#quer pasticciaccio brutto de via merulana

[popolodipekino]

mattinale

Discesero fino alla porta del borgo. Passato l'archivolto, la strada prese a dilungarsi verso l'Appia: andò tra uliveti appena argentati dall'alba e proni scheltri di viti nelle vigne. Poi rigirava, come sola, sopra le bagnate spalle del monte. Al primo tornante rigirò pure la veduta. Il Pestalozzi levò il capo un attimo, spense il motore, frenò, fermò la corsa, con una certa cautela: sostò due minuti, da strologare il mattino. Era l'alba, e più. Le vette dell'Algido, dei Carseolani e dei Velini inopinatamente presenti, grigie. Magia repentina del Soratte, come una rocca di piombo, di cenere. Di là dai gioghi di Sabina, per bocchette e portelli che interrompessero la lineatura del crinale, il rivivere del cielo si palesava lontanamente in sottili strisce di porpora e più remoti ed affocati e splendori, di solfo giallo, di vermiglione: strane lacche: nobili riverberi, come da un crogiuolo del profondo. Spentasi la tramontana il giorno innanzi, ecco, ad alternare gli auspici, la bava calda, sulla pelle e sul viso, l'alito gratuito e omai cadente d'una strapazzata di scirocco. Di là, da dietro a Tivoli e a Càrsoli, flottiglie di nubi orizzontali tutte arricciolate di cirri, con falsi-fiocchi di zafferano, s'avventavano l'una dopo l'altra a battaglia, filavano gioiosamente a sfrangiarsi: indove? dove? chissà! ma di certo indò l'ammiraglio loro le comandava a farsi fottere, come noi il nostro, con tutti i velaccini in tiro nel vento. Labili, cangevoli fuste, bordeggiavano a quota alta e irreale, in quella specie di sogno capovolto che è il nostro percepire, dopo il risveglio ad alba, bordeggiavano la scogliera cinerina delle montagne degli Equi, la nudità dealbata del Velino, antemurale della Marsica. da C.E. Gadda, Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana

(poi ditemi che il pasticciaccio è pesante. sim, é verdade, la lettura non è scorrevolissima, però, per zeus, ci si trovano dentro certe chicche...)

#citazioni #gadda #carlo emilio gadda #mattinale #alba #pasticciaccio #quer pasticciaccio brutto de via merulana #nuvole #carseolani #velini #equi #pestalozzi #soratte #sogno capovolto

[garadinervi]

Carlo Emilio Gadda, (1957), Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana, Foreword by Piero Gelli, Text by Giorgio Pinotti, «Gli elefanti», Garzanti, Milano, 2002

Cover Art: Illustration by Matticchio/Storiestrisce

#graphic design #illustration #book #cover #book cover #carlo emilio gadda #piero gelli #giorgio pinotti #franco matticchio #gli elefanti #garzanti #1950s #2000s

[stonewallsposts]

February 2024 Reading  

Starting off 2024 doing some heavy lifting: first I read one of the more difficult Italian novels in Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana, then tackled the nearly one-million-word novel, Clarissa, then knocked out a smaller book on life in Italy, and now this month I launched into Il pendolo di Foucault, an 800 page Italian novel, probably the longest I've read in Italian.  

Il pendolo di Foucault- Umberto Eco  (1988) 

This is an exceptionally involved work. The novel is essentially about conspiracy theories and how people are drawn into them. 

The basic story is told by the main character, the student Casaubon. He meets an editor of an academic publishing house, and when asked what he studies, Casaubon replies that he is studying the Knights Templar. Casaubon is told by the editor, Jacopo Belbo, that all of what he has come across in this field are crackpot conspiracies written by delusional kooks. Casaubon acknowledges that there is a lot of legend surrounding the knights, but he is concerned only with the verifiable history. 

But Belbo invites Casaubon into a discussion with one such writer who outlines his own studies of the what happened. This man is convinced that he is on the point of uncovering a vast conspiracy. Belbo and Casaubon both conclude he is bonkers, but he disappears the next day. 

Casaubon then moves to Brazil where he meets and falls in love with a young Marxist. He discovers links between some of the mystic Afro-Brazilian religions and the legends surrounding the Knights. 

He returns to Italy where he and Belbo decide on a ruse: to formulate and elaborate their own 'plan' of what happened to the Knights Templar. But circumstances lead them to start to wonder if their made up plan is actually true. 

