What do you think?
Rate this book
Il romanzo di Ferrara #4
Behind the Door
A sheltered sixteen-year-old Jewish boy from a prosperous family in Ferrara reflects on a critical period of his schooldays in 1929-1930. He makes friends with the leader of the class, a boy with the right looks and the right religion, and with a new boy who joins the class - another "outsider." While the young Jew is shy and naive, the newcomer is aggressive, cynical, sexually uninhibited.
With his characteristic perceptiveness, Bassani subtly explores the relations of the three boys, as events lead to a shattering betrayal of trust.
With his characteristic perceptiveness, Bassani subtly explores the relations of the three boys, as events lead to a shattering betrayal of trust.
150 pages, Hardcover
First published January 20, 1964
3 people are currently reading
609 people want to read
About the author
Giorgio Bassani
65 books218 followersGiorgio Bassani was born in Bologna into a prosperous Jewish family of Ferrara, where he spent his childhood with his mother Dora, father Enrico (a doctor), brother Paolo, and sister Jenny. In 1934 he completed his studies at his secondary school, the liceo classico L. Ariosto in Ferrara. Music had been his first great passion and he considered a career as a pianist; however literature soon became the focus of his artistic interests.
In 1935 he enrolled in the Faculty of Letters of the University of Bologna. Commuting to lectures by train from Ferrara, he studied under the art historian Roberto Longhi. His ideal of the “free intellectual” was the Liberal historian and philosopher Benedetto Croce. Despite the anti-Semitic race laws which were introduced from 1938, he was able to graduate in 1939, writing a thesis on the nineteenth-century writer, journalist, radical and lexicographer Niccolò Tommaseo. As a Jew in 1939, however, work opportunities were now limited and he became a schoolteacher in the Jewish School of Ferrara in via Vignatagliata.
In 1940 his first book, Una città di pianura (“A City of the Plain”), was published under the pseudonym Giacomo Marchi in order to evade the race laws. During this period, along with friends he had made in Ferrara’s intellectual circle, he became a clandestine political activist. His activity in the anti-fascist resistance led to his arrest in May 1943; he was released on 26 July, the day after Benito Mussolini was ousted from power.
A little over a week later he married Valeria Sinigallia, whom he had met playing tennis. They moved to Florence for a brief period, living under assumed names, then at the end of the year, to Rome, where he would spend the rest of his life. His first volume of poems, Storie dei poveri amanti e altri versi, appeared in 1944; a second, Te lucis ante, followed in 1947. He edited the literary review Botteghe oscure for Princess Marguerite Caetani from its founding in 1948 until it halted publication in 1960.
In 1953 Passeggiata prima di cena appeared and in 1954 Gli ultimi anni di Clelia Trotti. In the same year he became editor of Paragone, a journal founded by Longhi and his wife Anna Banti. Bassani’s writings reached a wider audience in 1956 with the publication of the Premio Strega-winning book of short stories, Cinque storie Ferraresi.
As an editorial director of Feltrinelli Bassani was responsible for the posthumous publication in 1958 of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's Il Gattopardo, a novel which had been rejected by Elio Vittorini at Mondadori, and also by Einaudi, but which became one of the great successes of post-war Italian literature. Bassani’s enthusiastic editing of the text, following instructions from Elena Croce (daughter of Benedetto) who had offered him the manuscript, later became controversial however; recent editions have been published which follow the manuscript more closely.
Also in 1958 Bassani’s novel Gli occhiali d’oro was published, an examination, in part, of the marginalisation of Jews and homosexuals. Together with stories from Cinque storie ferraresi (reworked and under the new title Dentro le mura (1973)) it was to be form part of a series of works known collectively as Il romanzo di Ferrara which explored the town, with its Christian and Jewish elements, its perspectives and its landscapes. The series also includes: Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini (1962, Premio Viareggio prizewiner); Dietro la porta (1964); L'airone (1968) and L'odore del fieno (1972). These works realistically document the Italian Jewish community under Fascism in a style that manifests the difficulties of searching for truth in the meanderings of memory and moral conscience. In 1960 one of his novels was adapted as the film Long Night in 1943.
Bassani died in 2000, and was buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Ferrara. He was survived by his estranged wife Valeria and their two children.
In 1935 he enrolled in the Faculty of Letters of the University of Bologna. Commuting to lectures by train from Ferrara, he studied under the art historian Roberto Longhi. His ideal of the “free intellectual” was the Liberal historian and philosopher Benedetto Croce. Despite the anti-Semitic race laws which were introduced from 1938, he was able to graduate in 1939, writing a thesis on the nineteenth-century writer, journalist, radical and lexicographer Niccolò Tommaseo. As a Jew in 1939, however, work opportunities were now limited and he became a schoolteacher in the Jewish School of Ferrara in via Vignatagliata.
In 1940 his first book, Una città di pianura (“A City of the Plain”), was published under the pseudonym Giacomo Marchi in order to evade the race laws. During this period, along with friends he had made in Ferrara’s intellectual circle, he became a clandestine political activist. His activity in the anti-fascist resistance led to his arrest in May 1943; he was released on 26 July, the day after Benito Mussolini was ousted from power.
