Imaginary conversations between Marco Polo and his host, the Chinese ruler Kublai Khan, conjure up cities of magical times. “Of all tasks, describing the contents of a book is the most difficult and in the case of a marvelous invention like Invisible Cities, perfectly irrelevant” (Gore Vidal). Translated by William Weaver. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book
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"Kublai Khan does not necessarily believe everything Marco Polo says when he describes the cities visited on his expeditions, but the emperor of the Tartars does continue listening to the young Venetian with greater attention and curiosity than he shows any other messenger or explorer of his." So begins Italo Calvino's compilation of fragmentary urban images. As Marco tells the khan about Armilla, which "has nothing that makes it seem a city, except the water pipes that rise vertically where the houses should be and spread out horizontally where the floors should be," the spider-web city of Octavia, and other marvelous burgs, it may be that he is creating them all out of his imagination, or perhaps he is recreating details of his native Venice over and over again, or perhaps he is simply recounting some of the myriad possible forms a city might take.
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Of all tasks, describing the contents of a book is the most difficult and in the case of a marvelous invention like Invisible Cities, perfectly irrelevant. -- Gore Vidal, The New York Review of Books
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86 of 90 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Once more, I have grown in my appreciation and respect for Calvino's works. He writes using precise words and never quits until he has portrayed an image in sentences. He is inventive, an original. This short novel has incredible power not for plot, but for characterization, imagery, and sheer force contained in the words.
The characterization works like a photographic negative. He never tells us of Genghis Khan or Marco Polo; no descriptions or personality traits given. What he uses is their ideas and the things that they talk of to describe what kind of people they are. Thus, it is through their impressions on the template that I could tell what kind of characters they are. That is good, confident writing, I think.
The imagery is powerful too. Calvino strives to make his cities visible in the imagination. This is one trait that I think will make him be read years and years from now.
Take your time with this novel. In fact, I don't think that it is possible to even race through it. It's shortness is misleading, it is very dense and laden with vitality and deserves to be savored in enjoyment and not raced through in the reading. But if you can slow down and enjoy it, I think you will find it to be well worth the effort.
39 of 42 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In this wonderful litle book, an imaginary Marco Polo tells an equally fictional Kublai Khan the story of his many travels through the Mogol Empire, and all the cities he has known. They both know it's all in Polo's brain, but who cares, the imaginary cities are so vivid, so visually possible, that the emperor keeps demanding more of them.
Calvino really lets his imagination get high, to create the most bizarre, beautiful, horrible and crazy cities as any you yourself can imagine. Cities of all places, ages, shapes and peculiarities come to your mind. Calvino is really good at depicting impossible places, but also places that somehow remind you of real cities you've been to.
A remarkable work of imagination, well written, this is the ideal book to read in a dreamy scenery, but also in one of these quasi-impossible cities we humans have created, the craziest ones, such as NY, LA, Tokyo, Mexico City, etc.
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
So here I was, flying north, thinking about themes such as axioms, storytelling, pattern recognition, and facilitation from the grandest, most broad vantage point. Before me, this short book of short stories based upon conversations between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan. Invisible Cities is very simple on the surface. It contains several series' of short stories - 1 to 3 pages in length - that chronicle Polo's excursions into cities throughout the domain of The Khan. The stage is Khan's garden, where Polo has been summoned to report on his journies. Each series of stories is bound by a brief contextual passage, usually a dialogue between Polo and Khan about the nature of Polo's journies and their meaning. From this simple structure, Calvino weaves a rich tapestry of patterns, some obvious (take a look at the table of contents) some very subtle (read between the lines when you read the passages that bridge one section to the next).
Calvino is a masterful story teller - with an uncanny abililty to create space, setting, scene and mood. I found Invisible Cities a personal, intimate read. Marvelous.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
A masterpiece. Unlike anything else
A beautiful book about the ways in which the spaces around and within us define who we are and vice versa. Read more
Published 1 month ago by jafrank
Perfect for those that love to travel
This book was recommended to me by a fellow traveler, and I will be in his debt for quite awhile!
The back cover of my edition said the only bad part of this book was... Read more
The back cover of my edition said the only bad part of this book was... Read more
Published 2 months ago by M. N.
Invisible Cities... Enchanting Worlds...
I have been on a spree reading Calvino's works now, and there is never a let-off in the delightful surprises in store. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Andy
Genius
This book is so beautiful. Italo Calvino really draws you in to a world of invisible cities. As ever, his prose is truly masterful. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Sabreen
captivating
"The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what is already here, the inferno we live every day, that we form by being together. Read more
Published 5 months ago by jenn
Calvino
Italo Calvino is a master story teller and Invisible Cities is one of his best works. He paints a beautiful tale of what may have been Marco Polo's journey.
Published 5 months ago by AeneasTroy
A beautiful story
Calvino has a gift with words and is a master storyteller. Invisible Cities paints a portrait that opens the mind to possibilities. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Tate
Cities in the mind
"Kublai Khan does not necessarily believe everything Marco Polo says when he describes the cities visited on his expeditions, but the emperor of the Tartars does continue... Read more
Published 9 months ago by E. A Solinas
Redundant
I so wanted to love this book, but it took me over two months just to finish it despite its short length. That is not to say it was all bad! Read more
Published 11 months ago by lit-in-the-last-frontier
THE BOOK OF IMAGINARY CITIES
I first showed interest in Italo Calvino when I saw him compared to a favorite author of mine, JORGE LUIS BORGES. Read more
Published 13 months ago by EMAN NEP
Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Leaving there and proceeding for three days toward the east, you reach Diomira, a city with sixty silver domes, bronze statues of all the gods, streets paved with lead, a crystal theater, a golden cock that crows each morning on a tower. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
continuous cities Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Marco Polo, Great Khan, Kublai Khan, Thin Cities, Hidden Cities, Trading Cities New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Leaving there and proceeding for three days toward the east, you reach Diomira, a city with sixty silver domes, bronze statues of all the gods, streets paved with lead, a crystal theater, a golden cock that crows each morning on a tower. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
continuous cities Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Marco Polo, Great Khan, Kublai Khan, Thin Cities, Hidden Cities, Trading Cities New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 12
books:
See all 12 books this book cites
100
books
cite this book:
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- The Uses of Literature by Italo Calvino in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- The Nonexistent Knight and The Cloven Viscount by Italo Calvino in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- Under the Jaguar Sun by Italo Calvino in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- Difficult Loves by Italo Calvino in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- The Castle of Crossed Destinies by Italo Calvino in Front Matter, and Back Matter
See all 12 books this book cites
- Italo Calvino by Martin L. McLaughlin on 32 pages
- New Theatre Quarterly 61: Volume 16, Part 1 (v. 16, Pt. 1, No. 61) by Clive Barker on 7 pages
- Postcolonialism: Theory, Practice or Process by Ato Quayson on 6 pages
- Literature and the Taste of Knowledge (The Empson Lectures) by Michael Wood on 5 pages
- City A-Z: Urban Fragments by Steve Pile on 5 pages
See all 100 books citing this book
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