Enchanting stories about the evolution of the universe, with characters that are fashioned from mathematical formulae and cellular structures. "Naturally, we were all there, - old Qfwfq said, - where else could we have been? Nobody knew then that there could be space. Or time either: what use did we[...]
Tales of love and loneliness in which the author blends reality and illusion. "The quirkiness and grace of the writing, the originality of the imagination at work, ...and a certain lovable nuttiness make this collection well worth reading" (Margaret Atwood). Translated by William Weaver, Peggy Wrigh[...]
Italo Calvino imagines a novel capable of endless mutations in this intricately crafted story about writing and readers. "If on a""Winter's Night a Traveler" turns out to be not one novel but ten, each with a different plot, style, ambience, and author, and each interrupted at a moment of suspense. [...]
Imaginary conversations between Marco Polo and his host, the Chinese ruler Kublai Khan, conjure up cities of magical times. "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). Trans[...]
Retells two hundred traditional Italian tales, including the stories of a fearless little man, a prince who married a frog, and a woman who lived on wind[...]
Marcovaldo, and irrepressible dreamer and inveterate schemer embarks on a series of adventures, with unpredictable results[...]
Like the telescope that shares his name, Mr. Palomar, a visionary and quester after knowledge, prefers his inner dialogue to society but cannot escape the intrusive, civilized "I"[...]
Recounts the chivalrous exploits of an empty suit of armor and the separate halves of a nobleman who has been bisected by a cannon ball[...]
The author's second collection of imaginative stories about the evolution of the universe transcends the boundaries of space and time while mixing comedy with higher mathematics[...]
Three tales, each dominated by one of three senses, present a married couple touring Mexico, a tyrant made prisoner of contradictory messages, and a fashionable Parisian and a drugged rock musician impassioned by scents[...]
This essay collection discusses literature in relation to science, philosophy, and politics in studies of great classical works and tributes to such contemporary writers as Eugenio Montale, Roland Barthes, and Marianne Moore[...]
The three long stories in this volume show the range and virtuosity of Italy's most imaginative writer. "Like Jorge Luis Borges and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Italo Calvino dreams perfect dreams for us" (John Updike, New Yorker).Translated by William Weaver and Archibald Colquhoun. A Helen and Kurt Wol[...]
From one of modern literature's most captivating and elusive masters comes a posthumous volume of thoughtful, elegant, and quick-witted autobiographical writings, all previously unpublished in English. Here is Italo Calvino paying homage to his literary influences and tracing the evolution of his si[...]
"Everybody telephones everybody at every possible moment, and nobody can speak to anybody . . . Distance has been the warp that supports the weft of every love story." -- from "Numbers in the Dark"
Written between 1943 and 1984, the stories in "Numbers in the Dark" span the career of one of fic[...]
The definitive edition of Calvino's cosmicomics, bringing together all of these enchanting stories--including some never before translated--in one volume for the first timeIn Italo Calvino's cosmicomics, primordial beings cavort on the nearby surface of the moon, play marbles with atoms, and bear ec[...]
"Just like every collection, this one is a diary as well: a diary of travels, of course, but also of feelings, states of mind, moods . . . The fascination of a collection lies just as much in what it reveals as in what it conceals of the secret urge that led to its creation." -- from "Collection of [...]
Ten different and thoroughly dissimilar novels intertwine as the beginning of each book, interrupted at a critical moment of suspense, leads into yet another novel reflecting yet another literary mode[...]
Looking at five of Italo Calvino's often neglected early novels: The Young People of Po, The Cloven Viscount, The Baron in the Trees, The Non-Existent Knight, and The Watcher, Eugenio Bolongaro argues that these works, written between 1948 and 1963, contain a sustained meditation on the role of the [...]
In a garden sit the aged Kublai Khan and the young Marco Polo--Tartar emperor and Venetian traveler. Kublai Khan has sensed the end of his empire coming soon. Marco Polo diverts the emperor with tales of the cities he has seen in his travels around the empire: cities and memory, cities and desire, c[...]
Autoreflexivitat und Metaliteratur sind klingende Worte in der Literaturkritik der letzten Jahre. Was sich dahinter verbirgt, wird jedoch nur angedeutet. Vorliegende Studie untersucht die stete Entwicklung der Autoreflexivitat im Werk Calvinos und ihre Kulmination bei Tabucchi. So kann gezeigt werde[...]