The Complete Short Stories of Natalia Ginzburg

by Natalia Ginzburg, Paul Lewis (Translator)

Natalia Ginzburg (1916-1991) is today recognized as one of the foremost woman writers to emerge from twentieth-century Italy. The Complete Short Stories of Natalia Ginzburg brings together in English translation for the first time the eight short stories that Ginzburg wrote between 1933 and 1965.

These early works are significant in the context of Ginzburg's wider repertoire. The key themes and ideas occurring therein would come to characterize much of her later work, particularly in terms of her exploration of the difficulties implicit in developing and sustaining meaningful human relationships. Her short stories also provide intriguing insight into the development of her trademark literary style. Including an introduction by the translator and extensive contributions from Alan Bullock, Emeritus Professor of Italian at the University of Leeds, The Complete Short Stories of Natalia Ginzburg encourages a deeper understanding of Ginzburg's life's work and compliments those other collections and individual works which are already widely available in English.

Table of Contents

Introduction

- An Absence
- Giulietta
- The Children
- The House by the Sea
- My Husband
- German Soldiers Pass through Erra
- The Mother
- The Marshal

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Italy, Italian Literature, Literature, Classics, 20th Century

102 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Natalia Ginzburg (née Levi) was an Italian author whose work explored family relationships, politics during and after the Fascist years and World War II, and philosophy. She wrote novels, short stories and essays, for which she received the Strega Prize and Bagutta Prize. Most of her works were also translated into English and published in the United Kingdom and United States. An activist, for a time in the 1930s she belonged to the Italian Communist Party. In 1983 she was elected to Parliament from Rome as an Independent.

Reviews

[Castles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a little worried at first that I'm into a depressing book with sad and broken relationships and an overall Raymond Carver tone. But I was wrong.

While it is a book about broken people, bad relationships and all of that, it's just written very well, her style is short, precise and flowing, and that makes all of the magic of her writing.

The main motifs that repeat in the short stories are about a dysfunctional family or relationship, dysfunctional parenting, irresponsible with keeping the safety and boundary of the fragile naïve world of their kids. There are cheating wives, cheating husbands, failed marriages and mothers and fathers who just don't know how to perform as a parent.

If you don't like spoilers, you might want to skip the long introduction of this book and come back to it afterward.

There are eight short stories in here, which I count out loud to remember them better: a story about the Nazis coming to a small village, a story about a childish husband who doesn't know how to envy, a mother who doesn't know how to be a mother, a cheating romance in the woods, envy between brothers, imaginary friend of a group of children, a friend who cheats his friend who doesn't even feel bad about it, and a mother who cheats while her children watch.
 
 
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[D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb. See this review. Do not read the introduction until you finished the stories, if at all.

[anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great short story collection. Many of the stories are quite similar almost all deal with husbands and wives and their children and their alienation from each other. The two most devastating are "my husband" about a young woman who marries a doctor, the doctor had fallen in love with a peasant woman he'd nursed back to health, "I got an extraordinary pleasure from watching her eat--it was what I most looked forward to during my day--and later when I was alone, I would think about what she had eaten and what i'd bring her the next day"(58). Mariuccia, the peasant girl dies in childbirth and the husband kills himself being unable to live without her. Watching her eat and sleeping with her was his own lifeline.
In the children, my next favorite, a widowed young mother, rides her bicycle, and smokes,

[Joachim Stoop · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5

Bleak, solid yet somehat forgettable short stories. I'm sure I will love her essays more.

[Antonieta Prats Sobrepere · Rating 4 out of 5]

He llegit "Sagitari", un llibre molt amè.. Està escrit des del punt de vista de la filla de la protagonista que, en forma de narrador omniscient ens presenta una dona italiana una mica especial. En poc més de cent pàgines anem coneixent el seu món, les seves il.lusions, els seus projectes i els dels personatges que l'envolten.
Amb un to aparentment neutre i objectiu, ens dóna tota una lliçó de psicologia dels personatges. Observem no només les seves intencions, sinó també els sentiments i les reaccions dels altres.
Els fets que es narren són ben quotidians i ordinaris però estan explicats amb tanta mestria que fa que els llegim amb plaer. Amb ganes de llegir-ne d'altres, d'aquesta autora.

