Customer Reviews

The council of Egypt

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I came to this book rather late. It is out of print in this country, but well worth tracking down.

This is not a mafia novel. This is a historical novel set in 18th century Palermo. If you are interested in Sciascia primarily because you are interested in crime or mafia novels, this may not be the book for you.

That's not to say that the mafia isn't present in the book-- they're here alright, they just aren't called the mafia quite yet. Here the crooks are called Baron, Monsignor, Abbot, Viceroy, Judge, and Prince.

I overlooked this book for a long time because I usually avoid historical novels. (Novels written in 18th century--fine. Novels written in the 20th about the 18th century--no. I hate costume dramas.) But this is truly one of Sciascia's best, most political, and thought-provoking books. It is a historical novel about what modern Sicily has inherited from its past, and how things really had not changed much between the 1780s and the 1960s.

As good or better than anyhing he wrote.

This is one of Sciascia's greatest. The translation, however, makes no attempt to capture the 18th century stylistic flavor. Nor does it convey the Sicilian qualities of the writing. It is also full of amateurish mistakes. Perhaps the most glaring is on page 182 when Di Blasi, being tortured, thinks of "the 19th of Dante's Inferno". The translator assumes this is the 19th verse of the first canto and takes it upon herself to incorporate Dante's text from that line which is not present in Sciascia's text. In fact it makes no sense whatsoever for Di Blasi to be thinking of the 19th verse from the first canto which merely refers to Dante's respite from fear as he has escaped from his initial torments. BOOK 19 of Inferno is what Sciascia means. In that book the Simonists are being tortured because their feet are on fire and this is more or less what is happening to Di Blasi.

Sloppiness makes this great novel seem like much less in English than it is in Italian.