Cinque storie ferraresi

by Giorgio Bassani

Paper Book, 2003

Status

Available

Call number

853.914

Publication

Torino, Einaudi

Description

A new translation of Giorgio Bassani's award winning collection of novellas, which inspired his masterpiece The Garden of the Finzi-Continis. A young working class woman abandoned by her bourgeois lover; the tensions of intermarriage between established classes and communities; a holocaust survivor seemingly back from the dead; a formidable socialist activist defying house arrest; the only surviving witness to the first local atrocity of the Second World War. In these five unforgettable stories, Bassani gave life to the characters that would inform the Romanzo di Ferrara, his suite of novels depicting life in the city. Moving, poetic, atmospheric and artfully observed, this collection is a distillation of Bassani's genius. It won the Strega Prize on first publication as Cinque Storie Ferraresi in 1956, and established Bassani as one of the greatest Italian writers of the twentieth century. 'Giorgio Bassani is one of the great witnesses of this century, and one of its great artists' Guardian 'The most uncompromising, merciful and merciless writer' Ali Smith… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member bodachliath

This is the first part of Bassani's Ferrara cycle of novels and stories, the most famous of which is The Garden of the Finzi-Continis. This one is a set of five short stories all set in the first half of the twentieth century, which bear sombre witness to some of the injustices and atrocities of

the Fascist era, while retaining a strong sense of the presence of the old city and its history. The cycle moves from the personal to the political. Bassani often writes in long sentences, and this is a book that demands concentration from the reader, and I must admit that I probably missed quite a lot of detail.

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LibraryThing member stef7sa

These stories come as a bit of a surprise as I remember the authors Giardino dei Finzi-Conti as a splendid, clear read. Here, however, the language is much more complicated which even made me turn to the English translations, only to find out that it's not just the language that is the problem. The

weirdest one of the collection is the story about Clelia Trotti, where the author doesn't bother to explain why the main character is looking for Clelia at all. The one one about the walk before dinner is strange as well. It is as if the author couldn't decide about who should be the main character of this story. The best one is the story about the memorial stone in Via Mazzini: a brilliant satire, exposing the cowardness and hypocrisy of the post-war citizens of Ferrara for whom the presence of a holocaust survivor becomes an evermore annoying burden to their consciences.

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