[Vilma · Rating 3 out of 5]

yop? escrita por la ginzburg

[Bhaskar Thakuria · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 20th century Italian novelist Natalia Ginzburg excelled in the literary front both as a novelist and a short story writer; although it is more often than not that she is remembered for her works as a novelist. Understandably so, as her complete output as a short story writer is very limited. In this slim volume of her complete stories the selection is limited to only eight stories. That is as meagre as you can get even though she was a prolific and brilliant novelist. My first exposure to her was in my last year's reading of A Family Lexicon, and it was this work that made me want to read more of her. This collection, though slim and meagre, shows her effortless brilliance and her mastery of the short story format. Her characters are people from the streets and the countryside, and like Calvino she was also a brilliant portrayer of common townsfolk in all their little ironies of life, their sorrows and sufferings, their universal tragedies, the very semblances of life and death blend seamlessly together to create an universal compendium which is anything but commonplace. Notable selections from this anthology comprise the stories 'The House by the Sea' (Casa al mare), 'My Husband' (Mio marito), 'German Soldiers Pass through Erra' (Passagio di tedeschi a Erra), and 'The Mother' (La madre).

[Jeff Hobbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

An absence (Un'assenza) --2
Giulietta --2
The children (I bambini) --3
The house by the sea (Casa al mare) --3
My husband (Mio marito) --4
German soldiers pass through Erra (Passagio di tedeschi a Erra) --3
The mother (La madre) --4
The marshal (Il Maresciallo) --2

[SB · Rating 3 out of 5]

complete stories, but they are only eight.

but, thankfully, ginzburg wrote some short stories unlike munro who never wrote a novel in her life (she only wrote short stories, i don't know why)! this book gave me a comprehensive look at ginzburg's short stories which are rather hit and miss. some short stories felt very incomplete and unfinished. but, her longer short stories get it right (i mean, they carried the essence of what a short story actually is). those stories showed her prowess and made me mesmerised of her writing.

what i love the most about her writing is the little details in them. in those little details, one might find and observe that there is a macrocosm of the characters' lives and hidden emotions that have been carefully observed and dissected. her characters come alive with them being distant and alienated from each other with their secrets, and hidden and unspoken feelings. although i am a newbie to her works, i have noticed that she brought out those human attributes very deftly, like a scientist examining through a microscope. her exploration of human relationships reminds me of antonioni's films. it is very similar to his films and how both of them are marked with ennui found in modern life and living. also, i find her stories incredibly sad most of the times when they explore strained yet delicate human relationships that is left uncommunicated. that attracted me to read them very enthusiastically that i couldn't put them down. she's extremely fluent and natural in her storytelling that leaves me amazed thinking how she could write so easily, being however extremely careful, about complex things regarding humans.

still, i wished all of the stories had the same punch like the longer short stories in here. it just didn't fulfill my fervent admiration for her writing. and, that's my only grievance.

[Alejandro Teruel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was absolutely blown away by Natalia Ginzberg's collection of essays, The Little Virtues, but although this collection of eight stories share the terseness, and the simplicity and precision of language, I was somewhat disappointed by about half of the stories. The stories are all sad, their characters are simple, common, in the main, poor folk, and except for the children, with little illusions or expectations about life. The stories are not devoid of humor, although the protagonists, like sad clowns, are unconscious of it.

The stories that I liked most were the rather similar The Children and The Mother in which sadness is tempered by resilience. The most tragic, and bleakest, story is My Husband, whereas German Soldiers Pass through Erra has all the drama, dust and poignancy of the Italian neorealist films in its depiction of the confusion and absurdity of an alien war randomly, absent-mindedly and ultimately tragically moving through a small Italian village.

[Christine Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

These short stories were written decades ago in Italy.
Her characters live anguished lives and her writing is dark but not without compassion.
If you didn’t feel so sad for them, you would think their situations were sort of humorous.
I would like to read more of her work.

[Robert McTague · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written (mostly) earlier in her life/career, these stories were before her perfection of method shown in her autobiography, Family Lexicon. The stories are short, day-in-the life of mid-century rural Italy, and incidental. A good, quick read.

[Marlla · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5*

[alicer · Rating 4 out of 5]

gorgeous

[yan ✦ · Rating 4 out of 5]

✦ far-from-perfect families
✦ not one happy character in this collection
✦ read this as an intro to her more notable novels 🔜

[Madison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Natalia Ginzburg.