Calvino If On A Winter's Night A Traveler
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If on a winter's night a traveler
General directions
Italo Calvino
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
1979
Context
Biography of the author: Italo Calvino was born on October 15, 1923, in Santiago de
Las Vegas, a village near Havana (Cuba), where the father runs a
experimental agriculture station and an agricultural school. From the father
agronomist and from his botanist mother receives a strictly education
secular. In 1925, the Calvino family moved to Sanremo. After the
after graduation, the writer enrolls in the Faculty of Agriculture, but despite
you try to carry on the family tradition, the love for literature
he prevails and thus abandons his studies. In 1843 he joins the partisans of
Garibaldi Brigade. After the Liberation, it joins the Communist Party
Italian, collaborates with newspapers and magazines, and enrolls in the Faculty of Humanities.
in Turin, where he graduates in 1947. Here he meets Elio Vittorini, and enters into
is part of the Einaudi publishing house. In 1947, he made his debut as a writer,
publishing, thanks to Pavese, the neorealist novel 'The Path of the Nests'
of spider." This is followed by the collection of stories Last Comes the Raven.
(1949). In the 1950s and 1960s, he served as a manager
at the Einaudi publishing house and simultaneously collaborates on numerous
magazines. Following the publication of the volume 'Our Ancestors' (the
the half-mad viscount, the uncatchable baron, and the nonexistent knight) it
he stands out as the most original among young writers. In 1955, he published the
famous essay 'The Lion's Marrow'. Between 1959 and 1967, he directs, along with
Vittorini, the magazine "Il Menabò", in which he publishes "The Sea of Objectivity"
"The Challenge of the Labyrinth." In 1964 he marries the Argentine Judith Esther.
The singer moves to Paris, from where he continues to work for Einaudi.
In 1965 he becomes the father of Abigail and in the meantime his success and his
prestige grows all over the world. In 1980 he moved to Rome but
in 1984 the crisis of the Einaudi publishing house forces him to move
to the publisher Garzanti. In 1985, having received the task of giving a
lecture series in the United States at Cambridge, at Harvard
University, prepare the American Lessons, which will however remain
incomplete and will be published only posthumously in 1988. At the beginning of
September, in fact, Italo Calvino dies at the hospital in Siena, struck by
a cerebral hemorrhage.
Historical context: Post-World War II
Literary context: Neorealism
Features of the work
novel
Structure of the work:
The book is composed of twelve excerpts, ten of which are the beginnings of novels.
differentiate. The story that unfolds parallel to the reading of the different
it begins, narrates instead of the Reader (explicitly called Reader) and
Ludmilla (the Reader), and their love story.
The novel begins with the reading of, indeed, 'If on a winter's night a traveler'
traveler," a novel by Calvino, in which the protagonist, lost in a
train station, warns that he has missed a connection. He then enters,
in the station bar, where he meets a woman who starts to
fascinate him. Here, however, the Reader is forced to interrupt the reading.
because, due to poor formatting, he realizes that he has read and
I reread the same pages (from 17 to 34). Then he goes to the bookstore to
complain and meet the Reader, Ludmilla, who has the same problem.
Provided both with the same replacement volume, they begin together the
Reading. The title of the new book is Outside the Village of Malbrok written by
Polish Bazakbal. Here the reader finds themselves in a kitchen, where everyone
ingredients are left in the original language and thus, while "tasting the flavor"
of a certain food, cannot understand what it is. Here too the reader
he is fascinated by two female figures: Zwida and Brigd. Even in
in this case, however, the Reader is unable to finish the book because
white pages begin to intervene, disrupting the reading.
Reader and Reader then go to the University where they trace a
new book "Leaning Over the Steep Coast" by the Cimmerian writer
Ukko Athi. But, although the names of some characters are the same as the
previous volume, in this case, the story tells of a reader who
find near a "meteorological observatory". Here too, an issue emerges.
female figure, a girl who asks the reader to buy her a rope,
which will then be used to free a prisoner. The story ends because
unfinished by the author. According to the professor of Cimbrian at the University
Cimmerian writer would then have finished the work in the Cimbrian language, with the
book "Without fearing the wind and the dizziness". Once again the story is
completely new and, once again, without an ending. In the attempt
to track down the complete volume, the Reader comes across equally
beginning, all different from each other, who for one reason or another cannot
carry on. His numerous researches lead him to know the
writer Silas Flannery, who has lost confidence in writing, and the
counterfeiter Ermes Marana, whose aim is to demonstrate that behind the page
written there is nothing, the world exists only as an artifice, fiction. In the end
in his desperate search, the Reader arrives at a large library, in
who discovers the titles of the ten books, plus an additional sentence
constitute, together, the title of another novel. In the end, the Reader and
the Reader, who, before the end.
turn off the light and sleep, says he has finished reading 'If a
"If on a Winter's Night a Traveler" by Calvino.
Main themes:
The impossibility of arriving at the knowledge of reality.
the message is expressed through the "game" of Calvino in which the author
he intertwines his "tricks" in a nearly provocative way.
The theme that deals with the pleasure of reading.
Key characters and their function:
The Reader who is the protagonist of the novel to which the writer
always addresses in the second person singular.
The Reader, Ludmilla, lover of the Reader.
Ermes Marana, who is at the head of a vast organization.
secret that forges author books and takes on an important role
in the search for the 'true' text of the novels, sought by the protagonists.
Silas Flannery, a writer who represents Calvino's alter ego.
Writing style: the linguistic register adopted by Calvino is medium,
since, except for some elaborate expressions, it is understandable and
close to the common use of the language. Another interesting aspect is also
Interestingly, at least six out of ten novels have, or
they acquire in the end, tones of a detective story, creating the typical effect of
suspense.
Key steps
Some significant quotes:
─"Do you think you are reading If on a winter's night a traveler? Instead, no."
I chose this phrase because in a few words it perfectly summarizes the
book. When we are about to read a novel, we think we are finding ourselves in
in front of an event like all the others: with a beginning and an end, a
central part where the story develops etc. Everything that is missing in
this book.
Why "If on a winter's night a traveler?"
I think that 'If on a winter's night a traveler' is a novel
beautiful and original, with its intertwined plot and made of twists of
scene. When we start reading the first chapter, we understand that it is
it is necessary to distance oneself from the idea of the novel that we all have: with a
beginning, a common thread of the story, and a conclusion. In fact, as soon as
as we delve into reading, we find ourselves reading as many as ten openings of
novels, all different from each other. The game that Calvino plays has the
the aim of surprising the reader, who becomes "captivated" by the story and
forced to continue reading to find out if the protagonist, in the end,
will manage to finish at least one of the novels started. But, above all, the
The true purpose of the book is to awaken in the reader the pleasure of
reading, an objective that, in my opinion, the writer fully achieves.
