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This book presents a new insight into the narrative works of the Italian author Massimo Bontempelli and in particular his stories written between 1919 and 1929. These works constitute a crucial moment in Bontempelli's literary career; one which is generally considered to be a period of experimentation halfway between his so-called 'classical' period and his 'mature' period. This book fills an important gap in Bontempelli scholarship by providing an unprecedented critical study of his works from this period of innovation.As the chapters of this book unfold, the reader becomes familiar not only with Bontempelli's short stories and with his experimentations but also with the main devices of one of the most popular genres in which today's authors are writing: metafiction. The application of the contemporary critical notion of metafiction to this body of narrative works enables one to reflect and discuss captivating and complex problems of fictional theory and fiction writing, and at the same time give new nuances to Bontempelli's fiction.As the book will make clear, the texts become enriched with new qualities and meaning, and reveal fascinating and intriguing artistic skill.The book explores metafictional features such as intertextuality, the attention drawn to the writer as he is actively and visibly engaged in the creation of his stories, comments on literary criticism included within the text, the relation between art and reality, and magic realism. These metafictional features are presented in a clear and lucid fashion that is accessible to both a scholarly and broader readership. ... Read more

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Translated from the Italian by Estelle Gilson.

Foreword Magazine "Book of the Year" Gold Medalion.

Two novels by one of the masters of 20th century Italian fiction, published in English for the first time.

Richly imbued with imagination, charming in their humorous irony, and eminently readable, both The Boy with Two Mothers and The Life and Death of Adria and Her Children are alive with a subtle "magic," presenting unforgettable characters across a canvas of European socio-political upheaval. These are classic stories which will haunt the mind long after their reading. In each, Bontempelli fulfills what he believed was the writer's ultimate goal: "to tell a dream as if it were reality and reality as if it were a dream."

Before the advent of the fantastic fiction we associate with Latin American writers, it was Massimo Bontempelli who, in 1926, defined a new literary style he called realismo magico. For decades afterward the term was everywhere almost synonymous with his name. At his death in 1960, the New York Times described Bontempelli as the "leader of the futuristic school in the 1920s...whose goal it was to create a world of fantasy which would have the objectivity of the natural world." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The looking glass fascist
Readers of Martin Seymour-Smith's invaluable, but suprsingly unappreciated, "Guide to 20th Century Literature," are aware of certain writers of high talent who have yet to be translated into English.When Seymour-Smith's book appeared in 1985 these included Roberto Arlt, Jose Maria Arguedas, and Massimo Bontempelli.Now two of Bontempelli's strange works have appeared in translation.The novels are strange, it is (or should be) a commonplace that they prefigure magic realism.Estelle Gilson, the translator, has provided us with a brief introduction.She does not really discuss the style of the context of the books very much, but she does tell us how this supporter of Fascism criticized its aggressive and beligerent tone in 1938, as well as the race laws.He had a Jewish nephew who joined the American army and helped to liberate Buchenwald.He was apparently threatened with death by the Fascists during the Republic of Salo and was elected a pro-Communist senator in 1948, only for his election to be annuled because of his fascist ties.

The two novels were written in the late twenties."The Boy with Two Mothers," is the more openly supernatural of the two.It is a story of reincarnation, and the title is deceiving since the boy never recognizes more than one mother at a time.Once the conceit is understood, the novel is less interesting as a fantastic tale, than as the story and determination of Luciana Veracina.As the mother of the boy before he was reincarnated she is an interesting portait of a strong ruthless woman who will do anything for her child, and for her sense of motherhood, ignoring both the boy's father and his current mother.She is resourceful, independent, cunning, rather callous towards other people's feelings, and much more impressive than her son's other mother.One is tempted to see a portrait of a fascist woman, or more accurately the portrait of a fascist as a woman.And yet women in Fascist Italy are supposed to support Fascist men, not be Fascist men.And yet that does not fully appreciate the irony of the ending.

"The Life and Death of Adria and Her Children," is less supernatural, and more interesting.Adria is not unlike Luciana, but in her case she has dedicated herself to preserving her beauty at all costs, while ignoring her husband and two children.When she realizes that decline is inevitable she goes to a mansion, isolates herself from all humanity and from all mirrors except one hidden and not to be used for twelve years.If there is any moral in her story, and the death of her two children (one who both lives and dies as it were) it is not obvious, and not one that Adria ever cares to learn.The style is more interesing and more memorable:"Boundless vacuity emanated from her singsong lamentation and shone in her suffering, childlike face" he says of one character.Adria is one day on the beach:"She listens to tender words, idiotic words, words as frivolous as flies.And like swarms of flies, men and women cross the sands, buzzing as they flit to the edge of the sea, holding hands in a line like strings of paper dolls."In this little known volume, there is a work of an important writer, an undiscovered Italian master as it were.