The book is 800 pages, and filled with detailed explanations of how these things fit together. These discussions serve to illuminate how even educated people can come to see connections when those connections aren't really there. The issue started in these cases with the belief and acceptance of some repository of secret knowledge. This meant that access to that knowledge included interpreting things in a type of code. Doing so required reading things symbolically, and that in turn leads to any manner of intellectual gymnastics that will make sense of things in the individual's mind. So the conspiracy theorist can take just about any number of elements he finds, and if he can reinterpret their meaning to find what he feels is a workable connection, he can find justification in believing they are connected in the way he always intuited them to be. 

One of the lessons from all this is that in order even to fake a web, it has to look valid, which in turn requires one to be so intimately acquainted with the theories that he doesn't suggest an obvious error. In emerging oneself so deeply in these theories though, he risks losing his objectivity and becomes himself engrossed in the web, even knowing it was his own invention. 

But as he cleans up all the connections, he begins to wonder if there really is something to the order he has created. 

Someone asked Eco once if he was a predecessor of Dan Brown and the DaVinci Code. Eco responded that Dan Brown would have been one of the characters in this book. 

The Italian City-Republics – Trevor Dean and Daniel Waley (1st edition 1969, 5th edition 2023) 

This is a textbook of the Italian City-Republics. The Italian City-Republics generally covers the time period of around the late 900's to the 1200s, and the geographical area of the Po Valley and the area of Central Italy covering Tuscany to Pisa. The Papal lands of Central Italy and southern Italy developed under different circumstances- effectively under a more complete imperial control, that didn't allow the kind of independence that occurred in the north. 

In northern Italy, there were alternating technical imperial controls from France and Germany, but those kings were generally too far removed from Italy to exercise direct control. This meant that the cities were, in effect, left to govern themselves independently. From there, they developed their own institutions of local governance. They pursued their own local interests. They developed relations with neighboring cities based on their own interests. They moved from control by local ecclesiastical authorities, who had wielded the effective power in their jurisdictions, to secular authorities who were elected. They went through the process of seeing their economic success lead to an increased business class, who began to assert their combined power against the nobles. They also went through the process of uniting ever larger geographic areas under the aegis of both Florence, Genoa, and Milan to stand up against the larger threats. Interestingly enough, many of these same dynamics played out 1500 years earlier in the Roman Republic.  

The basic reason why the republican governments didn't last was factionalism. Unfortunately, self-government seemed to turn small differences into larger. Compromises and 'agreements to differ' were set aside and recourse to violence between factions became a conventional way of settling differences. 

Republics usually end because they are unable to provide stable regimes. A single ruler who is able to get things done is seen as a more acceptable alternative.  

When an effective single leader found his way to power, the people would eventually find a way to increase the length of his office, until he became the ruler for life. 

But, of course, the arrival of the Signorie, the absolute rulers, in Italy didn't just happen either. There were power hungry men who saw the opportunity and schemed and fought for it too.  

Black Beauty- Anna Sewell  (1877) 

A fictional story written from a horse's point-of-view. The story tells the life of a horse about the types of good and bad treatment received from humans. It would be a kind of horse's rights story, meant to instruct people to treat their horses, and by extension, their animals well. 

A Doll's House- Henrik Ibsen  (1879) 

Henrik Ibsen was a Danish/Norwegian playwright. This book contains four of his plays, of which A Doll's House was the titular most famous piece. The other plays are Pillars of the Community, Ghosts, and An Enemy of the People. Ibsen became known as the Father of the Modern Drama. He wrote plays that were meant to depict contemporary, real people in their speech. He said the days of Shakespeare were gone, and so he wasn't concerned with writing poetic depictions of life.  

Pillars of the Community was fantastic. Really great plot that kept me engrossed all the way through.  

A Doll's House was a little dull to start, but picked up right at the end. 

Ghosts is the shortest of the four plays and like the others, brings to light actions that the characters would rather have remained hidden. The title refers to the remnants of past actions that continue to haunt those that try to bury them. 

An Enemy of the People tells the story of a man who finds there is something seriously wrong with the main source of business for the town. He tries to do the right thing by alerting people but finds that people are not at all pleased by the potential shut down of their revenue. They all turn on him and he finds himself having to stand nearly alone. 

Heidi- Johanna Spyri  (1881) 

A children's novel about a young Swiss girl who manages to positively affect everyone she comes into contact with. 

