The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories

The Penguin Books of Short Stories

by Jhumpa Lahiri (Editor)

'Rich. . . eclectic. . . a feast' Telegraph

This landmark collection brings together forty writers that reflect over a hundred years of Italy's vibrant and diverse short story tradition, from the birth of the modern nation to the end of the twentieth century.

Poets, journalists, visual artists, musicians, editors, critics, teachers, scientists, politicians, translators: the writers that inhabit these pages represent a dynamic cross section of Italian society, their powerful voices resonating through regional landscapes, private passions and dramatic political events.

This wide-ranging selection curated by Jhumpa Lahiri includes well known authors such as Italo Calvino, Elsa Morante and Luigi Pirandello alongside many captivating new discoveries. More than a third of the stories featured in this volume have been translated into English for the first time, several of them by Lahiri herself.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Italy, Italian Literature, Classics, Anthologies, Travel

628 pages, ebook

First published March 7, 2019

About the author

Nilanjana Sudeshna "Jhumpa" Lahiri is a British-American author known for her short stories, novels, and essays in English and, more recently, in Italian.

Her debut collection of short-stories, Interpreter of Maladies (1999), won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Hemingway Award, and her first novel, The Namesake (2003), was adapted into the popular film of the same name. The Namesake was a New York Times Notable Book, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist and was made into a major motion picture.

Unaccustomed Earth (2008) won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, while her second novel, The Lowland (2013) was a finalist for both the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Award for Fiction.

On January 22, 2015, Lahiri won the US$50,000 DSC Prize for Literature for The Lowland. In these works, Lahiri explored the Indian-immigrant experience in America.

In 2012, Lahiri moved to Rome, Italy and has since then published two books of essays, and began writing in Italian, first with the 2018 novel Dove mi trovo, then with her 2023 collection Roman Stories. She also compiled, edited, and translated the Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories which consists of 40 Italian short stories written by 40 different Italian writers. She has also translated some of her own writings and those of other authors from Italian into English.

In 2014, Lahiri was awarded the National Humanities Medal. She was a professor of creative writing at Princeton University from 2015 to 2022. In 2022, she became the Millicent C. McIntosh Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing at her alma mater, Barnard College of Columbia University.

Reviews

[Ines · Rating 5 out of 5]

SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!! I say immediately there is nothing so different than the anthology books we have in our italian high schools ( in italian language only) or the texts that in the university courses for the additional exams of Literature ( in our old Degree ) can be found, we Italians are used to see collections like this.
I had already read more than half of the stories you can find here, but was a real joy the same...
i reread and relived the past days of my adolescence and the first years of University., when I studied many of these authors: Tomasi di Lampedusa, Svevo, Pirandello, Morante, Ginzburg, Deledda e Buzzati.
I discovered unknown authors for me as Silvio D'arzo or Giovanni Arpino.
We Italians, who love to feel sorry for ourselves and forget the greatness of our people and the unique and unrepeatable brilliance of some of our brothers and sons, have the unique gift of being able to enjoy such writers of the 20th century. I, still today, i will never stop thanking some teachers of my high school, the passion for Italian Literature and the the deep love for reading, has blossomed only thanks to them.
This is a volume that I absolutely recommend for those who want to get closer to Italy and its Literature, without forgetting that the two pivotal works of Italian knowledge are due to Dante Alighieri with the "Divine comedy" and to Alessandro Manzoni with the "Betrothed".


Post scriptum: jhumpa, I write it here, maybe who knows you will read this review, the only passage that really stood out in this volume is found in your preface, I don’t understand why you wrote that kind of cosmic untruth in there , It is a sign ( for me) that you still do not know Italy well, claiming that there is a revival of neo-fascist parties. The" Lombardy League" is not a neo-fascist party, which your radical Italian chic left friends have made you believe. If italian people decides to vote through democratic forms one party instead of another, one must always have respect for these new choices..... The problem of the Italian people in 2019, is that they felt teased by all the left wing, enslaved to Europe.
The problem of populism arose only because the Europe of individual states and for the well-being of their citizens does not give a damn at all!!!!, except in respect of European economic parameters.... The people understood that very well. Crushed by these migratory waves that then, the individual European states at the end, try to block in the port of first arrival, that are Italian moslty! and so refusing or sending back here hundreds of immigrants, of which very purely economic, so to be sent back due to european immigratory parameters...
How did you think the Italian people could react? People crushed at 60% of annual taxes and with an average net income of 1400 Euro per month!
It’s okay to be a good-hearted, but with a 360°-light vision dear jhumpa!
Just to clarify, i do not love Salvini, and i did not vote him but i try to understand without prejudices why the left has been destoyed in Italy, and with this horror condition in the Government, they (Salvini and Co.) will arise even more as soon new election will be possible. Do not tell us about Xenophoby please, and there is no violence against immigrants!!! i have no idea where you found out these news!! maybe it is the opposite, about many violences and every day offences against italian people and our police. just read newspapers ( maybe not only La Repubblica and Corriere della sera 😉😉)
With love, respect and no offence
Ines



