on the appearance of grass-roots Christian socialism, and he more and more assumes the role of a priest. But even when the novel opens, one sees that he is person driven more by a determination to seek moral justice than a political answer: one gets the idea that Communism was the option most appealing of all the options to an idealist like he, as it was for most conscientious intellectuals of that time period. The novel reminds me of Camus's The Plague in that it poses the moral dilemmas people face and their reactions when confronted with a powerful dehumanizing organization, which in this case is fascism, while in Camus's case the organization is embodied in a disease. Pietro, the martyr Murica, and the priest Don Benedetto are the moral resistors of oppression, albeit each resists in his own way. However, theirs is a dignified, almost passive resistance which contrasts with the Communists outright rebellion. There is Zabaglia, once a socialist orator, who has now turned fascist sympathizer. And there are the peasants who are resigned to the follies of all politics because they see it as a part of life--the present government is merely one is series of historical and natural afflictions. Their down-to-earth cynicism allows them to be wary of all political propaganda. There are many passages in the book which reveal the quiet, rustic, and often times harsh beauty of the bucolic life, which is also sometimes shown as being crude and vulgar, yet always natural and unpretentious. There are hilarious passages showing the peasants' unquestioning Christian piety which they combine without any qualms with indigenous superstition: "One old woman was sliding along her knees toward the chapel of the sacrament, with her face on the floor, touching it with her tongue and leaving an irregular trail of saliva like that of a snail behind her. A young man in uniform was walking beside her, taking small steps, awkward and ashamed." The chapter before the last, when the villagers and Pietro come to pay their respects to the parents of Murica who had been humiliatingly tortured to death by the police, beautifully sums up the author's themes of common humanity and fraternalism by making a parallel with Christ's last supper. ' "The bread is made from many ears of grain," said Pietro. "Therefore it signifies unity. The wine is made from many grapes, and therefore it, too, signifies unity. A unity of similar things, equal and united. Therefore it means truth and brotherhood, too; these are things which go well together." "The bread and wine of communion," said an old man. "The grain and the grape which has been trampled on. The body and the blood." ' The novel ends inconclusively with dark foreboding when Cristina, Pietro's love, passionately tries to follow through dark and snow the illusory footsteps of Pietro, who has had to flee once again. A pack of wolfs comes upon her and she falls to her knees, closes her eyes, and crosses herself.

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An exiled priest, March 6, 2000

By 

Stefanie Lapointe (Santa Barbara, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bread and Wine (Signet Classics) (Paperback)

The late Ignazio Silone, the author of "Bread and Wine," stated that he "would willingly pass [his] life writing and rewriting the same book -- that one book which every writer carries within him, the image of his own soul..." "Bread and Wine" is just that -- a beautiful reflection of a man's soul. Using humor, easy language and insights into the Italian fascist regime, Silone tells the story of all humanity's search for truth. In the figure of Pietro Spina, a Socialist political activist, the reader is lead to ask questions about politics, relationships, and faith. The irony is that Spina has just returned from exile and must remain incognito -- as a priest, of course. Through his experiences, he asks many difficult questions about his Socialist party, his church, and himself. In the end, he is left to bring together who he is as the "priest" Don Paolo and who he was as the anti-political activist Pietra Spina. He must learn to "let the inner and the outer man meet" (Plato).

29 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bread for your body, wine for your soul..., December 14, 1999

By 

Esther Nebenzahl - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bread and Wine (Signet Classics) (Paperback)

Set in Italy, at the outbreak of the invasion of Africa, at the height of fascism, Silone's main character, the communist leader Pietro Spina, disguised as a priest, is confronted with a sad reality: the large distance that separates ideological communism and the daily reality of the "cafoni," the Italian peasants who have to face the cruel struggle for survival, their indifference to political rhetoric, their acceptance of a future with no perspectives, and their reliance on blind faith. Spina is the intellectual mind who painfully learns that ideologies by themselves are not enough, the element of "faith" has to be present in life. The narrative has superb discourses, simple in its language, but with an incredible depth of meaning, there are plenty of allegories for the attentive reader, the story is a pleasure and a delight, as much as some good bread and wine!