The Awakening- Kate Chopin  (1899) 

A sort of first-wave feminist manifesto. Edna is a young mother who is growing disillusioned with her life, which she feels has been scripted. While she has a loving husband who idealizes her, she recognizes that he doesn't really get her. He sees her purely in terms of her role as "his" wife, and "the mother of his children". She grows increasingly independent. She loves another man, but realizes that even there, eventually she would tire of him too. She ends by swimming out to the ocean and drowning as the only way to escape what she feels is a trap. 

Les Fleurs du Mal- Charles Baudelaire  (1867) 

The Flowers of Evil is the title in English of this compilation of all Baudelaire's poetry, written between 1840 and 1867. The book starts with this haunting poem addressed- 

To the Reader:  Stupidity, delusion, selfishness and lust  Torment our bodies and possess our minds,  And we sustain our affable remorse  The way a beggar nourishes his lice. 

Our sins are stubborn, our contrition lame;  We want our scruples to be worth our while-  How cheerfully we crawl back to the mire:  A few cheap tears will wash our stains away! 

Satan Trismegistus subtly rocks   Our ravished spirits on his wicked bed  Until the precious metal of our will  Is leached out by this cunning alchemist: 

The Devil's hand directs our every move-  The things we loathed become the things we love; Day by day we drop through stinking shades  Quite undeterred on our descent to Hell. 

Like a poor profligate who sucks and bites  The withered breasts of some well-seasoned trull,  We snatch in passing at clandestine joys  And squeeze the oldest orange harder yet. 

Wriggling in our brains like a million worms,  A demon demos holds its revels there,  And when we breathe, the Lethe in our lungs  Trickles sighing on its secret course. 

If rape and arson, poison and the knife  Have not yet stitched their ludicrous designs  Onto the banal buckram of our fates,  It is because our souls lack enterprise! 

But here among the scorpions and the hounds,  The jackals, apes and vultures, snakes and wolves,  Monsters that howl and growl and squeal and crawl,  In all the squalid zoo of vices, one 

Is even uglier and fouler than the rest,  Although the least flamboyant of the lot;  This beast would gladly undermine the earth  And swallow all creation in a yawn; 

I speak of Boredom which with ready tears  Dreams of hangings as it puffs its pipe.  Reader, you know this squeamish monster well,  -hypocrite reader, - my alias, my twin. 

Unfortunately, this was the best piece in the entire book, so... yeah. 

[lamilanomagazine]

Cesena, “Uno sguardo dal ponte” è l’ultimo spettacolo di Massimo Popolizio al Tetro Bonci.

