Bassani, Giorgio, Within the Walls: Five Stories from Ferrara, trans. Jamie McKendrick. London: Penguin Classics, 2016
D’Annunzio, Gabriele, Nocturne and Five Tales of Love and Death, trans. Raymond Rosenthal. London: Quartet, 1994
Pasolini, Pier Paolo, Stories from the City of God: Sketches and Chronicles of Rome 1950–1966, ed. Walter Siti, trans. Marina Harss. London: Penguin, 2019
Anthologies
Italian Literature in Translation, ed. James E. Miller Jr, Robert O’Neal and Helen M. McDonnell. With an introductory essay: ‘Translation: The Art of Failure’, John Ciardi. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman, 1970
Italian Short Stories, vol. 1, Penguin Parallel Texts Series, ed. Raleigh Trevelyan. London: Penguin, 1989
Italian Short Stories, vol. 2, Penguin Parallel Texts Series, ed. Dimitri Vittorini. London: Penguin, 1993
Italian Tales: An Anthology of Contemporary Italian Fiction, ed. Massimo Riva. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004
Italy: A Traveler’s Literary Companion, ed. and trans. Lawrence Venuti. Berkeley, CA: Whereabouts Press, 2003
Modern Italian Short Stories, ed. Marc Slonim. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1954
Modern Italian Stories, ed. and trans. W. J. Strachan. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1955
Name and Tears and Other Stories: Forty Years of Italian Fiction, ed. and trans. Katherine Jason. St Paul, MN: Greywolf Press, 1990
New Italian Women: A Collection of Short Fiction, ed. Martha King. New York: Italica Press, 2008
Open City: Seven Writers in Postwar Rome, ed. William Weaver. South Royalton, VT: Steerforth Italian, 1999
The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories, ed. Guido Waldman. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969
Rome Tales: Stories, selected and trans. Hugh Shankland; ed. Helen Constantine. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2011
Short Stories in Italian, New Penguin Parallel Texts Series, ed. Nick Roberts. London: Penguin, 1999
Stories of Modern Italy, from Verga, Svevo and Pirandello to the Present, ed. Ben Johnson. New York: Modern Library, 1960
Twentieth-century Italian Literature in English Translation: An Annotated Bibliography 1929–1997, ed. Robin Healey. Toronto; Buffalo; London: University of Toronto Press, 1998
Unspeakable Women: Selected Short stories written by Italian Women during Fascism, trans., and with an introduction and afterword by Robin Pickering-Iazzi. New York: The Feminist Press at CUNY, 1993
Acknowledgements
Nearly every story I discovered, considered and eventually included in this volume arrived by word of mouth, by way of a friend or acquaintance who urged me to read a certain writer. I therefore begin by thanking the following people: Daniela Angelucci, Sara Antonelli, Maria Baiocchi, Andrea Bajani, Paola Basirico, Marco Belpoliti, Ginevra Bompiani, Caterina Bonvicini, Biagio Bossone, Patrizia Cavalli, Federica Cellini, Felice Cimatti, Leonardo Colombati, Fabrizio Corallo, Alessandro Cusimano, Angelo De Gennaro, Cristina Delogu, Maddalena Deodato, Tiziana de Rogatis, Paolo Di Paolo, Isabella Ferretti, Ilaria Freccia, Maria Ida Gaeta, Michela Gallio, Ornella Gargagliano, Francesca Virginia Geymonat, Ludovico Geymonat, Martino Gozzi, John Guare, Gioia Guerzoni, Francesca Marciano, Claudia Marques de Abreu, Melania Mazzucco, Chiara Mezzalama, Michela Murgia, Gabriele Pedullà, Anita Raja, Mario Raja, Antonio Ria, Marina Sagona, Italo Spinelli, Chiara Valerio, Pietro Valsecchi and Giorgio van Straten.
Of these, Dorina Olivo was particularly effusive in transmitting her passion for a series of Italian authors I had not heard of, and for giving me copies of their books.
