Short description: "Cosima" tells the story of an aspiring writer growing up in Nuoro, Sardinia during the last decades of the nineteenth century when formal education for women was rare and literary careers unheard-of. Based on Deledda’s own life, the work describes a young woman’s struggle against the dismay and disapproval of her family and friends at her creative ambitions. Yet it also reads like a charming fable with details of family life, rural traditions and wild bandits, and it is as much a novel of memory as of character or action. Deledda’s characters are poor country folk driven by some predetermined force. Their loves are tragic, their lives as hard and as rigidly controlled as nature itself in the hills of Sardinia. Deledda creates memorable figures who play out their lives against this backdrop of mountains and bare plains, sheepfolds and vineyards. Shimmering in the distance is the sea and escape — for a few — to the Continent or America. In 1926 Grazia Deledda became the second woman and the second Italian to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. She wrote thirty-three novels, including "Reeds in the Wind," and many books of short stories, almost all set on Sardinia. Her work has become well known to English-speaking readers through Martha King’s translations for Italica Press.
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"A unique and supremely satisfying portrait of the artist as a young girl." -- Belles Lettres, Spring 1990
"King's translation is crisp and clear. Grazia Deledda is one of the most important women writers of the twentieth century. [This] translation will go far in helping redress the neglect of an important feminine voice in twentieth-century narrative." -- Italica, AATI, 66.1, Spring 1989
"This autobiographical novel sets forth a young girl's struggle to break family and village traditions, become educated, and be a writer." -- Ms., May/June 1992
Cosima is the fictionalized autobiography of Grazia Deledda, the first Italian woman to win a Nobel Prize for Literature (1926). Focusing on her early life in rural Sardinia, the novel mixes realism with the perceptions of young Cosima to show a world both terrible and wonderful. Cosima is part of a large family full of tragedy: her scholarly eldest brother becomes an alcoholic, her father dies, another brother manages the family interests but keeps most of the income for himself. Cosima carries on, finding beauty and learning about life. Her first story is published in a fashion magazine; encouraged, she steals a liter of oil from the cellar to pay the postage to submit her first novel manuscript, which is accepted. Her payment is a hundred copies, "and the big package plummeted into the house like a meteorite. Her mother was frightened by it, walking around it evenings with the fearful distrust of a dog that sees a strange animal." As Cosima oversees the family oil-pressing mill, she hears the stories of the peasants: "genuine people, hard-working and gentle who, even if they could get their claws on the little bit belonging to their neighbors ... would do it sparingly and then go to confession." She stops writing romances and concentrates on Sardinia - a place where myth melds with grinding reality, where a woman can fall in love with a sheep and bandits come to your door, and where everyone gossips about that strange little Cosima, who writes. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Erica Bauermeister
"King's translation is crisp and clear. Grazia Deledda is one of the most important women writers of the twentieth century. [This] translation will go far in helping redress the neglect of an important feminine voice in twentieth-century narrative." -- Italica, AATI, 66.1, Spring 1989
"This autobiographical novel sets forth a young girl's struggle to break family and village traditions, become educated, and be a writer." -- Ms., May/June 1992
Cosima is the fictionalized autobiography of Grazia Deledda, the first Italian woman to win a Nobel Prize for Literature (1926). Focusing on her early life in rural Sardinia, the novel mixes realism with the perceptions of young Cosima to show a world both terrible and wonderful. Cosima is part of a large family full of tragedy: her scholarly eldest brother becomes an alcoholic, her father dies, another brother manages the family interests but keeps most of the income for himself. Cosima carries on, finding beauty and learning about life. Her first story is published in a fashion magazine; encouraged, she steals a liter of oil from the cellar to pay the postage to submit her first novel manuscript, which is accepted. Her payment is a hundred copies, "and the big package plummeted into the house like a meteorite. Her mother was frightened by it, walking around it evenings with the fearful distrust of a dog that sees a strange animal." As Cosima oversees the family oil-pressing mill, she hears the stories of the peasants: "genuine people, hard-working and gentle who, even if they could get their claws on the little bit belonging to their neighbors ... would do it sparingly and then go to confession." She stops writing romances and concentrates on Sardinia - a place where myth melds with grinding reality, where a woman can fall in love with a sheep and bandits come to your door, and where everyone gossips about that strange little Cosima, who writes. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Erica Bauermeister
Language Notes
Text: English, Italian (translation)
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Joyful Italian childhood,
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This review is from: Cosima (Paperback)
This is a beautifully written literary novel about a young girl growing up in Sardinia at the end of the 1800s. Cosima is Grazia Deladda's middle name. The imaginary and fantasy whims of childhood are well described. Social history of Sardinia is in the background of this novel. Sheepherders and writers are among the characters along with Cosima's family. Cosima succeeds as a writer while her family is pushing for an appropriate marriage.
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THE HOUSE WAS SIMPLE, BUT COMFORTABLE: two large rooms on each of the three stories with wooden floors, low wooden ceilings and white-washed walls. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
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Signor Antonio, Signora Francesca, Aunt Paola, Signorino Andrea, Uncle Elia, Uncle Sebastiano New!
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THE HOUSE WAS SIMPLE, BUT COMFORTABLE: two large rooms on each of the three stories with wooden floors, low wooden ceilings and white-washed walls. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
little grandmother Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Signor Antonio, Signora Francesca, Aunt Paola, Signorino Andrea, Uncle Elia, Uncle Sebastiano New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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