Buy new:
$10.79
FREE delivery: Friday, Feb 16 on orders over $35.00 shipped by Amazon.
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
List Price: $18.99 Details

The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price.
Learn more
Save: $8.20 (43%)
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
Return this item for free
  • Free returns are available for the shipping address you chose. You can return the item for any reason in new and unused condition: no shipping charges
  • Learn more about free returns.
FREE delivery Friday, February 16 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35. Order within 1 hr 50 mins
In Stock
$$10.79 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$10.79
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime
FREE delivery Tuesday, February 20 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Condition: Used: Acceptable
Comment: Light markings and/or highlighting. Still a readable copy, but not a pretty copy. All pages are intact. Book warping from age
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Invisible Cities Paperback – May 3, 1978

4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 2,324 ratings

on 1 when you buy 2 Shop items
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$10.79","priceAmount":10.79,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"10","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"79","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"7zFwUjAZ5QVqrZVLagH4pN2ilbkQ3PhUCN2goBLuzPZfSqk9xfGAeLCrzPWvHGNw1j9tbzJdXYhM9eCnPGkOE1y7ZSDCvi%2FEMdYmr%2FLfAR%2FEs1waOAL1seyv4FVaXDtAji4VkfKs3ww%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$9.50","priceAmount":9.50,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"9","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"50","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"7zFwUjAZ5QVqrZVLagH4pN2ilbkQ3PhU6f1OgkPaFsCbTb3mb%2FXkY7H73xMdWgW2u%2FzzxDBkEjtU%2BoAgYaMuiE02P27VlROQGfefcuYwL7eXb4bHMFWxzIGa22vBCuueS6fFyKsMVQHONp0S4EVk%2FuUmohNlK66rd86iam1USP7rrJ95bOehjeSQYZjqN2aZ","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Italo Calvino's beloved, intricately crafted novel about an Emperor's travels—a brilliant journey across far-off places and distant memory.


“Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.” In a garden sit the aged Kublai Khan and the young Marco Polo—Mongol emperor and Venetian traveler. Kublai Khan has sensed the end of his empire coming soon. Marco Polo diverts his host with stories of the cities he has seen in his travels around the empire: cities and memory, cities and desire, cities and designs, cities and the dead, cities and the sky, trading cities, hidden cities. As Marco Polo unspools his tales, the emperor detects these fantastic places are more than they appear.

Amazon.com Review

"Kublai Khan does not necessarily believe everything Marco Polo says when he describes the cities visited on his expeditions, but the emperor of the Tartars does continue listening to the young Venetian with greater attention and curiosity than he shows any other messenger or explorer of his." So begins Italo Calvino's compilation of fragmentary urban images. As Marco tells the khan about Armilla, which "has nothing that makes it seem a city, except the water pipes that rise vertically where the houses should be and spread out horizontally where the floors should be," the spider-web city of Octavia, and other marvelous burgs, it may be that he is creating them all out of his imagination, or perhaps he is recreating details of his native Venice over and over again, or perhaps he is simply recounting some of the myriad possible forms a city might take.

Review

Of all tasks, describing the contents of a book is the most difficult and in the case of a marvelous invention like Invisible Cities, perfectly irrelevant. -- Gore Vidal, The New York Review of Books

From the Back Cover

“Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.” — from Invisible Cities

In a garden sit the aged Kublai Khan and the young Marco Polo — Mongol emperor and Venetian traveler. Kublai Khan has sensed the end of his empire coming soon. Marco Polo diverts his host with stories of the cities he has seen in his travels around the empire: cities and memory, cities and desire, cities and designs, cities and the dead, cities and the sky, trading cities, hidden cities. As Marco Polo unspools his tales, the emperor detects these fantastic places are more than they appear.

Invisible Cities changed the way we read and what is possible in the balance between poetry and prose . . . The book I would choose as pillow and plate, alone on a desert island.” — Jeanette Winterson

Italo Calvino (1923–1985) attained worldwide renown as one of the twentieth century’s greatest storytellers. Born in Cuba, he was raised in San Remo, Italy, and later lived in Turin, Paris, Rome, and elsewhere. Among his many works are
If on a winter’s night a traveler and The Baron in the Trees, as well as numerous collections of fiction, folktales, criticism, and essays. His works have been translated into dozens of languages.

About the Author

ITALO CALVINO (1923–1985) attained worldwide renown as one of the twentieth century’s greatest storytellers. Born in Cuba, he was raised in San Remo, Italy, and later lived in Turin, Paris, Rome, and elsewhere. Among his many works are Invisible Cities, If on a winters night a traveler, The Baron in the Trees, and other novels, as well as numerous collections of fiction, folktales, criticism, and essays. His works have been translated into dozens of languages.

"All the Little Raindrops: A Novel" by Mia Sheridan for $10.39
The chilling story of the abduction of two teenagers, their escape, and the dark secrets that, years later, bring them back to the scene of the crime. | Learn more

Frequently bought together

$10.79
Get it as soon as Friday, Feb 16
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
$10.39
Get it as soon as Friday, Feb 16
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
$7.53
Get it as soon as Friday, Feb 16
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
Choose items to buy together.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mariner Books Classics (May 3, 1978)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 176 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0156453800
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0156453806
  • Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1290L
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.01 x 5.43 x 0.47 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 2,324 ratings

Important information

To report an issue with this product or seller, click here.

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Italo Calvino (Italian: [ˈiːtalo kalˈviːno]; 15 October 1923 - 19 September 1985) was an Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy (1952-1959), the Cosmicomics collection of short stories (1965), and the novels Invisible Cities (1972) and If on a winter's night a traveler (1979).

Admired in Britain and the United States, he was the most-translated contemporary Italian writer at the time of his death, and a contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by The original uploader was Varie11 at Italian Wikipedia [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
2,324 global ratings
Damaged
1 Star
Damaged
The book itself is a great book. But the delivery was awful. I opened it and my book had been bent in many places and is dirty. It looks like it’s been used for years when it’s supposed to be new. Very disappointed.
Thank you for your feedback
Sorry, there was an error
Sorry we couldn't load the review

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2014
45 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2023
7 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2018
19 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2023

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
Tim Bientjes
5.0 out of 5 stars Good read
Reviewed in Canada on June 6, 2022
Bhavana
5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful, imaginative
Reviewed in India on March 11, 2023
2 people found this helpful
Report
Nasko Kondakov
5.0 out of 5 stars Must-read for Architecture students and enthusiasts
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 3, 2020
Cliente de Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente Producto!
Reviewed in Mexico on March 2, 2019
cristina s.
5.0 out of 5 stars Perfecto
Reviewed in Spain on June 30, 2019