From Publishers Weekly
Carrying with him a vision of India inspired by the Thousand and One Nights, Italian poet Gozzano (1883-1916) set out for the subcontinent in 1912 hoping to find a bit of the magical and the miraculous he'd read about in those tales. He was also hoping to find another kind of miracle: a cure for the tuberculosis that would kill him one year before these letters (originally written for La Stampa) were collected as Verso la cuna del mondo. Appearing in English for the first time, these are in all probability works of the poet's imagination for, as Marinelli says in his introduction, Gozzano could not possibly have visited all the cities he writes about. At their best, they reveal the struggles of a man seeking an imagined oriental harmony of body and soul, art and faith, when faced with his own death. When he writes of an India that is too like the West or mired in decay, Gozzano displays disgust at colonial influence. But when he indulges in his fantasy of India, Gozzano is at his most lyrical. The sensuous dance of the bayadere, the colorful elegance of the pink city of Jaipur reaffirm for him the mystery-and the cliche-of India. Perhaps the veracity of Gozzano's itinerary is not, in the end, important. As he says on his return from Delhi, "Heaven help us if we were not able to flesh out with our dreams the meager pleasures that reality concedes us."
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
From Library Journal
In 1912, Italian poet Gozzano left Italy for India. Suffering from tuberculosis, he hoped the warmer climate would help cure him. Two newspapers hired him to write about what he saw over the course of three months, and this book is a collection of his articles. A brief glance at the chapter titles suggests that Gozzano could not have visited all the places he wrote about; many of the articles must have been cribbed from contemporary travel books. Still, his enthusiasm for India comes through as he admires the city of Jaipur and the Taj Mahal. Gozzano describes Parsee funeral customs and clearly comes to understand the gulf between Western and Indian cultures. His book has little value as a historical travel item, but it is useful for libraries with Italian literature collections.
Katherine Ellerton, MOREnet (Missouri Research & Education Network), Columbia
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Katherine Ellerton, MOREnet (Missouri Research & Education Network), Columbia
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