BELLISSIMO!!!!! lo dico subito non vi è nulla di così diverso rispetto ai libri di Antologia delle scuole superiori o ai testi che nei corsi per gli esami supplementari di Lettere ( Laurea vecchio ordinamento) si potevano trovare, noi italiani diciamolo subito, siamo abituati a vedere raccolte del genere.
Avevo già letto piu' della metà dei racconti che potete trovare qui, però che gioia lo stesso... rileggere e rivivere i giorni ormai passati della mia adolescenza e dei primi anni di Università., quando studiavo molti di questi autori: Tomasi di Lampedusa,Svevo,Pirandello,Morante, Ginzburg, Deledda e Buzzati.
Scoprire autori sconosciuti per me come Silvio D'arzo o Giovanni Arpino.
Noi italiani, che amiamo molto piangerci addosso e dimenticare la grandezza del nostro popolo e la genialità unica e irripetibile di alcuni nostri fratelli e figli, abbiamo il dono unico di poter godere di tali scrittori del '900. Ancora oggi, non finirò mai di ringraziare alcuni insegnanti del mio Liceo, la passione per la Letteratura italiana e l'amore sviscerato per la lettura, è sbocciato solo unicamente grazie a loro.
Questo è un volume che assolutamente consiglio per chi vuole avvicinarsi all'Italia e alla sua Letteratura, senza però dimenticarsi che le due opere cardine della conoscenza italiana lo si deve a Dante Alighieri con la "divina commedia" e ad Alessandro Manzoni con i "Promessi sposi".

Post scriptum: Jhumpa, te lo scrivo qui, magari chissà leggerai questa recensione, unico passaggio che veramente stonava in questo volume lo si trova nella prefazione, non capisco perchè scrivere una "falsità" cosmica cosi, senza riferimenti precisi e verificabili come hai omesso, indi segno di non conoscere ancora bene l'Italia, sostenendo che vi sia una rinascita di partiti neofascisti. La lega lombarda non è una partito neofascista, checchè i tuoi amici radical chic italiani ti abbiamo fatto credere. Se una popolo decide di votare tramite forme democratiche un determinato partito invece di un altro, bisogna sempre avere rispetto di queste nuove scelte........il problema del popolo italiano nel 2019, è che si è sentito preso in giro " o per il culo cosi capiamo meglio" da tutta quell'ala di sinistra, asservita all' Europa.
Il problema del Populismo, è nato unicamente perchè all' Europa dei singoli stati e del benessere dei loro cittadini non frega assolutamente nulla, se non nel rispetto dei parametri economici europei.... questo il popolo l'ha capito molto bene. Timoroso da queste ondate migratorie che poi, i singoli stati europei, cercano di riffa o di raffa di bloccare nel porto di primo arrivo, indi Italiano, rifiutando o mandando indietro centinaia di immigrati, di cui molto unicamente economici....
Come pensavi mai potesse reagire il popolo italiano? Un popolo schiacciamo al 60% di tasse annuali e con un guadagno netto medio di 1400 Euro mensili!
Va bene essere buonisti, ma con una visione però a 360 gradi cara Jhumpa!

[Toni · Rating 5 out of 5]

A marvelous collection of short stories from my favourite authors: Natalia Ginzburg, Italian Calvino, Luigi Pirandello, Giovanni Bernard, Dino Buzzati and many many others. A wide variety of styles and topics to give the reader a glimpse into Italian life and culture beyond what can be seen by even the most curious of tourists..
The authors of these forty stories mostly worked in the twentieth century and thus provide a fascinating background into what the Italian contemporary society is based on. Not surprisingly, the issue of identity - linguistic, geographic, political, cultural- is among the most prominent questions discussed in this collection.
Although most of the writers represented here are among household names in Italy, not all of them are well-known in English speaking countries. My admiration and gratitude for the translators' hard work and love of Italian language with all its rich nuances that helped to create this wonderful book.

Thank you to Edelweiss and the publisher for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.

[Alan (the Lone Librarian rides again) Teder · Rating 4 out of 5]

You say Storie*, Some say Novelle*, I say Racconti*
Review of the Penguin Classics hardcover edition (September 10, 2019) with reference to the eBook edition, translating 40 stories collected from various sources (1912-2005).

[3.225 average rating of the 40 stories, bumped up to 4 for the variety and quality of research and translation]

I realized that, for the first time in decades, I was reading to satisfy only myself. I was no longer influenced by the expectations and broader cultural consensus that dictate what one should be reading – such frames of references had fallen away. - from the introduction by editor Jhumpa Lahiri.

Not only was this a terrific collection, I found a great affirmational quote right at the beginning by the editor who is also a well-known author and translator in her own right. I've followed Lahiri on and off since I first heard of her from seeing the film adaptation (2005) of her novel The Namesake (2003). Curiously for an originally English language writer, her love of Italian has brought her to not only translate Italian to English (several novels by Domenico Starnone) but to actually write original works in Italian herself. I have her In altre parole (2015) translated as In Other Words (2016) in the pipeline now as well.

I actually acquired this original hardcover shortly after its release. It was somewhat unwieldy reading in its weighty 528 pages and I grappled for quite a while on how to get a handle on taking enough notes and to markup passages in my usual manner. An eBook became the perfect companion which also saved a lot of time in transcribing text. And the best way to record information and ratings on each story was to make immediate notes via GR's status updates which you can see below or at this link if you are reading outside of GR. Highlighted passages are here.

The variety here was tremendous and even if the subject matter or style didn't appeal to me in every case, the biographical notes on the 40 authors were all well researched and written. Most of the authors were completely new to me and several I would read again if I chance upon their works. My admitted favourite was Lampedusa's The Professor and the Siren, published here as simply "The Siren," which I had read before but again found just as enjoyable.