Cesena, “Uno sguardo dal ponte” è l’ultimo spettacolo di Massimo Popolizio al Tetro Bonci. L’ultimo lavoro di Massimo Popolizio arriva, fresco di debutto, al Teatro Bonci: Uno sguardo dal ponte di Arthur Miller, tradotto per l’occasione da Masolino D’Amico, è atteso a Cesena dal 23 al 26 febbraio (giovedì, venerdì e sabato alle ore 21.00 e domenica alle ore 16.00). La coproduzione di Compagnia Umberto Orsini, Teatro di Roma - Teatro Nazionale, Emilia-Romagna Teatro ERT / Teatro Nazionale sarà rappresentata anche al Teatro Storchi di Modena dal 2 al 5 marzo. A Cesena, in occasione della replica di sabato 25 febbraio, alle ore 18.00 nel Foyer Massimo Popolizio dialoga con il Professor Gerardo Guccini, studioso e docente di Storia del teatro e dello spettacolo al Dams di Bologna. Popolizio dirige e interpreta, con un cast di altri 8 attori, questo capolavoro della letteratura americana che Miller ambienta nella comunità di immigrati siciliani a Brooklyn: un grande affresco sociale ma anche il ritratto di un uomo onesto, compromesso da una incestuosa passione erotica, scritto nel 1955 a partire da un brutale fatto di cronaca che turbò profondamente l’autore. La storia concentra una serie di temi incandescenti e ancora attualissimi: la fuga dalla povertà, le tensioni dell’immigrazione clandestina, la caccia allo straniero, l’affetto morboso all’interno della famiglia. La vicenda è quella dell’italiano Eddie Carbone che vive a New York con la moglie Beatrice e la nipote Catherine, dalla quale è ossessionato. L’arrivo in casa di Marco e Rodolfo, parenti della moglie e clandestini negli Stati Uniti, scatena la gelosia. L'estremo attaccamento alle origini del protagonista, ad uno stile di vita arcaico e violento, determina irrimediabilmente la sua tragedia. «Questo concetto di ineluttabilità del destino e di passioni dalle quali si può essere vinti e annientati è una “spinta” o “necessità” che penso possa avere ancora oggi un forte impatto teatrale» commenta Popolizio. «Per me è una magnifica occasione mettere in scena un testo che assomiglia molto ad una sceneggiatura cinematografica, e che, come tale, ha bisogno di primi, secondi piani e campi lunghi. Alla luce di tutto il materiale che ha potuto generare dal 1955 (data della sua prima rappresentazione) ad oggi, cioè film, fotografie, serie televisive, credo possa essere interessante e “divertente” una versione teatrale. Una grande storia… raccontata come un film… ma a teatro. Con la recitazione che il teatro richiede, con i ritmi di una serie e con le musiche di un film». Diretto al cinema da Sidney Lumet nel 1962, nella memorabile pellicola con Raf Vallone, Uno sguardo dal ponte nelle mani di un grande maestro della scena come Popolizio diventa un racconto teatrale con la potenza espressiva di un film. Audiodescrizione Teatro No Limits La replica di domenica 26 febbraio sarà audio descritta: l’iniziativa si svolge nell’ambito del progetto del Centro Diego Fabbri di Forlì Teatro No Limits, che consente alle persone con disabilità visiva di partecipare agli spettacoli potendo apprezzare a pieno tutti gli aspetti della messa in scena. Informazioni e prenotazioni: Centro Diego Fabbri di Forlì, [email protected] – tel. [phone]. Massimo Popolizio, nato a Genova nel 1961, dopo il diploma all’Accademia Nazionale d’arte Drammatica Silvio D’Amico inizia a lavorare con Luca Ronconi, un sodalizio che si protrae fino all’ultimo lavoro del Maestro, Lehman Trilogy (2015), per il quale ottiene il premio UBU come migliore attore. Tra i molti spettacoli interpretati per Ronconi, Gli ultimi giorni dell’umanità di Kraus (1990), Verso Peer Gynt da Ibsen (1995), Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana di Gadda (1996), Il lutto si addice a Elettra di O’Neill (1997), I due gemelli veneziani di Goldoni (premio UBU 2001 come migliore attore protagonista). Per Professor Bernhardi di Schnitzler riceve l’UBU 2005 come miglior attore non protagonista. In teatro collabora anche con Cesare Lievi, Claudio Longhi, Franco Branciaroli, Walter Pagliaro, Gianfranco de Bosio, Antonio Calenda, Marco Sciaccaluga, Elio De Capitani, Mauro Avogadro, Piero Maccarinelli, Jean Pierre Vincent, Massimo Castri, Lluís Pasqual, Carmelo Rifici. Nel 2015 dirige Il prezzo di Arthur Miller, con Umberto Orsini. Nel 2017 vince il premio UBU per la regia di Ragazzi di Vita di Pier Paolo Pasolini, campione di incassi per due stagioni al Teatro Argentina di Roma, e nel 2019 il suo Un nemico del popolo è Miglior spettacolo, sempre ai Premi UBU. Nel 2019 dirige e interpreta anche Furore da John Steinbeck. Del 2022 è M. Il figlio del secolo, tratto dal romanzo di Antonio Scurati, premio Le Maschere del Teatro Italiano come miglior spettacolo. Per Radio Tre realizza la lettura integrale di vari libri, tra cui Ragazzi di vita. Molti anche i ruoli in tv, diretto da Claudio Bonivento, Roberto Faenza, Riccardo Milani, Enzo Monteleone. Nastro d’Argento per il doppiaggio di Kenneth Branagh nel film Hamlet (1998). Per il grande schermo collabora con i fratelli Taviani, Michele Placido, Daniele Luchetti, Paolo Sorrentino (Il divo, La grande bellezza), Mario Martone (Il giovane favoloso), Carlo Verdone, Fiorella Infascelli (nel ruolo di Falcone in Era d’estate, per cui riceve il Nastro d’Argento). Nel 2018 è protagonista del film di Luca Miniero Sono Tornato in cui interpreta Mussolini. Seguono Il campione (2019), Bentornato presidente (2019), Il ladro di giorni (2019), I predatori (2020, Nastro d'Argento 2021 come miglior attore non protagonista), Governance (2021). Uno sguardo dal ponte di Arthur Miller traduzione Masolino D’Amico regia Massimo Popolizio con Massimo Popolizio e Valentina Sperlì, Raffaele Esposito, Michele Nani, Lorenzo Grilli, Gaja Masciale, Felice Montervino, Marco Mavaracchio, Gabriele Brunelli scene Marco Rossi costumi Gianluca Sbicca luci Gianni Pollini suono Alessandro Saviozzi produzione Compagnia Umberto Orsini, Teatro di Roma - Teatro Nazionale, Emilia Romagna Teatro ERT / Teatro Nazionale Informazioni: Teatro Bonci, Piazza Guidazzi – Cesena Biglietteria: aperta dal martedì al sabato ore 11-14 e 16-19 | nei giorni di spettacolo ore 17-21.30 | la domenica ore 15-16.30 | T. 0547/355959 | [email protected] Biglietti da 26 a 8 euro. L’ingresso all’incontro è gratuito.... #notizie #news #breakingnews #cronaca #politica #eventi #sport #moda Read the full article