Though I conceived of this anthology in Italy, I am indebted, above all, to two people I had the good fortune to meet in America, at Princeton University: Alessandro Giammei and Chiara Benetollo. Alessandro, in whose company Nassau Street nearly felt like Rome, was a font of knowledge like no other, filling in countless gaps in my knowledge and providing crucial insight, guidance and solidarity. And Chiara, my phenomenally capable (and extraordinarily generous) research assistant, meticulously compiled and collated the materials, verified an infinite number of details and ascertained the complex editorial history of many of these stories. Their unfailing attention to this project throughout each phase of its gestation was essential.
At Princeton, I wish also to thank: Pietro Frassica, who provided the first set of photocopies that set me on my way; Michael Moore, Princeton’s Translator-in-Residence in 2018, who not only contributed his own marvellous translations to this anthology, but patiently and sagely edited mine; David Bellos and Sandra Bermann, esteemed colleagues who have welcomed me to the world of translation at Princeton; Dorothea von Moltke, libraia simpatica ed eccezionale; Lavinia Liang, a student in the class which first motivated me to put together this anthology, who spent hours at the photocopying machine on my behalf; Noreen McAuliffe and Erin West, in the Program of Creative Writing, for their impeccable assistance.
I owe a great deal to Sara Teardo, with whom I co-taught the bilingual translation workshop ‘To and from Italian’ in the fall of 2017 at Princeton. That class, which we dreamt up together, was the laboratory for the Italo Calvino story in this volume, and I thank her for her collaboration, consigli and companionship. A special thanks to our five students for collectively producing the first translation of Calvino’s text: Bes Arnaout, Owen Ayers, Charles East, Inés French, Jackson Springer. A pioneer class that did pioneering work, they did the heavy lifting, were undaunted, and went out of their way.
Enormous gratitude to all members of the excellent group of translators for their beautiful and invigorating work: Simon Carnell, Howard Curtis, Richard Dixon, Ann Goldstein, Jenny McPhee and Erica Segre, in addition to the aforementioned Michael Moore.
Thanks to the following intercontinental team of exacting readers, some in English, some in Italian, a few in both: Barringer Fifield, Stefano Jossa, Barry McCrea, Neel Mukherjee and Alberto Vourvoulias, my dear husband, who also happens to be an exceptional editor. My heartfelt gratitude goes to Tiziana Rinaldi Castro, a writer equally at home in English and Italian, who not only introduced me to Fabrizia Ramondino but has become my paladina, lending succour and support on the path of translation like no other.
Grazie di cuore to Marco Delogu for sustaining and championing the book when it was merely in progress; Domenico Starnone for friendship, encouragement and advice in making the final selection; Giovanna Calvino for leading me to an untranslated work by her father; Alessandra Ginzburg, for helping me to decide on the story by her mother.
Thanks to my Italian publisher at Guanda, Luigi Brioschi, for our many conversations about this project; Laura Bosio, my gifted editor, who kindly reviewed my work, this time in English; Cinzia Cappelli, for her helpful suggestions; Claudine Turla for her rigorous research. My agents: Eric Simonoff in New York; Fiona Baird, Raffaella De Angelis and Matilda Forbes Watson in London, Giulia Pietrosanti in Rome.
At Penguin Classics, I wish to thank Josephine Greywoode for inviting me to take on this project, for setting the parameters, and for steering the helm; Bianca Bexton and Ruth Pietroni for expeditiously overseeing the production; Louisa Watson for her heroic and painstaking copy-editing.
Thanks to the Centro Studi Americani in Rome and to Libreria Minimum Fax, my neighbourhood bookstore in Trastevere, for wonderful suggestions and for special-ordering innumerable titles and holding them for me, behind the cash register, sometimes for months at a time, always trusting that I would pass by to retrieve them.