The 4 and 5 star reads (20 out of the 40 stories) for me were as follows:
3. The Siren ***** by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (1896-1957). An old man who is also a scholar of ancient Greek tells a young newspaper man the story of the love of his life from his own youth.
4. Against Time **** by Antonio Tabucchi (1943-2012). A man is travelling to a conference in Crete via Greece when he suddenly makes a diversion to a monastery.
5. Generous Wine **** by Italo Svevo (1861-1928). An old man is allowed to indulge in wine and food at a wedding for one night, but then suffers nightmares afterwards.
6. The Long Voyage **** by Leonardo Sciascia (1921-1989). A tale of a boatload of illegal immigrants from Sicily who pay off a smuggler to carry them to Trenton N.J. in America.
8. The Hen **** by Umberto Saba (1883-1957). A teenager mourns the death of his pet chicken but then finds a new one at the market.
13. Melancholy ***** by Goffredo Parise (1929-1986). A young girl at a summer camp feels isolated as her finer clothing and toys distinguish her from the poorer kids.
14. Silence **** by Aldo Palazzeschi (1885-1974). The story of a misanthrope who has hardly ever spoken to his housekeeper for 20 years.
15. A Pair of Eyeglasses **** by Anna Maria Ortese (1914-1998 ). A young girl gets a pair of eyeglasses which are an enormous expense for her poor family.
16. The Other Side of the Moon **** by Alberto Moravia (1907-1990). Starts as existentialist tale about having a hidden side to your personality, but then takes a rather dramatic turn.
17. The Ambitious Ones **** by Elsa Morante (1912-1985). A mother has marriage ambitions for her daughter, but the daughter’s ambition is to become a nun.
19. Quaestio de Centauris **** by Primo Levi (1919-1987). A centaur tells the story of the origin of his species but eventually has a romantic breakdown due to a love triangle.
20. Gogol’s Wife ***** by Tommaso Landolfi (1908-1979). Totally absurd comic story about Nikolai Gogol and his mysterious wife. The real-life Gogol was never married.
21. My Husband **** by Natalia Ginzburg (1916-1991). A woman describes her detached life with her husband in which she discovers that he actually loves someone else.
26. The Milliner ***** by Antonio Delfini (1907-63). A dress and hat maker looks back on her life from the age of 60.
28. Invitation to Dinner **** by Alba de Céspedes (1911-1997). After the war, a couple in Rome invite a British army captain to dinner to thank him for assisting their brother-in-law’s travel home. The Brit’s condescending manner ruins the evening for them, although they try to be polite about it.
29. Elegy for Signora Nodier ***** by Silvio D’Arzo (1920-1952). A woman marries a general who goes off to war and is killed. His Scottie dog is returned to her by one of his soldiers.
30. Malpasso **** by Fausta Cialente (1898-1994). An old man spends his days at a Malpasso bar telling stories about his past life and of meeting his wife. One day the wife arrives and reveals the truth.
34. And Yet They Are Knocking at Your Door **** by Dino Buzzati (1906-1972). A family ignores various warning signs as a river flood approaches their house. The oblivious characters are presumably acting as a metaphor.
35. The Miraculous Beach, or, Prize for Modesty (Aminta) **** by Massimo Bontempelli (1878-1960). Magic realism tale of a woman insisting on making a new bathing suit, although in Rome they are not close to the sea. But then a miracle happens.
36. A Geographical Error **** by Romano Bilenchi (1909-1989). The protagonist is picked on by friends and strangers due to his being from the region of Tuscany known as the Maremma (the Maritime lowlands), although he denies that his hometown is situated there.

Footnote
* Italian for "story", "novella" and "short story".

Trivia and Link
This book also had an earlier edition in the original Italian published as Racconti italiani. Scelti e introdotti da Jhumpa Lahiri (Italian Short Stories. Selected with an Introduction by Jhumpa Lahiri) (May 2, 2019).

[JimZ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave ratings of 3.5 or more to 13 of the 40 stories in this collection of short stories selected (and some translated by) Jhumpa Lahiri. Some were over my head...some I did not like. But for a collection of 40 stories, liking a third of them is pretty good (I prefer ‘the glass is 1/3 full’ philosophy on life as opposed to ‘the glass is 2/3 empty’...actually I thought that sounded good...I probably subscribe to the latter philosophy. 🤪 😉 🙃

She had a number of criteria she used when selecting the stories among them (Penguin Classics asked her to assemble the anthology):
• “...to gather together as many of the authors who have inspired and nourished my love for Italian literature, and for the Italian short story in particular”
• The authors could no longer be living
• Lahiri set the number of stories in the collection to 40

Of the 13 that I liked it looks like I am going to have a hard time finding five of them some more works of theirs because some of them are not translated into English. But that was one of her points in the Introduction: that there is so much great literature out there outside of English-speaking countries that fail to be recognized by the powers that be so that they remain unbeknownst to people like me (an avid reader who only knows the English language 🙁).

Of note:
• A number of the authors had lived through World War II and Mussolini’s reign.
• ‘Stylistically, they covered the spectrum: Realist, neoRealist, avant-garde, fantastic, Modernist, postmodernist.’

Here are the stories (and authors) that I liked. In her collection she has 1-page introductions telling us about the author, which I found generally to be quite interesting.
• Invitation to Dinner — Alba De Cespedes
• The Siren — Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
• The Hen — Umberto Saba
• Silence — Aldo Palazzeschi
• At the Station — Carlo Cassola
• The Other Side of the Moon — Alberto Moravia
• Melancholy — Goffredo Parise
• The Ambitious Ones — Elsa Morante
• A Pair of Eyeglasses — Anna Maria Ortese
• Wedding Trip — Cesare Pavese
• Malpasso — Fausta Cialente
• And Yet They Are Knocking at Your Door — Dino Buzzati
• My Husband — Natalia Ginzburg

Review:
https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/...

[Warwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

The short story is a format that for some reason attracts a lot of the kind of writing I don't really get on with – by which I mean a lot of earnest middle-brow pondering over not very much. You know what I mean – twenty pages of someone just sitting at their kitchen table, thinking about how their husband left, or watching a fly crawling metaphorically across the window. And then at the end there's a clever-clever ‘twist’, where it turns out that she's been dead all along, or dreaming, or a Communist. That kind of thing.