[delectablywaywardbeard-blog]

Gadda e la guerra, i taccuini inediti

(di Paolo Petroni) (ANSA) – ROMA, 25 GEN – CARLO EMILIO GADDA, ”GIORNALE DI GUERRA E PRIGIONIA” (ADELPHI, PP. 626 – 35,00 EURO – Nuova edizione accresciuta a cura di Paola Italia). Chi ama la scrittura e la narrazione di Carlo Emilio Gadda ben conosce le diverse scritture per esempio di ”Quer pasticciaccio brutto de Via Merulana” o de ”La cognizione del dolore”, per limitarci ai suoi due…

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[aurumale]

Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana - Carlo Emilio Gadda

Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana – Carlo Emilio Gadda

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#carloemiliogadda #consigli #film #pietrogermi #querpasticciacciobruttodeviamerulana #racconto #unbruttoimbroglio #youtube

[giallofever2]

Un maledetto imbroglio / The Facts of murder / Was geschah in der Via Merulana

the Original Sketch by Dante Manno

#dante manno #un maledetto imbroglio #quer pasticciaccio brutto de via merulana #pietro germi #claudia cardinale #nino castelnuovo #eleonora rossi drago #original sketch #giallofever #giallo fever

[gregor-samsung]

“ Quando i due agenti gli dissero: «Se so' sparati a via Merulana: ar ducentodicinnove: su le scale: ner palazzo de li pescicani..», un fiotto di sangue incuriosito, forse angosciato, gli inondò il ventricolo di destra. «Ducentodiciannove?» non potè a meno di chiedere: pure, in tono distratto. E ricadde subito in quella tale specie di sonnolenza lontana, ch'era, in lui, la maschera del senso d'ufficio. Intanto gli entrò nella stanza il capo della investigativa. Aveva il Messaggero ancora indelibato e un petalo, un solo petalo bianco all'occhiello. «Sciure 'e màndurlo», pensò Ingravallo interrogando il superiore con gli occhi. «II primo della stagione. Mo ce pàveno pure ll'ammennole». «Ci andate voi, Ingravallo, a via Merulana? Vedete nu poco. Na fesseria, m'hanno detto. E stamattina, con chell'ata storia della marchesa di viale Liegi... e poi 'o pasticcio ccà vicino, alle Botteghe Oscure: e poi chillo buchè 'e violette: e ddoje cugnate e 'e ttre nepote: e poi avimmo de pelà la coda dell'affare nuosto: e poi, e poi», si portò una mano alla fronte, «e mo' ce vo', chella scocciatura d'o sottosegretario. Fin a 'ncoppa a 'a capa, ve dico. Sicché faciteme 'o favore, jàtece vuje».«Jàmmoce», disse Ingravallo, e poi borbottò: «Jamecenne», e prese giù, dal piolo, il cappello. Il male infitto cavicchio si disincastrò e cadde al suolo, come ogni volta, indi rotolò per un pezzetto; lui lo raccolse, rificcò la radichetta mencia dentro al buco: e con la manica dell'avambraccio, quasi fosse una spazzola, diede una lisciatina al cappello nero, così, lungo il nastro. I due agenti gli andaron dietro, quasi per un tacito ordine del commissario-capo: erano Gaudenzio, noto alla malavita come er Biondone, e Pompeo, detto invece lo Sgranfia.Saliti sul PV e discesi appunto al Viminale, presero il tram di San Giovanni. Sicché in una ventina di minuti raggiunsero il civico ducentodicinnove. “

Carlo Emilio Gadda, Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana, Garzanti, Milano, 1959⁵; pp. 20-21.

