I wouldn't have met Piti if it hadn't been for a chichigua. To translate chichigua as a kite does not do justice to these beautiful creations of...
Continue »
"History" was an extremely controversial but bestselling book when it appeared in 1974 in Italy. However, the polemics centered upon Morante's style and breaking with the literary ideals espoused at the time by the Marxist Italian literary establishment, rather than the historical content of the novel, which traces an Italian-Jewish family's struggles from the turn of the century through approx. the 1960s (when the last character dies). There is an interesting portrayal of the effect of the Italian racial laws of 1938 as well as of the notorious Oct. 1943 roundup of Rome's Jews. Morante, like her husband Alberto Moravia, was of Jewish background, so their flight from Rome in 1943 was not only for political reasons as the blurb (on the Powell's page describing "History) states. William Weaver is a renowned translator of Italian literature; I would recommend his other translations. However, Morante's first novel and indisputable masterpiece, "Menzogna e sortilegio", was translated very poorly into English as "House of Liars" and in fact was disowned by an extremely upset Morante, so unfortunately, I can't recommend reading "House of Liars." See William Weaver and Kristina Olson's "Open City: 7 Writers in Postwar Rome" for an excerpt in English of "Menzogna e sortilegio" as well as English excerpts from other key Italian authors.
Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.
Don't Miss
Customer Comments
geppy has commented on (1) product.
History by Elsa Morante
geppy, January 18, 2009
"History" was an extremely controversial but bestselling book when it appeared in 1974 in Italy. However, the polemics centered upon Morante's style and breaking with the literary ideals espoused at the time by the Marxist Italian literary establishment, rather than the historical content of the novel, which traces an Italian-Jewish family's struggles from the turn of the century through approx. the 1960s (when the last character dies). There is an interesting portrayal of the effect of the Italian racial laws of 1938 as well as of the notorious Oct. 1943 roundup of Rome's Jews. Morante, like her husband Alberto Moravia, was of Jewish background, so their flight from Rome in 1943 was not only for political reasons as the blurb (on the Powell's page describing "History) states. William Weaver is a renowned translator of Italian literature; I would recommend his other translations. However, Morante's first novel and indisputable masterpiece, "Menzogna e sortilegio", was translated very poorly into English as "House of Liars" and in fact was disowned by an extremely upset Morante, so unfortunately, I can't recommend reading "House of Liars." See William Weaver and Kristina Olson's "Open City: 7 Writers in Postwar Rome" for an excerpt in English of "Menzogna e sortilegio" as well as English excerpts from other key Italian authors.