Then again, the advantage with short stories is that if you don't like something, well, never mind, there'll be another one along in a minute. There were two or three pieces I didn't much like in here, a couple I thought were outstanding, and all the rest were somewhere in between. But the whole is more than the sum of its parts with this kind of enterprise: there's something really nice about having them collected together like this, in an admirably broad selection which is drawn from pretty much every part of Italy.

Jhumpa Lahiri's main criterion was to exclude living authors – as well as excluding (though this isn't explicitly stated) those from before the twentieth century. It's as good a basis as any. The result is a lot of big names (Tomasi di Lampedusa, Svevo, Calvino, Levi, Ginzburg) as well as many I'd never heard of. My knowledge of Italian literature is very far from comprehensive, but I think even if you know it well, there will be quite a bit in here that's new to you.

Lahiri's one-page introductions to her authors are little masterpieces of concision, and in some ways were my favourite part of the book. She says she prioritised the inclusion of ‘women authors, lesser-known and neglected authors, and authors who practised the short form with particular vehemence and virtuosity’, which is all well and good although I'm not sure how obscure any of them are when almost every potted biography in here contains some variant of the phrase ‘received the Strega Prize in 1974’. (Guglielmo Petroni got the Strega in 1974. He is not in this book.) Indeed you start to wonder if one way of recreating this collection would be to simply make a list of Strega winners and cross out the ones who haven't died yet.

The neorealist tendency in Italian literature, as in its cinema, is not my cup of tea, but it was great to discover here how many other currents were flowing around and about it. I was really impressed by the vaguely surrealistic impending horror of Massimo Bontempelli's ‘The Miraculous Beach’, in which a family of aristocrats tries to have dinner while the world collapses around them. And I loved, loved, loved a story called ‘Gogol's Wife’ by Tommaso Landolfi, whose work is described by Lahiri as ‘iconoclasic, verbally precocious…filled with archaic terms…long, blasphemous, bitter, attuned to mystery and chance’. I found him wonderful and hilarious and he's going straight on my further reading list.

My favourite story by far, though, was Tomasi's ‘The Siren’, which is well known. It unfortunately comes early in the book, which meant that a lot of the collection subsequently felt like going downhill. I was especially impressed by the translator of this piece (Stephen Twilley), who captures exactly the kind of tone I like in a short story – light, urbane, witty – and which is particularly hard to pull off in translation. The opening will give you an idea of how he captures Tomasi's voice:

Late in the autumn of 1938 I came down with a severe case of misanthropy. I was living in Turin at the time, and my local girl no. 1, rifling my pockets in search of a spare fifty-lire note as I slept, had also discovered a short letter from girl no. 2. Spelling mistakes notwithstanding, it left no room for doubt concerning the nature of our relations.

My waking was both immediate and violent. Outbursts of angry dialect echoed through my modest lodgings on Via Peyron, and an attempt to scratch my eyes out was averted only by the slight twist I administered to the dear girl's left wrist. This entirely justified act of self-defence put an end to the row, but also to the romance. The girl dressed hurriedly, stuffing powder-puff, lipstick, and a little handkerchief into her bag along with the fifty-lire note, ‘cause of so great a calamity,’ thrice flung a colourful local alternative to ‘Swine!’ in my face, and left. Never had she been so adorable as in those fifteen minutes of fury. I watched from the window as she emerged and moved away into the morning mist: tall, slender, adorned with regained elegance.

The mention of ‘dialect’ here (a sober linguist would talk rather of ‘regional languages’) is something that's echoed time and again in different pieces in the collection. One of the things that's most striking when you read about Italy, or read Italian writers, or indeed travel much in Italy, is a strong impression of the country as a collection of disparate regions, each with their own distinct cultural and linguistic identity. That's something that's very much reinforced by this book.

There are doubtless other running themes that you will notice, depending on your interests. In any case, if you like the form – or the country – this is an excellent volume to have on the shelf, and Lahiri's diligent scholarship can't disguise her glee at being able to put it together.

[Anima · Rating 5 out of 5]

Giovanni Verga
1840–1922
“Catania, on the eastern coast of Sicily, was destroyed more than once by earthquakes and eruptions of Mount Aetna. The effect of its late baroque reconstruction begun in 1693, from lava stone, is at once grim and spectacular. Still charged with the weight of disaster, the city personifies drama, destruction and rebirth. Verga, astride the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the eldest author of this collection, was raised there, but to produce his art he had to get away, first to Florence, immersing himself in its literary culture, and then to Milan, where he lived for twenty years (although he made frequent journeys back to Sicily). He was born three months after Thomas Hardy, an author with whom he bears comparison. Both wrote about hardship, family and fatal passions with lyricism and pessimism.[..]”

Picturesque Lives
Translated by G. H. McWilliam

“...
Did you ever, after an autumn shower, find yourself scattering an army of ants as you carelessly traced the name of your latest boyfriend in the sand along the boulevard? Some of those poor little creatures would have remained stuck on the ferrule of your umbrella, writhing in agony, but all the others, after five minutes of rushing about in panic, would have returned to cling on desperately to their dark little ant-heap. You wouldn’t go back there, certainly, and neither would I. But in order to understand that kind of stubbornness, which in some respects is heroic, we have to reduce ourselves to the same level, restrict our whole horizon to what lies between a couple of mounds of earth, and place their tiny hearts under a microscope to discover what makes them beat. Would you, too, like to take a look through this lens here, you who contemplate life through the other end of a telescope? You’ll think it a curious spectacle, and it might amuse you, perhaps.
[..]
But meanwhile, the memories I send you now, so far away from you in every sense, inebriated as you are with feasting and flowers, will bring a refreshing breeze to play upon the feverish round of your endless revelry. On the day you go back there, if you ever do go back, and we sit together again, kicking up stones with our feet and visions in our thoughts, perhaps we shall talk about those other breezes that life elsewhere has to offer. Imagine, if you like, that my mind is fixed on that unknown little corner of the world because you once stepped into it, or in order to avert my gaze from the dazzling glare of precious stones and fevered expectation that accompanies your every movement, or because I have sought you out in vain in all the places smiled upon by fashion. ... .“

[Stella ☆Paper Wings☆ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Avg. Rating: 4.275
I think this was my first taste of Italian fiction, and I really enjoyed it. I would definitely recommend this collection to anyone who's experiencing the genre for the first time, although it is a very long and immersive read.