#Carlo Emilio Gadda #Gadda #Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana #letteratura italiana del '900 #letteratura italiana del XX secolo #letteratura #letteratura italiana #narrativa del '900 #narrativa italiana del '900 #narrativa #narrativa italiana #lingua italiana #dialetti #dialetti italiani #romanzo #Roma #romanzi #citazioni letterarie #citazioni #libri #letture #leggere #romanesco #napoletano #dialetto napoletano #dialetti meridionali #scrittori italiani #scrittori italiani del '900 #scrittori lombardi

[oubliettemagazine]

Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana di Carlo Emilio Gadda: il romanzo della molteplicità

Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana di Carlo Emilio Gadda: il romanzo della molteplicità

Verso la fine del 1945 Carlo Emilio Gadda si dedica alla composizione di quella novella poliziesca che si dilaterà nella forma del romanzo: Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana. Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana di Carlo Emilio Gadda Il romanzo qui non diventa mera traslazione delle proprie ossessioni personali ma espediente tramite cui innalzare il genere giallo a strumento…

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#garzanti #manuela muscetta #carlo emilio gadda #quer pasticciaccio brutto de via merulana #carlo emilio gadda recensione

[monociglio]

la morte gli apparve, a don Ciccio, una combinazione estrema dei possibili, uno sfasarsi di idee interdipendenti, armonizzate già nella persona. Come il risolversi d'una unità che non ce la fa più ad essere e ad operare come tale, nella caduta improvvisa dei rapporti, d'ogni rapporto con la realtà sistematrice.

Carlo Emilio Gadda, Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana

#gadda #Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana #pasticciaccio

[t-annhauser]

"Amico, che amico! amico 'e chi?" Raccolte a tulipano le cinque dita della mano destra, altalenò quel fiore nella ipotiposi digito-interrogativa tanto in uso presso gli Apuli.

C. E. Gadda, Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana

#carlo emilio gadda

[popolodipekino]

con quel seno!

[...] con quel seno! a che il Foscolo avrebbe conferito diploma di sen colmo, in un accesso trubadorico-mandrillo, di quelli che lo hanno fatto immortale in Brianza. da C. E. Gadda, Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana

#citazioni #gadda #carlo emilio gadda #seno #foscolo #ugo foscolo #trubadorico-mandrillo #brianza #pasticciaccio #quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana #sen colmo

[garadinervi]

Carlo Emilio Gadda, (1957), Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana, Garzanti, Milano, 1970

#graphic design #typography #book #cover #book cover #carlo emilio gadda #garzanti #1950s #1970s

[stonewallsposts]

January 2024 Reading  

New year, more books to read. I had nearly finished up my list of novels, but I ran across more that I wanted to read, so I've added a bunch of novels, and more Italian reading, plus I already had a long list of history and political books to tackle too. I'm setting myself another goodreads goal of 50 books for the year. 

Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana- Carlo Emilio Gadda  (1957) 

This has been one of the most difficult books I have read in Italian. It's a mix of high Italian vocabulary and various dialects, which made it even slower than usual for me. 300 pages has taken much longer than the usually extended time it takes me to read in Italian. And then there's the convoluted narrative and plot. 

But.....come to find out... that's kind of the point of the book. The title translates to "That awful mess on via Merulana", and it refers to a series of two connected crimes- a theft and a subsequent murder, and the ensuing investigation. But things get muddy really quickly. Here is why: 

"The seething cauldron of life, the infinite stratification of reality, the inextricable tangle of knowledge are what Gadda wants to depict. When this concept of universal complication, reflected in the slightest object or event, has reached its ultimate paroxysm, it seems as if the novel is destined to remain unfinished, as if it could continue infinitely, creating new vortices within each episode. Gadda’s point is the superabundance, the congestion, of these pages, through which a single complex object – the city of Rome – assumes a variegated form, becomes organism and symbol." 

