If on a Winter's Night a Traveller (Everyman's Library Classics) (Hardcover)

~ Italo Calvino (Author), William Weaver (Translator), Peter Washington (Introduction)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

A postmodern novel which combines a love and a detective story with a sardonic dissection of the publishing industry in an allegory of reading. Two readers attempt to finish the same book, but are comically and repeatedly frustrated.

About the Author

Italo Calvino was born in Cuba and grew up in Italy. During the war he was a member of the Italian Resistance and joined the Communist Party, although he later left in 1957. One of the most respected writers of our time, his best-known works of fiction include Invisible Cities, If on a winter's night a traveller, Marcovaldo and Mr Palomar. In 1981 he was awarded the prestigious French Legion d'Honneur. He died in Siena in 1985. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 254 pages
• Publisher: Everyman's Library (May 20, 1993)
• ISBN-10: 1857151380
• ISBN-13: 978-1857151381
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,120,948 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If on a winter's night a traveler... or not?, February 8, 2005

By	E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

One definition of metafiction is "Fiction that deals, often playfully and self-referentially, with the writing of fiction or its conventions." That could pretty much describe Italo Calvino's "If On A Winter's Night A Traveler," a gloriously surreal story about the hunt for a mysterious book.

A reader opens Italo Calvino's latest novel, "If On A Winter's Night A Traveller," only to have the story cut short. Turns out it was a defective copy, with another book's pages inside. But as the reader tries to find out what book the defective pages belong to, he keeps running into even more books and more difficulties -- as well as the beautiful Ludmilla, a fellow reader who also received a defective book.

With Ludmilla assisting him (and, he hopes, going to date him), the reader then explores obscure dead languages, publishers' shops, bizarre translators and various other obstacles. All he wants is to read an intriguing book. But he keeps stumbling into tales of murder and sorrow, annoying professors, and the occasional radical feminist -- and a strange literary conspiracy. Will he ever finish the book?

In its own way, "If On A Winter's Night A Traveler" is a mystery story, a satire, a romance, and a treasure hunt. Any book whose first chapter explains how you're supposed to read it has got to be a winner -- "You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, "If On A Winter's Night a Traveler." Relax. Concentrate." And so on, with Calvino gently joking and chiding the reader before actually beginning his strange little tale.

As cute as that first chapter is, it also sets the tone for this strange, funny metafictional tale, which not only inserts Calvino but the reader. That's right -- this book is written in the second person, with the reader as the main character. "You did this" and "you did that," and so on. Only a few authors are brave enough to insert the reader... especially in a novel about a novel that contains other novels. It seems like a subtle undermining of reality itself.

It's a bit disorienting when Calvino inserts chapters from the various books that "you" unearth -- including ghosts, hidden identities, Mexican duels, Japanese erotica, and others written in the required styles. Including some cultures that he made up. Upon further reading, those isolated chapters reveal themselves to be almost as intriguing as the literary hunt. Especially since each one cuts off at the most suspenseful moment -- what happens next? Nobody knows!

It all sounds hideously confusing, but Calvino's deft touch and sense of humor keep it from getting too weird. There are moments of wink-nudge comedy, as well as the occasional poke at the publishing industry. But Calvino also provides chilling moments, mildly sexy ones, and a tone of mystery hangs over the whole novel.

At times it feels like Calvino is in charge of "If On A Winter's Night A Traveler"... and at other times, it feels like "you" are the one at the wheel. Just don't put this in the stack of Books You Mean To Read But There Are Others You Must Read First. Pure literary genius.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Confusing but not without interest, March 16, 2005

By	Philippe Horak (Zug, Switzerland) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Has the book you're holding really been written by the author mentioned on the cover? We readers rarely ask ourselves this question but in Mr Calvino's novel, even this simple assumption is questioned. The story is quite confusing indeed because nothing is as it appears.
But apart from the plot, Mr Calvino reflects on interesting topics which in my view save the book. For instance the reader's dilemma of choosing the appropriate novel among the thousand existing publications, the required ingredients to create suspense in a plot, the fact that books are easily defined entities which can be enjoyed without risks compared to the elusive quality of real-life existence, the pleasure of using a paper knife as the reader cuts his way through a novel or the problem posed by someone reading a text which may impose an undesirable pace on the listener. The author also casts a critical glance at universities as literary institutions which have forgotten that literature can be enjoyed in a natural, innocent and primitive way without having to be lacerated by intellectual analysis.

4.0 out of 5 stars Not fully, but very satisfied., May 4, 2008

By	David Lupo "David Lupo" (Fairhaven, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: If on a Winter's Night a Traveller (Paperback)

Actually, 3.5 stars. I am a hard critic. But any reader will like Italo Calvino's intellectual feat. What a gift he has for words! I regret I didn't have pad and pen on hand to jot down opportunities to expand my vocabulary. Don't make the same mistake.

Italo Calvino's ability to use language can be a mind-blowing experience for any reader. This is the first work of his that I read. The idea---interspersing 10 stories with a tale of the reader of these stories---is very unique. But as the book goes on, I find less creativity. The intimacy with Calvino I found after the first story is something I was deeply looking for much later into the book. Instead the reader's story there is barely different from the stories he reads. I admit that I may be the obstacle. I DO recommend the work, and guarantee that you will be touched by a creative mind who brings you to all possible corners of the experience of reading, and has much to teach us. I look forward to his "Italian Folktales".