I am also profoundly grateful to Firestone Library at Princeton, which houses nearly every Italian book I needed, and where I discovered a wealth of material that was out of print, including previously published anthologies, in both English and Italian, which paved the way for this one. If it is translation that allows the reader to cross linguistic borders, great libraries are what house those efforts, safeguard them in spite of neglect, collapse space and time for those who explore their depths and make a voyage like this one possible.
Fina
lly, thanks to my son and daughter, Octavio and Noor Vourvoulias, for bravely crossing borders throughout their growing lives.
The following sources proved especially helpful:
Giulio Ferroni (ed.), Storia della letteratura italiana, vol. 4: Il novecento. Torino: Einaudi, 1991.
Enzo Ronconi (ed.), Dizionario della letteratura italiana contemporanea, vol. 1: Movimenti letterari-Scrittori. Firenze: Vallecchi, 1973.
Enzo Siciliano (ed.), Racconti italiani del novecento, with an introductory essay by Enzo Siciliano and bibliographic notes on the authors by Luca Baranelli. 3 volumes. Milano: Mondadori, i Meridiani 2001.
Copyright Information
Corrado Alvaro
‘Piedi scalzi’ from Opere, vol. II. Romanzi brevi e racconti. Edited and introduced by Geno Pampaloni (Milano: Bompiani, 2018). Published by arrangement with Giunti Editore S.p.A. Translation © Jhumpa Lahiri, 2019
Giovanni Arpino
‘La babbuina’ from Opere scelte. Edited and introduced by Ronaldo Damiani (Milano: Mondadori, i Meridiani, 2009). Copyright © 2015 Mondadori Libri S.p.A., Milano. Translation © Howard Curtis, 2019
Anna Banti
‘La signorina’ from Romanzi e racconti. Edited and introduced by Fausta Garavini, with the collaboration of Laura Desideri (Milano: Mondadori, i Meridiani, 2013). By permission of Fondazione di Studi di Storia dell’Arte Roberto Longhi, Florence. Translation © Jenny McPhee, 2019
Luciano Bianciardi
‘Il peripatetico’ from Il cattivo profeta. Edited by Luciana Bianciardi (Milano: Il Saggiatore, 2018). Copyright © Estate of Luciano Bianciardi. Translation and notes © Ann Goldstein, 2019
Romano Bilenchi
‘Un errore geografico’ from Opere complete. Edited and introduced by Benedetta Centovalli (Milano: BUR Rizzoli, 2009). Translation © Lawrence Venuti, 2003
Massimo Bontempelli
‘La spiaggia miracolosa ovvero Premio della modestia (Aminta)’ from Opere scelte. Edited by Luigi Baldacci (Milano: Mondadori, i Meridiani, 2004). Copyright © Alvise Memmo Estate of Massimo Bontempelli, 1938. Translation and notes © Jenny McPhee, 2019
Dino Buzzati
‘Eppure battono alla porta’ from Opere scelte. Edited by Giulio Carnazzi (Milano: Mondadori, i Meridiani, 2009). Copyright © Estate of Dino Buzzati, 1942. Translation © Judith Landry and Alma Books Ltd, 2018
Italo Calvino
‘Dialogo con una tartaruga’ from Romanzi e racconti, vol. III: Racconti sparsi e altri scritti d’invenzione. General editor Claudio Milanini, volume edited by Mario Barenghi and Bruno Falcetto. (Milano: Mondadori, i Meridiani, 2010). Copyright © 2002, the Estate of Italo Calvino, used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited. Translation © Jhumpa Lahiri and Sara Teardo, 2019
Cristina Campo
‘La noce d’oro’ from Sotto falso nome (Milano: Adelphi, 1998). Copyright ©1988 Adelphi Edizioni, Milano. Translation © Jenny McPhee, 2019
Carlo Cassola
‘Alla stazione’ from La visita (Milano: Mondadori, 2013). Copyright © 2013 Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A., Milano. © 2015 Mondadori Libri S.p.A., Milano. Translation © Jhumpa Lahiri, 2019
Fausta Cialente
‘Malpasso’ from Interno con figure (Pordenone: Edizioni Studio Tesi, 1991). Published by permission of the Estate. Copyright ©1982 Fausta Cialente; ©1994 heirs of Fausta Cialente. Translation © Jenny McPhee, 2019
Silvio D’Arzo
‘Elegia alla signora Nodier’ from Casa d’altri e altri racconti (Torino: Einaudi, 2007). © 1980, 1999, 2007, 2013 Giulio Einaudi editore s.p.a., Torino. This translation was first published in The House of Others by The Marlboro Press, Northwestern University Press, in 1995. Translation copyright © 1995 by Keith Botsford.