The author is using tangled language and complicated plots to reveal his view of life. This makes it easier to accept on one level; after all, I'm really glad my grasp of Italian isn't so poor as it seemed after the first few pages, but none the easier to actually read. Gadda shows an indignation at the harm done by incompetence, expediency, and self-interests, which he portrays through the garbled, conflicting testimonies of those questioned during the investigation.  

Oh, and just to top it all off, the mystery is never solved. Feels like it was close, and then then book just ends.  

Clarissa- Samuel Richardson  (1748) 

I believe this was the longest novel in the English language, 1462 pages of small text on larger pages in this version and nearly a million words. But a few people have produced some doozies since then, and it's not the longest anymore. Still, it's a whopper and I've put it off a few times. 

The full title of the novel is: Clarissa. Or the history of a young lady: comprehending the most important concerns of private life. And particularly showing the distresses that may attend the misconduct both of parents and children, in relation to marriage. I guess if you're going to write nearly a million words for your book, you might as well toss your reader into the deep end with a long title. 

The story plot isn't super involved, and in fact, my initial thought was that this book could have used some serious editing. I'm certain that any modern editor would tell him to chop it down or else no one will read it. But as one famous reviewer wrote: you don't read Clarissa for the plot, you read it for the sentiment.  

The basic plot is that a young man, Robert Lovelace, comes to call on the Harlowe family because he has heard of a pretty daughter. But the older daughter, Arabella, isn't as pretty as he had heard, whereas the younger, Clarissa, is. The family hears that despite his family and credentials, he is a famous rake, so he is rejected as suitable. Clarissa imagines how it would be nice to reclaim him to virtue by her example, but can't accept him as is. Their older brother comes home, and knowing and hating Lovelace, throws him out of the house. Lovelace, insulted by such treatment, ends up dueling with, and injuring the brother. 

Clarissa's family, deciding that her interest in Lovelace must be dampened by marrying her off, selects a wealthy, but ugly and boorish man as a husband. Clarissa rejects the man, but her brother, looking with greed to some financial inducements the suitor has proposed, and her sister, jealous because Lovelace wasn't interested in her, contrive to convince the family that Clarissa, a virtuous girl, submit to the family's wishes. 

Clarissa argues her point in vain, but right before she is to be married off against her will, Lovelace lures her outside the house and abducts her to a safe place. She is happy to be away from the forced marriage, but not to be in Lovelace's power. 

In fact, he rents a portion of a whorehouse in London, and pays the whores there to act as if they are respectable citizens... but keep her inside. He himself stays at the same house, to Clarissa's horror, applying pressure for her to give herself up to his advances. 

She manages to escape, but is tracked down and he surrounds her with his paid servants, who act like they are his noble relatives. She is then taken back to the whorehouse where she is drugged and raped. 

He promises to marry her, but she will not have him. Knowing she is now 'ruined', she wants only to escape him. But Lovelace is all the more smitten with winning her approval. She again manages to escape while Lovelace is away attending to family matters, but the madam of the house has her arrested and thrown into debtor's prison.  

Lovelace is horrified by the fact that the whores took this liberty while he was away, but while she is there, she is abused and mistreated until she becomes very ill. 

She is eventually set free from the debtor's prison and lives with some nice people who had taken her in, but she knows she is dying and only wishes to maintain her dignity before God. Despite threats by Lovelace to take her away again, and attempts by him to do so, she manages to escape his grasp and ends up dying peacefully. A cousin of Clarissa's tracks down Lovelace and kills him in a duel. 

The entire story is told in a series of (over 500) letters back and forth between the various characters. The novel is built around the revelation of the characters, their motives, their internal consistencies and contradictions, and how they both thrive, cope, or rebel against the restrictions of their time and place. 

My initial impression was that it was way too long... but as I went along, I came to see it as a fantastic story about the strength of virtue against any series of tools meant to bring virtue down.  

Even the length of the book might be read as an insight into the exhausting measures the world will go through in order to break you down, and just how tiring it can be to fight against it. 

Italian Ways- Tim Parks  (2013) 

Tim Parks is an English writer who has lived in Italy for the last 40 years or so. I really like his insights into Italian life, and you really need someone like him, who is not a native, but has lived in his adopted country for so long, to provide those insights. We natives don't tend to notice certain things about our own cultures, or if we do, we take them for granted as simply normal. Whereas an outsider with a different perspective will notice the differences. An astute outsider will take those differences and begin to understand what insights they give in to the culture and nature of the adopted country. 