It's nice to have a little biography of the author before each story, to give some personal and historical context, especially for the speculative fiction and magical realism that might require a bit more context. It also gave me the opportunity to learn more about the world of Italian short fiction outside of the 40 stories included in this book.

While I don't know much about what other Italian short stories are out there, it seems like the selections came from a diverse group of writers from different backgrounds, genders, and time periods. It would have been nice to see some 21st century authors, but I understand why they stuck to the 19th and 20th centuries.

Having read quite a few works in translation, it was interesting to read all the notes about how this was translated, because that can make a big impact on the sound of the story. It did seem like the translations for a few of the stories might have stayed too literal, making them difficult to understand, but overall I felt like the voices of the initial authors shone through.

I'll definitely have to venture into more Italian literature in the future, which I guess is probably the point of this collection. I think I'll also explore some of the other penguin short story collections, namely the The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories.

Several novels have landed on my TBR as a result of this book: Coversations in Sicily by Elio Vittorini, The Day of the Owl by Leonardo Sciacia, The Time of Indifference by Alberto Moravia, Natalia by Fausta Cialente, Tempo di Uccidere by Ennio Flaiano, Ernesto by Umberto Saba, Artemisia by Anna Banti, and La Città del Sole by Tommaso Campanella. I've also had The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa on my TBR for some time, and while I didn't like his story in this collection, I still want to read that as well. I'm definitely not going to read all of those since I have almost 800 books on my goodreads TBR, but I can dream. I'd welcome recommendations for any other Italian classics or modern Italian fiction I shouldn't miss!

My favorite stories in the collection were Name and Tears, The Long Voyage, Bago, The Tower, The Other Side of the Moon, A Martian in Rome, and Invitation to Dinner. I'm not going to review every one of these stories like I would for most anthologies considering there are fourty of them, but here are my ratings for each:

"Name and Tears" by Elio Vittorini ☆☆☆☆☆
"Picturesque Lives" by Giovanni Verga ☆☆☆
"The Siren" by Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa ☆.5
"Against Time" by Antonio Tabucchi ☆☆☆☆☆
"Generous Wine" by Italo Svevo ☆☆☆.5
"The Long Voyage" by Leonardo Sciascia ☆☆☆☆☆
"Bago" by Alberto Savino ☆☆☆☆☆
"The Hen" by Umberto Saba ☆☆☆☆.5
"The Lady" by Lalla Romano ☆☆☆☆
"The Tower" by Fabrizia Ramondino ☆☆☆☆☆
"The Trap" by Luigi Pirandello ☆☆☆.5
"The Wedding Trip" by Cesare Pavese ☆☆☆☆
"Melancholy" by Geofredi Parise ☆☆☆☆
"Silence" by Aldo Palazzeschi ☆☆☆☆.5
"A Pair of Eyeglasses" by Anna Maria Ortese ☆☆☆☆
"The Other Side of the Moon" by Alberto Moravia ☆☆☆☆☆
"The Ambitious Ones" by Elsa Morante ☆☆☆☆.5
16, 21, 28, and 27 from "Centuria" by Giorgio Manganelli ☆☆☆☆
"Quaestio de Centauris" by Primo Levi ☆☆.5
"Gogol's Wife" by Tommaso Landolfi ☆☆☆☆
'My Husband" by Natalia Ginzburg ☆☆☆☆
"The Mother" by Carlo Emilio Gadda ☆☆☆
"A Martian in Rome" by Ennio Flaiano ☆☆☆☆☆
"The Smell of Death" by Beppe Fenoglio ☆☆☆.5
"Life as a Couple" by Luce D'Eramo ☆☆☆☆.5
"The Milliner" by Antonio Delfini ☆☆☆
"The Hind" by Grazia Deledda ☆☆☆☆.5
"Invitation to Dinner" by Alba De Céspedes ☆☆☆☆☆
"Elegy for Signora Nodier" by Silvio D'Arzo ☆☆☆.5
"Malpasso" by Fausta Cialente ☆☆☆☆
"At the Station" by Carlo Cassola ☆☆☆☆
"The Golden Nut" by Christina Campo ☆☆☆☆
"Dialogue with a Tortoise" by Italo Calvino ☆☆.5
"And Yet They Are Knocking at Your Door" by Dino Buzzati ☆☆☆☆.5
"The Miraculous Beach or, Prize for Modesty" by Massimo Bontempelli ☆☆☆
"A Geographical Error" by Romano Bilenchi ☆☆☆☆☆
"The Streetwalker" by Luciano Bianciardi ☆☆
"Miss" by Anna Banti ☆☆☆☆☆
"The Baboon" by Giovanni Arpino ☆☆
"Barefoot" by Corrado Alvaro ☆☆☆.5

[Luigi De Angelis · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can see Jhumpa Lahiri's impeccable work as an editor in this brilliant collection of Italian short stories. If you are interested in Italian literature, this book is an excellent introduction to many authors, some of them absolutely central in the development of this particular literary tradition. If you simply love short fiction, this collection is a source of eclectic pleasures. You might like some stories more than others (that is normal, especially since their styles and themes are so different); however, unlike other collections of this sort, I think that the quality is quite consistent. Some of my favorite selections are 'Picturesque Lives,' by Giovanni Verga; 'The Siren,' by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, 'A Pair of Eyeglasses,' by Anna Maria Ortese; and 'The Hen,' by Umberto Saba. Opinions will vary depending on the reader. The important thing is that this is a rewarding and rich book, una meraviglia!