Alba De Céspedes
‘Invito a pranzo’ from Opere, vol. IV: Invito a pranzo (Milano: Mondadori, 1966). Copyright © Estate of Alba De Céspedes, 1955. Translation © Michael F. Moore, 2019
Grazia Deledda
‘La cerbiatta’ from Romanzi e novelle. Edited by Natalino Sapegno (Milano: Mondadori, i Meridiani, 2004). Translation © Erica Segre and Simon Carnell, 2019
Antonio Delfini
‘La modista’ from Autore ignoto presenta: Racconti scelti e introdotti da Gianni Celati (Torino: Einaudi, 2008). Translation © Ann Goldstein, 2019
Luce d’Eramo
‘Vivere in due’ from Tutti i racconti. Edited by Cecilia Bello Minciacchi (Roma: Elliot, 2013). Translation © Howard Curtis, 2019
Beppe Fenoglio
‘L’odore della morte’ from Tutti i racconti. Edited by Luca Bufano (Torino: Einaudi, 2018). Copyright © Estate of Beppe Fenoglio, 1952. Published by arrangement with The Italian Literary Agency. Translation © John Shepley, 2002
Ennio Flaiano
‘Un marziano a Roma’ from Opere scelte. Edited by Anna Longoni (Milano: Adelphi, 2010). Translation and Note from the Translators © Philip Balma and Fabio Benincasa, 2006. This translation was first published in Italica, Vol. 83 No. 1, Spring 2006.
Carlo Emilio Gadda
‘La mamma’ from Romanzi e racconti, vol. II. General editor Dante Isella (Milano: Garzanti, 2007). Translation © Richard Dixon, 2019
Ginzburg
‘Mio marito’ from Le piccole virtù. Edited by Domenico Scarpa (Torino: Einaudi, 2015). Copyright © 1964, 1993, 2012, 2016 Giulio Einaudi editore s.p.a., Torino. Translation by Paul Lewis © University of Toronto Press, 2011
Tommaso Landolfi
‘La moglie di Gogol’ from Ombre (Milano: Adelphi, 1994). Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. Translation © Wayland Young, 1963
Levi
‘Quaestio de Centauris’ from Tutti i racconti. Edited by Marco Belpoliti (Torino: Einaudi, 2015). Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation. Translation from The Complete Works Of Primo Levi © Jenny McPhee, 2015
Giorgio Manganelli
‘Sixteen’, ‘Twenty-one’, ‘Twenty-eight’ and ‘Thirty-seven’ from Centuria (Milano: Adelphi, 2016). Used by permission of the publisher, McPherson & Company, Kingston, New York. Translation of parts of Centuria: One Hundred Ouboric Novels © Henry Martin, 2005
Elsa Morante
‘La ambiziose’ from Racconti dimenticati Edited by Irene Babboni (Torino: Einaudi, 2004). Published by arrangement with The Italian Literary Agency. Translation © Erica Segre and Simon Carnell, 2019
Alberto Moravia
‘L’altra faccia della luna’ from Boh (Milano: Bompiani, 2000). Published by arrangement with Giunti Editore S.p.A. Translation © Michael F. Moore, 2019
Anna Maria Ortese
‘Un paio di occhiali’ from Il mare non bagna Napoli (Milano: Adelphi, 2008). Copyright © Adelphi Edizioni, Milano, 1994. Translation © Ann Goldstein and Jenny McPhee, 2018
Aldo Palazzeschi
‘Silenzio’ from Tutte le novelle. Edited by Luciano de Maria, preface by Giansiro Ferrata (Milano: Mondadori, i Meridiani, 2003). Copyright © 1975 Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A., Milano. Translation © Erica Segre and Simon Carnell, 2019