Tim Parks uses travel on the Italian railways, in this instance, to explain life in Italy.  

Having traveled on Italian trains a few times, I was actually able to confirm his observations because I had similar experiences. It's a fun book to read for someone from the Anglosphere who is interested in Italy. 

[adrianomaini]

"Sosteneva, fra lʼaltro, che le inopinate catastrofi non sono mai la conseguenza o lʼeffetto che dir si voglia dʼun unico motivo, dʼuna causa al singolare: non sono come un vortice, un punto di depressione ciclonica nella coscienza del mondo, verso cui hanno cospirato tutta una molteplicità di causali convergenti. Diceva anche nodo o groviglio, o garbuglio, o gnommero, che alla romana vuol dire gomitolo. Ma il termine giuridico “le causali, la causale” gli sfuggiva preferentemente di bocca: quasi contro la sua voglia. Lʼopinione che bisognasse “riformare in noi il senso della categoria di causa” quale avevamo dai filosofi, da Aristotele o da Emmanuele Kant, e sostituire alla causa le cause era in lui una opinione centrale e persistente: una fissazione, quasi". Carlo Emilio Gadda, Quer pasticciaccio brutto de Via Merulana, 1957

[sciogli-lingua]

Italian literary classics of the 20th century (A-G)

Let’s say you’ve been learning Italian for a while now; you’re pretty confident in your skills, and are looking for an opportunity to challenge yourself while still having fun. If you’re a bookworm like me, chances are that you’ll want to start reading something -- anything! -- that was originally written in the language.

This is the first part of a list of well-known Italian authors of the past century (I hope to make a companion post soon enough). You’ll find links to the author’s Wikipedia page (by clicking on their name), plus links to the WorldCat page for each book (and its English translation, when available), which I hope will allow you to find a copy of the book you’re interested in in a library near you (you should be able to buy most of them online anyway).

Without further ado, here are the first seven authors -- I hope you like this, and wish you a happy reading ;)

Buzzati, Dino – His worldwide fame is mostly due to his novel The Tartar Steppe, but he is also known for his well-received collections of short stories. Try Il deserto dei Tartari [x] // The Tartar Steppe [x], Un amore [x] // A Love Affair [x], Sessanta racconti [x] and La boutique del mistero [x].

Calvino, Italo – Possibly one of the most read Italian authors worldwide. Neorealism, postmodernism and a touch of surrealism as well. Try Marcovaldo; ovvero, le stagioni in città [x] // Marcovaldo, or the seasons in the city [x], Il barone rampante [x] // The Baron in the Trees [x], Le città invisibili [x] // Invisible cities [x] and Se una notte d’inverno un viaggiatore [x] // If on a winter’s night a traveler [x].

Deledda, Grazia -- Realism. She received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926 "for her idealistically inspired writings which with plastic clarity picture the life on her native island [Sardinia] and with depth and sympathy deal with human problems in general". [x] You can find most of her work for free here.

Eco, Umberto -- Literary critic, novelist, and semiotician. You’ve probably heard of his novel Il nome della rosa [x] // The Name of the Rose [x]; try also L’isola del giorno prima [x] // The Island of the Day Before [x], Il cimitero di Praga [x] // The Prague Cemetery [x] and Diario Minimo [x] // Misreadings [x]. 

Fenoglio, Beppe -- Novelist who wrote of the struggle against fascism and Nazism during World War II. Much of his best work was not published until after his death. [x] Try Il partigiano Johnny [x] // Johnny the partisan [x], Una questione privata [x] // A private affair [x] and I ventitré giorni della città di Alba [x] // The twenty-three days of the city of Alba [x].

Gadda, Carlo Emilio -- Best for quite advanced learners. Great if you like a linguistically innovative approach (his style has been compared to Joyce’s). Try Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana [x] // That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana [x] and La cognizione del dolore [x] // The Experience of Pain [x].

Ginzburg, Natalia -- Her work explores family relationships, politics during and after the Fascist years and World War II, and philosophy. [x] Try Lessico famigliare [x] // Family Lexicon [x], Tutti i nostri ieri [x] // All our yesterdays [x] and La famiglia Manzoni [x].

#langblr #italian #literature #bookblr #reading