Italian Folktales [Hardcover]

Italo Calvino (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 28, 1990

Chosen as one of the New York Times’s ten best books in the year of its original publication, this collection immediately won a cherished place among lovers of the tale and vaulted Calvino into the ranks of the great folklorists. Introduction by the Author; illustrations. Translated by George Martin. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

Editorial Reviews

Review

....[C]olloquial but never corny, plainspoken, economical, wry and flexible and sometimes stunningly lyrical. (The New York Times Books of the Century ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Language Notes

Text: English, Italian (translation)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 800 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (September 28, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151457700
• ISBN-13: 978-0151457700
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,131,194 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magical, wacky tales and magical, beautiful prose, December 3, 2003

By 

Bryan Pfaffenberger "B. Pfaffenberger" (Chartlottesville, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Italian Folktales (Paperback)

Here's a tip of the hat to the English translator (George Martin) of this wonderful collection. If you've noted the glowing reviews and prizes, you might still hold back, thinking "Well, I'm sure it's fantastic in Italian, but the English probably doesn't quite capture the brilliance of the original." Maybe so, but -- unless you're fluent in Italian -- there's no reason to skip this sparkling, wonderful English translation. It's -- well, delicious.

I first read this book years ago -- out loud, to my kids, and it quickly became a family favorite. Be aware that this collection isn't your usual compendium of "I've heard that before" stories. They're all rather strange; sometimes, they're downright weird, as if the good folk of traditional Italian villages were tuned into the X-Files several centuries ago. Some of them -- my favorite example is "Ari, Ari, Ari, Money, Money, Money" -- are flat-out, bust-your-gut hilarious.

If the stories don't do you in, you'll find some of the most gorgeous and unforgettable English you'll ever read, thanks to the brilliant translation. It's spare - it's closer to Hemingway than Faulkner, perfectly pitched to its task - and exquisitely structured and paced.

This is a book that truly belongs on every shelf. Give it for the holidays, birthdays, or for the hell of it -- and, please (if you love English and fine writing) treat yourself.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Italo Calvino's Labor of Love, February 10, 2004

By 

Eric J. Lyman (Roma, Lazio Italy) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Italian Folktales (Paperback)

I haven't been a particular fan of folk tales in the years that have passed since more or less my tenth birthday, but it's hard not to adore this charming, magical, and fantastic collection of traditional Italian stories as recounted by master storyteller and author Italo Calvino.

In the book's introduction, Mr. Calvino seems to regard his production of this almost 800-page volume as a sort of obligation. But in reading its pages, it's clear that it was really a labor of love, a massive project undertaken by an already established writer who had no need to produce something so unusual and challenging in order to help his own reputation.

But we are clearly better off because of he did produce it. Inside are exactly 200 precious stories, parables, fables, and good old fashioned yarns -- all of them plucked from the Italian folk tradition, dusted off, and improved by Mr. Calvino. I admit that "improved" is not a word I'd usually want to read in regard to a modern production of classic literature, but from the bits and pieces I know from experience, improvement was needed: many of the tales were originally published based on cobbled together version of traditional oral stories with partially-developed sub-plots and characters whose names or motives change partway through the story. I have seen the original Italian versions of at least three of the stories between this book's covers -- Fra Ignazio, Rosemary, and the Peacock Feather -- and was thoroughly confounded by the original, only to be charmed later by Mr. Calvino's cleaner and more thoughtful retellings.

It is important to remember that the Italian literary tradition dates further back in a direct line than any other in Western Europe: many of these tales were originally written in Italian long before the language evolved beyond being anything more than a vulgar street slang and when only Latin and Greek was spoken in the drawing rooms of literate Italians. And yet it wasn't until 1956 and Mr. Calvino's self-described obligation that more than a couple dozen or so of these wonderful stories was gathered in a single volume.

Hats off also to George Martin, Mr. Calvino's translator, surprisingly enough, for only this book. Mr. Martin does a terrific job of preserving Mr. Calvino's cadence and subtle linguistic flare, and he does it while staying away from the temptation of translating too literally, a flaw that has a hold on many less talented translators.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magical reading aloud for both adults and children, July 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Italian Folktales (Paperback)

Read this book to yourself, or better, aloud to your favorite adults and children. The tales, some short and some longer, offer magic, fantasy and adventure for the kids and sly insights into human nature for adults. The tales are not "dumbed down" as unfortunately happens in some folktale collections. Calvino preserves the flavor of the spoken word, but these stories work as literature, too. For the scholarly-minded, an appendix in the back gives the provenance of each story.