Imaginative, charming, humorus, ironic, engaging writing.
Separations presents two major works by Italian novelist Massimo Bontempelli under one cover. The subject of both novels are mothers andtheir children. Imaginative writing, charming, humorous, ironic, andtotally engaging, "The Boy with Two Mothers" and "The Lifeand Death of Adria and Her Children" present a cast of unforgettablecharacters spread across a literary canvas of European socio-politicalupheaval. Highly recommended reading, Separations will admirable serve tointroduce a major Italian literary novelist to an appreciative Americanreadership. ... Read more

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This Book Is In Italian. ... Read more

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Les achats comprennent une adhésion à l'essai gratuite au club de livres de l'éditeur, dans lequel vous pouvez choisir parmi plus d'un million d'ouvrages, sans frais. Le livre consiste d'articles Wikipedia sur : Arturo Merzario, Jean-Baptiste Scalabrini, Alessandro Volta, Massimo Bontempelli, Innocent Xi, Gianluca Zambrotta, Giorgio Perlasca, Alberto Cova, Pellegrino Tibaldi, Massimiliano Papis, Liliana Ronchetti, Antonio Sant'elia, Pierluigi Marzorati, Giacomo Della Porta, Ariald de Carimate, Diego de Ascentis, Gianni Clerici, Leone Leoni, Luca Colombo, Giovanni Battista Grassi, Giovanni Cobolli Gigli, Giovanni Da Campione, Carlo Tagliabue, Davide Valsecchi, Mario Benzing, Mauro Santambrogio, Isidoro Bianchi, Roberto Renzi, Andrea Ceresola, Angelo Michele Colonna, Giuseppe Pontiggia, Fiorenzo Aliverti, Antonio Quadranti, Lorenzo Di Silvestro, Luigi Sala, Paolo Pagani, Ercole Ferrata, Bonino Da Campione, Paolo Pedretti, Giuseppe Govone, Andrea Bregno, Emilio Gabaglio, Benci Di Cione, Massimo Vitali, Luca Princiotta, Jennifer Isacco. Non illustré. Mises à jour gratuites en ligne. Extrait : Arturo Merzario (né le 11 mars 1943 à Civenna, dans la province de Côme, en Lombardie, Italie - ) est un ancien pilote automobile italien . Il a participé à 57 Grands Prix de Formule 1 entre 1972 et 1979 et a inscrit 11 points en championnat. Il a également fondé sa propre écurie Team Merzario qui n'a pas particulièrement brillé en Formule 1. Merzario a surtout démontré son talent de pilote en Sport-Prototypes où son palmarès fait état de nombreuses victoires et places d'honneur. Arturo Merzario en démonstration à Goodwood en 2009 Arturo Merzario dépasse Jacky Ickx au Nurburgring en 1972 Arturo Merzario sur Ferrari 312 PB au Nurburgring en 1973 La March 761 Ovoro de la saison 1976Arturo Merzario commence à s'illustrer en sport automobile au sein de l'écurie Fiat-Abarth où il est régulièrement engagé dans deux disciplines très différentes, le...http://booksllc.net/?l=fr ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from The Review of Contemporary Fiction, published by Review of Contemporary Fiction on March 22, 2009. The length of the article is 328 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Massimo Bontempelli. The Faithful Lover.(Brief article)(Book review)
Author: Tim Feeney
Publication: The Review of Contemporary Fiction (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 22, 2009
Publisher: Review of Contemporary Fiction
Volume: 29Issue: 1Page: 238(2)

Article Type: Brief article, Book review

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning ... Read more

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The Faithful Lover, winner of the prestigious Strega Prize, is a sumptuously imagined collection of short stories that live on the border of our everyday world.Brilliantly bringing the psychology of desire to life these stories illuminate the sinful and vengeful, the redemptive and charitable, that abide in all of us. Whether a young man wishes to obtain a rare flower for his mother or an eighty year old woman leaves her final bequest to her family, there is always a depth, a shadow, a mystery that transports the reader from the everyday into the fantastic. The final masterpiece of one the twentieth century s most unjustly overlooked writers, The Faithful Lover is now available to English speaking audiences for the first time. ... Read more

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This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR’d book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more