[Δημήτριος Καραγιάννης · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of hard work and honest dedication has been fueled into this collection. It is with great pleasure that I must insist on claiming that the end result is simply marvelous.
To a person that had never before dabbled with 20th century Italian literature, apart from a few fencing incidents with Italo Calvino, I dare say that this book could guide me to delve deeper into several of the included authors, whose stories really make a mark here.
These forty stories are all of them true; they are sincere, they strike to the bone, they depict beautiful landscapes and they tell wonderful, poignant tales of Italian people of all genders and beliefs. Many of them, were blatantly ahead of their time. All of them, are possessed of a quality that is indeed worthy to be showcased to future generations.
Lastly, this collection is wonderful for summer reading, since several of the stories refer to the blue vastness of the sea, and is best read under the sun in a Mediterranean beach.

[Jake Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection is my first exposure to any of these Italian authors. Like every collection of short stories, some were stronger than others - some were a joy to read through, and others were a bit of a slog.

But, overall, I really enjoyed this collection! I loved the mini-biographies preceding each story. I would encourage anyone to give these Italian authors a shot! Excellent work, Lahiri.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories is an anthology of forty Italian short stories edited by Jhumpa Lahiri. It includes stories by such authors as Alberto Moravia, Natalia Ginzburg, Primo Levi, Italo Calvino, Elsa Morante, Dino Buzzati, Luigi Pirandello, Cesare Pavese, and others. I am reviewing six of the short stories below, and they all seem to revolve around limitations, hardships or eccentricities.

Silence by Aldo Palazzeschi (translated by Erica Segre and Simon Carnell) – ★★★★1/2

“There was not a moment in the day when silence did not fill the place entirely; there was not a single nook or cranny that the silence had not filled with the imposing solemnity of its presence.” Eccentric, reclusive man Benedetto Vai seems to have taken a vow of silence because he does not utter even one word to anyone, not even to his housekeeper Leonia, and this state of affairs seems to have been ongoing for years and years. And, then, he starts to accumulate the finest cutlery that seems to exist in the world. Is he preparing for some feast, and will the house be finally filled with voices? Palazzeschi gets his reader’s attention effortlessly by presenting, and with much finesse, a very unusual character who has one strange lifelong whim. The melancholic cadence is not as strong, but there is still this clear message that, at times, the greatest fight in a person’s life is their fight with themselves.

The Other Side of the Moon by Alberto Moravia (translated by Michael F. Moore) – ★★★★1/2

“Do I love my husband? Let’s just say that I’m fond of him. Besides, I don’t have time for thoughts like this“. This introspective short story details the thoughts of a bank employee/housewife/mother who bemoans that there are not enough seconds, minutes, hours in a day for her to think about or do anything that is not her stringent daily routine based on her role expectations. Naturally, the woman wants “out”, takes the boldest step in her life, and in the blink of an eye, all hell breaks loose. However, her illusion of an escape will not last. It is amazing how much Moravia packs in less three pages of text. This is one race of a story and from the point of view of one increasingly unbalanced, desperate mind.

A Geographical Error by Romano Bilenchi (translated by Lawrence Venuti) – ★★★★1/2

Apart from Buzzati, this is the closest story to certain Kafkaesque absurdity I read from this collection, and, thus, I liked it. It is about a boy in school who gets into an argument with his teacher whether or not his own native town, G., where the boy was born and raised, is in the Maremma, a region in Lazio and Tuscany. Certainly, the boy should know better (it is not), but the Professor is still adamant to prove him wrong. I like how straightforwardly, yet also unassumingly it deals with such themes as challenging authority, obedience, conformity, city vs. village contrast, bullying, and mistaken identity shaping the general perception.

Malpasso by Fausta Cialente (translated by Jenny McPhee) – ★★★★

“Malpasso is the name of the road that winds up the side of the mountain“, so begins this story, and on that road is the Maplasso cafe. Its most eccentric client is one old man with a strange, domineering wife. But, the man is having none of that. He is lost to his illusions and dreams, picturing a young, beautiful, kind bride as his wife, and being in love with Malpasso’s landscapes above anything else. The reality will crush over his head one day, but at least he has some time, or so he thinks…This tale from Fausta Cialente (1898-1994), one of Italy’s most elusive female authors who also won the Strega Prize, is gentle enough, but still packs quite a punch with its themes of aging and loneliness.

A Pair of Eyeglasses by Anna Maria Ortese (translated by Ann Goldstein and Jenny McPhee) – ★★★1/2

“My child, it’s better not to see the world than to see it“. Little girl Eugenia Quaglia finally has a chance to wear glasses and see everything around her clearly, but at the cost that is too hard to bear for her family – a lot of money. The family is poor, but they still manage to scrape enough money to buy new glasses for Eugenia. What will be the outcome? Anna Maria Ortese (1914- 1998) wrote about poverty like no other Italian author, incorporating into her writings her own early experience of hardship. A Pair of Eyeglasses is slight, but still suffused with much empathy, and the innocence and hope of childhood even in the background of familial hardship.

