Prince of the Clouds [Hardcover]

Gianni Riotta (Author), Stephen Sartarelli (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2000

A rich, romantic novel set in post-world war II italy--steeped in military history--about young love, idealism, and the lessons of experience.

Palermo, 1946. Carlo Terzo, a retired military strategist who has never seen combat, is teaching young Salvatore Dragonara military history while Terzo works on his Manual for Strategic Living, in which he hopes to apply the hard lessons of war to daily life.

Salvatore is in love with the young and beautiful Fiore, whose mother, the Duchess Mastema, is a rich and cruel landowner. When Terzo and his friends visit the duchess's lands, they are caught in a pitched battle between the oppressed peasants and the duchess's hired thugs, and Terzo is forced to put his strategic wisdom to the test.

Like Louis de Bernires's Corelli's Mandolin, Gianni Riotta's charming and provocative romance explores large and small matters of love and war, shifting between the turbulence of postwar Sicily and the great battles of ancient and modern history. A major bestseller in Italy, Prince of the Clouds is a deeply moving work of fiction, imbued with rare vibrance and feeling.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The co-editor of the Italian newspaper La Stampa has crafted an intelligent romance of wide-ranging appeal, reminiscent of the film Il Postino and Louis de Berni?res's Corelli's Mandolin. A bestseller in Italy, it is the first of Riotta's novels to appear in an English translation. Carlo Terzo, a charmingly shy scholar of military strategy (who has never experienced combat), finds himself exiled from the political maelstrom of post-WWII Rome to a picturesque seaside villa in Palermo, Sicily. He arrives with two simple intentions: to work quietly on his Manual for Strategic Living and to tend to his beautiful, ailing wife, Russian ?migr? Princess Emma. Terzo becomes unwittingly embroiled, however, in conflicts between the local peasantry and aristocracy, which challenge his theory that strategy is the key to victory, even in daily life. This beautifully set story revolves so closely around its admittedly engaging protagonist that the other characters are somewhat shadowy. Terzo becomes tutor to Salvatore Dragonara, a sensitive young Communist who dreams of being a poet, and Fiore, a free-spirited, rebellious young aristocrat who is the daughter of the ferociously protective Duchess Mastema. This unlikely couple teaches him a few lessons about applying the principles of war to battles of love. When he is caught in a surprise melee between rebel peasants and armed bandits, Terzo's military scholarship is put to the test. But his extensive intellectual knowledge proves to be of only limited use in saving the lives of the people he loves. Like the "prince of the clouds" of Salvatore's poetry, Terzo is eventually forced to come down to earth and grapple with the complex and unpredictable human soul. Presented in an accomplished translation, with atmospheric, attractive illustrations by Matteo Pericoli, this lofty but poignant and seductive novel ambitiously distills tragic romance, political conflict and military history into one man's struggle to draw wisdom from the mistakes and triumphs of the past. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

In Stephen Sartarelli's elegant translation, it's an entertainment proper for the thinking person. -- The New York Times Book Review, Michael Pye

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux; 1st edition (May 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374237255
• ISBN-13: 978-0374237257
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,724,851 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Has some flaws but worth it especially if you like Italy, December 17, 2000

By 

Michael Hickcox "langeuhren" (Palo Alto, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Prince of the Clouds (Hardcover)

I bought this book between flights because the jacket promised that "like Louis de Bernieres's Corelli's Mandolin, Gianni Riotta's charming and provocative romance explores large and small matters of love and war, shifting between the turbulence of post-war Sicily and the great battles of ancient and modern history." Corelli's Mandolin is one of my favorites as is Italy so I bought in and I'm not sorry I did.

Like Corelli's Mandolin, this book has significant flaws made tolerable by vivid and loveable characters. Riotta takes a little too long to get things going, but once he does it's well worth it. The book's military strategy theme works well and is extremely interesting. Riotta makes strategy fun and enjoyable, reminding me of Ayn Rand's vocational architecture backdrop in the Fountainhead.

My favorite Italian novel is Lampedusa's The Leopard. Prince of the Clouds provides another interesting view of the decline of Sicilian nobility and I think readers will appreciate either one more having read the other. Appropriately, Riotta acknowledges his debt to Lampedusa by having him make a brief appearance in the book.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful reading experience, July 22, 2000

By 

Nancy S. Bernard - See all my reviews

This review is from: Prince of the Clouds (Hardcover)

A tour de force. Blending history, romance and the examples and perplexities of battles over the centuries, from Alexander the Great's legendary conflicts to World War II. Our hero Terzo is very Italian ... .in all good ways. The other characters are memorable and its a book a reader will remember for a long time. Not to be missed!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ideas of the heart, June 10, 2000

By 

mary - See all my reviews

This review is from: Prince of the Clouds (Hardcover)

It is a story that engages your mind and your heart. It makes you think and it makes you cry. At the end of the book, I cried. For the loss of young people and what it might have been of them. But it is also a book of hope, in the good of people and their ideas. Above all, it is a great story. You cannot stop reading when it comes to the central episode of the book (a battle of poor, unarmed men, women and children against mafia killers). It makes you feel that each person counts, that you count. At the same time, history of mankind counts. Ancient and recent. There aren't many books like this!