Eleven Short Stories/Undici Novelle (A Dual-Language Book) (English and Italian Edition) [Paperback]

Luigi Pirandello (Author), Stanley Appelbaum (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 6, 1994

Masterly stories include "Little Hut," "With Other Eyes," "A Voice," "Citrons from Sicily," "A Character’s Tragedy," six more. English translations.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Italian (translation)
Original Language: Italian

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (May 6, 1994)
• Language: English, Italian
• ISBN-10: 0486280918
• ISBN-13: 978-0486280912
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #186,595 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Neat, July 29, 2004

By 

Atreyu1982 "Atreyu1982" (Eldersburg, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eleven Short Stories/Undici Novelle (A Dual-Language Book) (English and Italian Edition) (Paperback)

Yeah, its fun to study this way, and you will not even realize how much italian you have learned until you go back to read the book again or go read another book in italian and you will be like "Holy cow I can understand some of this"...I am reading this book for a second time now...my feelings on the actual stories themselves is really kinda hit or miss...some of them I thought were really cool, like Una Voce, it is a story about a blind man who is engaged to this woman. A doctor thinks he can cure the man's blindness. What happens? You have to read to find out but it was very interesting (Yeah I know it sounds like that movie with Val Kilmer but trust me, it's different). But honestly, for a lot of the other stories I was like please let this end. Maybe something was lost in the translation, and I'm not fluent in Italian, but Pirandello reminds me of a guy who takes 2 hours to set up a joke and then has no punchline. He writes like at the end there is going to be some really big catch like "Woah I can't believe this happened!" but then he just ends it before that catch ever takes place. So I guess what I am trying to say
is that this book is a great tool for learning italian, I just didn't find most of the stories very interesting. Still, I am glad I bought it. I thought "Italian Stories" were a lot more interesting. Yeah, I know Pirandello is real famous and people love his stuff, I'm just saying that I didn't particularly like it.

21 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great tool, May 24, 2003

By 

MIchael Kreps (Newark, de United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eleven Short Stories/Undici Novelle (A Dual-Language Book) (English and Italian Edition) (Paperback)

This book is a great version of these classic tales. Being a dual-language text makes it an excellent aid to Italian language study. It is a must-read for lovers of Italian literature.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For Advanced Students, October 15, 2010

By 

Peter Bonucci - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Eleven Short Stories/Undici Novelle (A Dual-Language Book) (English and Italian Edition) (Paperback)

In my opinion, if you can read this book in Italian, you are an advanced student. If you can read the English side, you are probably reading at a college level.

Here is a sentence from the first page: "La bimba andava sbadatamente, ed ecco ... diradandosi a poco a poco una piccola collina che a destra s'innalzava le si sciorina davanti allo sguardo l'immensità delle acque del mare."

If you can't read that, don't buy the book.

This book has a lot of long sentences, 20 word sentences are common. It also has a large vocabulary. Words repeat infrequently so reading didn't get easier as the story continued. Also, some of the words weren't in my 15,000-word dictionary.

If you're already comfortable reading Italian, you might find this book useful, otherwise look somewhere else.