Melancholy by Goffredo Parise (translated by Jhumpa Lahiri) – ★★★1/2

This is a very short story by Parise (1929-1986), and a bit like A Pair of Eyeglasses, but in reverse. It is about the desire to fit in and find your group when you are young, and the great distress or melancholy that follows when it becomes hard or impossible. Girl Silvia has everything and is treated like a royalty in her summer camp because, unlike other children there, she comes from a rich family. However, this treatment is not what she wants. I find this story interesting, but more of a life snapshot or short episode, rather than a fully-fledged short story.

[alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

i really liked this collection. i wouldn’t say that i liked or loved every single story in the collection, but i think it was such a good anthology that, somehow, really captures Italy as a whole: the culture, the politics, the people

it makes me wish i could read in Italian at this level. i can even imagine how beautiful it must be in its native language. but, that being said, Italian translates wonderfully to English. some languages, I don’t love the way they translate, but I love that stories translated from Italian somehow manage to stay poetic and lyrical

[Tom Peryam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe only for the diehard Lahiri fans?

This book is described as a survey of 20th century Italian short stories translated for an English audience. The story selection, however, seems much more targeted to those already passingly familiar with Italian short fiction. Again and again Lahiri introduces an author with some version of "their best known work was X, and they won a prize for Y, but here is Z." It is the equivalent of a person introducing you to the Beach Boys by saying, "their most popular work was their early 1960's surf-centered pop songs, while their most critically acclaimed period was around the release of 'Pet Sounds.' So now, to introduce you, I present this obscure 1981 Beach Boys song that not even most Americans have ever heard. Why? Because I like it that's why."

Which is why I say that I suspect this collection says more about Lahiri than about Italian literature. So, if you are a hard core Lahiri fan, this is a good read. Otherwise...

But about the stories, I feel like only one, The Siren by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, will stick in my memory.

[Elisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miei racconti preferiti:
- Fantasticheria, Giovanni Verga
- La sirena, G. Tomasi di Lampedusa
- Il lungo viaggio, Leonardo Sciascia
- La gallina, Umberto Saba
- Malinconia, Goffredo Parise
- Un paio di occhiali, Anna Maria Ortese
- Un marziano a Roma, Ennio Flaiano
- Invito a pranzo, Alba de Céspedes
- Malpasso, Alba Cialente
- Eppure battono alla porta, Dino Buzzati

[Francisco Ferreira da Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great diversity in time period and genre of the stories, which necessarily means not all of them will be to one's liking. The ones that stuck with me the most:

- The Siren by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. "Late in the autumn of 1938 I came down with a severe case of misanthropy." is a great opening line, and "... my local girl no. 1, rifling my pockets (...) discovered a short letter from girl no. 2" is not a bad follow-up.

- Invitation to Dinner by Alba de Céspedes. I read it as an indictment of southern Europeans' inferiority complex w.r.t Anglos and found it relatable.

- Dialogue with a Tortoise by Italo Calvino. Short and sweet philosophy.

- The Miraculous Beach, or Prize for Modesty by Massimo Bontempelli. Nice and surreal.

- The Baboon by Giovanni Arpino. Went in a completely different direction than I expected, especially due to when it was written. Ahead of its time, I'd say.

[Deborah Sheldon · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best short-story anthologies I've ever read. It makes me want to race out and buy the English-translated novels or collections of each featured Italian writer. Hats off to editor Jhumpa Lahiri for putting together such a mesmerising and beautiful anthology. The quality of prose is as close to perfect as you could ever get. I can't recommend this book highly enough.

[Lee McKerracher · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those of us who live in countries where English is the first language, we tend to only get exposure to authors who write in English. The 'best sellers' get promoted and to the exclusion of others and it can be difficult to track down authors from other countries and get to explore their writing.

Jhumpa Lahiri has pulled together a wonderful collection of 40 short stories from the 20th century by a broad selection of Italian authors. The work has been translated into English and provides an enticing journey across Italian literature, culture, beliefs, customs and politics.

Included are some of the big names: Lampedusa, Svevo, Sciascia, Gaddo and Calvino but there are others included which most people would not have experienced before. It's an eclectic mix and well worth curling up on the couch and devoting time winding through the vast array of drama, intrigue, passion, contradiction, love and humour.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

This diverse collection of stories focuses on late-nineteenth century and twentieth century authors from all parts of Italy, including Italo Calvino, Tommaso Landolfi, and Nobel Prize winner Grazia Deledda. In addition to translating several of the stories, Jhumpa Lahiri also does a beautiful job curating this collection and introducing each author. A few of my favorites included "The Siren" by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, "Quaestio de Centauris" by Primo Levi, and "A Pair of Eyeglasses" by Anna Maria Ortese--but these are only a few of the gems in this collection.

[Michael O'sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a nice range of stories and styles with such a wide selection that there's bound to be something for everyone but becomes a bit of a slog when one dull or uninteresting story follows another. 'Bago' by Alberto Savinio was definitely my personal favourite but 'The Long Voyage' by Leonardo Sciascia is a runner up just for its funny punchline of an ending.

[Carlota · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm not quite sure how these short stories are compiled into this book. What are the criteria? Yes, specific authors are included but why exactly these stories?
Many of them were not conclusive enough for me. They ended, yet I was looking for something more--more pivotal, more illuminatory. Some are just recounts of moments of life, as in there is nothing extraordinary about them.