Goffredo Parise
‘Malinconia’ from Opere, vol. II, edited by Bruno Callegher and Mauro Portello, with an introduction by Andrea Zanzotto (Milano: Mondadori, i Meridiani, 2005). Copyright © Estate of Goffredo Parise. Translation © Jhumpa Lahiri, 2019
Cesare Pavese
‘Viaggio di nozze’ from Tutti i racconti. Edited by Mariarosa Masoero (Torino: Einaudi, 2018). Copyright © Giulio Einaudi Editore, 1946, 1953, 1960. Translation © A. E. Murch, 1946, 1966
Luigi Pirandello
‘La trappola’ from Novelle per un anno. Edited by Sergio Campailla (Roma: Newton Compton Editori, 2016). Translation © Giovanni R. Bussino, 1988
Fabrizia Ramondino
‘La torre’ from Arcangelo e altri racconti (Torino: Einaudi, 2005). Translation and notes © Jhumpa Lahiri, 2019
Lalla Romano
‘La signora’ from Opere, vol II. Edited by Cesare Segre (Milano: Mondadori, i Meridiani, 2009). Published
by arrangement with The Italian Literary Agency. Translation © Jhumpa Lahiri, 2019
Umberto Saba
‘La gallina’ from Tutte le prose. Edited by Arrigo Stara, introduction by Mario Lavagetto (Milano: Mondadori, i Meridiani, 2001). Translation © Howard Curtis, 2019
Alberto Savinio
‘Bago’ from Tutta la vita. Edited by Paola Italia (Milano: Adelphi, Piccola Biblioteca Adelphi series, 2011). Translation © Michael F. Moore, 2019
Leonardo Sciascia
‘Il lungo viaggio’ from Il mare colore del vino (Milano: Adelphi, 2011). Copyright © Estate of Leonardo Sciascia. Published by arrangement with The Italian Literary Agency. Translation © Erica Segre and Simon Carnell, 2019
Italo Svevo
‘Vino generoso’ from Tutte le opere, vol. II: Racconti e scritti autobiografici. General editor and introduced by Mario Lavagetto, edited by Clotilde Bertoni (Milano, Mondadori, i Meridiani, 2004). Translation © John Penuel, 2011
Antonio Tabucchi
‘Controtempo’ from Opere. Edited by Paolo Mauri and Thea Rimini (Milano, Mondadori, i Meridiani, 2018). Translation first appeared in Archipelago Books’ Time Ages in a Hurry. Translation © Martha Cooley and Anthony Romani, 2015
Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa
‘La Sirena’ from Opere. Introduced and with prefaces by Gioacchino Lanza Tomasi; I racconti, Letteratura inglese, Letteratura francese edited by Nicoletta Polo (Milano: Mondadori, i Meridiani, 2011). Copyright © Alma Books. This translation is published by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited. 2013. Translation © Stephen Twilley, 2014
Giovanni Verga
‘Fantasticheria’ from Tutte le novelle. Edited by Giuseppe Zaccaria (Torino: Einaudi, 2015). Translation © G. H. William, 1999
Elio Vittorni
‘Nome e lagrime’ from Le opere narrative, vol. II. Edited by Maria Corti (Milano: Mondadori, i Meridiani, 2001). Published by arrangement with The Italian Literary Agency. Translation © Erica Segre and Simon Carnell, 2019
Every effort has been made to obtain permission from all copyright holders whose material is included in this book. The publisher would be pleased to rectify any errors or omissions in future editions.
The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories Page 51