However a few of the more notable ones I'll list here:

* The Long Voyage
* The Other Side of the Moon
* Quaestrio de Centauris
* My Husband
* And Yet They Are Knocking at Your Door [my most favorite one]
* A Geographical Error

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phew! This was a huge collection that was mostly enjoyable but also a bit of a slog at times. In hindsight, reading this at a slower pace (a few stories each week) likely would have resulted in a better reading experience. However, of the forty stories there were ten I absolutely loved, and I look forward to exploring more of those authors’ works. I’ve been wanting to read more works in translation and this collection definitely delivered on that front. I’m glad I read it, even if it required quite a bit of perseverance.

[Maddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible collection of tales spanning across all aspects of life. The beginning is incredibly slow and hard to get into. But as you continue through each story, the reoccurring themes of existialism and nihilism rooted in Italian culture become incredibly compelling and I fully enjoyed my experience diving into each story. My personal favorite stories were Miss, Picturesque Lives, A Pair of Eyeglasses, and My Husband but I feel like I took a lot from each story offered in this hefty volume. It was a great and enjoyable experience to indulge in this collection of Italian short stories.

[Angus Jansen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some bene some not so bene. Think I’ve been paging thru this one for the past year or more, a short read is nice every once and a while I did not get a whole new perspective that I thought I might after reading the Saunders which is class on short stories essentially. I’m either drawn in and interested or not which was one of his main points. Funny thing going from scrolling to reading too really start to recognize the short attention span and rot coming from the thumb mind connection. Flexing the focus seems important all the more

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

40 authors, 40 short stories. The title should really read 20th Century Italian Short Stories, although I think one of the stories (Verga?) may be late 19th Century. A very eclectic collection; although the editor made an effort to include more female authors. In many cases, she also seemed to pick lesser known stories.

The quirks in selection caused the drop of star, although that is purely subjective on my part. My bias is toward realism and neo-realism; Lahiri does not share the same view.

[Susanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a jewel. It is a collection of forty short stories written by Twentieth Century Italian authors and edited by Jhumpa Lahiri. I didn’t love all of the stories, but I enjoyed most of them and I loved the experience of reading this book. Each story is introduced by a wonderful biographical note by Lahiri, which often includes the short story writer’s political beliefs and activities. Reading this book was like taking a course in Twentieth Century Italian literature — actually, a course in Twentieth Century Italy.

[Josh Laws · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed several of the stories in this collection but I wasn't especially blown away by it. I preferred The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories more mainly because of how it was structured. I'm glad I read this but not sure if I would recommend it.

[Vilde Hjemås]

Kjøpte denne i Verona! Spennende å se hvor lekent novelleformen kan gjøres, men redaktørens innledning om oversettelser og italiensk litteraturhistorie gjorde boka for meg.

[Gina Leone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eclectic collection of short stories, written by Italian authors, some well known & others less so.
The power of the short story to draw a reader in & impact you, was surprising every time it happened.

[Neal Carlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picturesque Lives by Giovanni Verga is now one of my favorite stories. Stunning.

[Michal · Rating 4 out of 5]

* Contains minor spoilers *

--

It is perfectly possible to get full on a meal consisting only of starters or if you push it - even pieces of amuse bouche. Imagine that each mini-course was prepared by a different restaurant. Now, you can judge the restaurant not only by Google reviews, Michelin stars or credential of its chefs, but by the very substance – a sample of their food. This is the philosophy behind the “Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories". It’s a reader’s feast. The food is aplenty, it’s varied and it’s a good starting point for further exploration, even though the pieces are small.

It was collated by Jhumpa Lahiri, herself an accomplished writer – a recipient of the Pulitzer prize and a nominee for the Booker prize, now a professor at Princeton. It’s apparent that she knows the Italian literary landscape intimately; she even translated a good proportion of the stories. Perhaps the downside of her knowledge is that she sometimes tries to be too cool by selecting less known stories, as if picking the best ones would have been too uninventive.

The authors are an eclectic bunch. There are a fair few literature Nobel prize winners and plenty winners of Strega prize, which seems to be an Italian equivalent. There are Italo Calvino, his former mentor Cesare Pavese, a friend of Fidel Castro Alba de Cespedes, and a whole plethora of authors rich and poor, who were for and against Mussolini, who died peacefully or by suicide.

As one would expect from a collection of 40 stories, the topics also vary widely. Some are down-tow-earth - take a trip to Genoa by impoverished newlyweds, a modest trip that could have been nonetheless their most precious memory, but ended up being yet another source of sorrow due to the blindly egocentric husband who insisted on going for a solo night walk and then slept until 2pm the next day, when it was time to leave. There was a gentle and slow story about a friendship between an old man and a hind. Finally, we could enjoy some magic realism through a dialogue between a man and a tortoise or when a living room of some lucky Rome-dwellers became an actual beach, complete with sand and waves and scorching sun.

The latter story actually gave me goosebumps as Massimo Bontempelli described pure awe and bedazzlement when a husband was looking at his wife in her newly constructed bathing suit, a sight so marvellous to him that the line between reality and magic disappeared. In another story, an aristocratic family defiantly declined to stop a game of cards as their house was being swept away by a flood wave – I really wanted to yell at them, angry at their arrogance and stupidity. I was also caught by surprise when one protagonist successfully dragged me into his dilemma of how to best use the services of prostitutes, where to procure them and how to arrange it logistically while being married – all described so matter-of-factly as if it was not a big deal.

This 460-page tome was a massive feast, but some courses were forgotten as soon as they were finished. Perhaps Mrs Lahiri wanted to show as a complete picture of the Italian 20th century literature, but in the process, she forgot that less was more. But perhaps if it was trimmed, I would have missed on some of the stories that ultimately left a mark and I kept thinking about them for days. I now have a list of Italian authors I am very excited to read more of. If these stories were to be considered starters, they served their purpose and I now want the main dish – and I look forward to some restaurants that serve them becoming my go-tos.