A little over a week later he married Valeria Sinigallia, whom he had met playing tennis. They moved to Florence for a brief period, living under assumed names, then at the end of the year, to Rome, where he would spend the rest of his life. His first volume of poems, Storie dei poveri amanti e altri versi, appeared in 1944; a second, Te lucis ante, followed in 1947. He edited the literary review Botteghe oscure for Princess Marguerite Caetani from its founding in 1948 until it halted publication in 1960.
In 1953 Passeggiata prima di cena appeared and in 1954 Gli ultimi anni di Clelia Trotti. In the same year he became editor of Paragone, a journal founded by Longhi and his wife Anna Banti. Bassani’s writings reached a wider audience in 1956 with the publication of the Premio Strega-winning book of short stories, Cinque storie Ferraresi.
As an editorial director of Feltrinelli Bassani was responsible for the posthumous publication in 1958 of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's Il Gattopardo, a novel which had been rejected by Elio Vittorini at Mondadori, and also by Einaudi, but which became one of the great successes of post-war Italian literature. Bassani’s enthusiastic editing of the text, following instructions from Elena Croce (daughter of Benedetto) who had offered him the manuscript, later became controversial however; recent editions have been published which follow the manuscript more closely.
Also in 1958 Bassani’s novel Gli occhiali d’oro was published, an examination, in part, of the marginalisation of Jews and homosexuals. Together with stories from Cinque storie ferraresi (reworked and under the new title Dentro le mura (1973)) it was to be form part of a series of works known collectively as Il romanzo di Ferrara which explored the town, with its Christian and Jewish elements, its perspectives and its landscapes. The series also includes: Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini (1962, Premio Viareggio prizewiner); Dietro la porta (1964); L'airone (1968) and L'odore del fieno (1972). These works realistically document the Italian Jewish community under Fascism in a style that manifests the difficulties of searching for truth in the meanderings of memory and moral conscience. In 1960 one of his novels was adapted as the film Long Night in 1943.
Bassani died in 2000, and was buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Ferrara. He was survived by his estranged wife Valeria and their two children.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews
Read
November 29, 2018Even though I know we shouldn't search for autobiographical material in an author's fiction, the unnamed narrators of the Giorgio Bassani novels I've read so far have seemed to me to be stand-ins for the author, corresponding in age and family circumstances (where those are given) to the author's profile. In my imagination, the narrators are all called Giorgio — regardless of what the author may have intended.
The narrator of this book is just as nameless as all the others but Bassani chose to gives us a clue as to what his name might be. It's a wonderfully staged clue and I mentally applauded when I read it. It occurs in a scene where the troubled teenage narrator comes home from school and goes straight upstairs to his room instead of into the garden to greet his mother as usual — even though she has seen him come in. The narrator had previously told us that his mother had trained as an opera singer, as did Bassani's own mother, and now he tells us that on this occasion, from his window overlooking the garden, he could hear her call his name again and again, lingering melodiously on the vowels.
I imagined her looking upwards towards the opera box window of her son's bedroom, singing Gii-or-gi-o, Gi-oor-gi-o, Gii-or-gi-o…
I'm certain that the soundtrack of Bassani's childhood must have included many versions of his mother's voice singing out his name over the years.
………………………………………
While reading (and very much enjoying) Bassani's novels which seem to draw so closely on his own childhood and youth in between-the-wars Ferrara, fixing that time and that place in print forever, I've been finding parallels between his work and Marcel Proust's more famous account of his unnamed narrator's times and places. This book, the fourth in the Ferrara series, offered me a couple of further echoes. During their teenage years, both narrators have friends who come from a different social milieu to themselves, and towards whom they feel a sense of superiority mixed with the kind of pity people feel towards the less fortunate. However, in their case, it's a pity mixed with dislike, dislike of the way their friend expresses himself, and of his accent and mannerisms. But the friends in each case are far more shrewd and worldly-wise than the narrators, and the reader doesn't see them as objects of pity but rather as potential manipulators of their more naive friends' feelings. All of this makes us aware of the great lack of self-knowledge on the part of the two narrators.
The gaining of self-knowledge is an important theme in both books, but particularly in this book by Bassani. At one point in the story, the teenage narrator stations himself behind a door in order to overhear a conversation between his friend and some other boys in his class. The experience is shattering. He hears his own personality and behavior, and his mother's personality and behavior, judged in critical and pitying terms by the friend whom he, in his blindness, believed admired him unreservedly — and respected his mother completely.
There's an episode in Proust too in which the narrator discovers his friend's true opinion of him. However, it is the clandestine nature of the 'behind the door' episode in Bassani that marks the most significant parallel between the two books. Proust's narrator has a tendency towards voyeurism and often places himself in a position where he can overhear other people's conversations or observe their private actions. Sometimes he's on a stairwell, sometimes in a passageway, but on at least one occasion, he's behind a door as in Bassani's book. In one such episode, he gets an unexpected blow to his self-image: he overhears himself being discussed in critical terms by the family housekeeper whom he imagined had placed him on a very high pedestal.
Acquiring self-knowledge is a painful process.
The narrator of this book is just as nameless as all the others but Bassani chose to gives us a clue as to what his name might be. It's a wonderfully staged clue and I mentally applauded when I read it. It occurs in a scene where the troubled teenage narrator comes home from school and goes straight upstairs to his room instead of into the garden to greet his mother as usual — even though she has seen him come in. The narrator had previously told us that his mother had trained as an opera singer, as did Bassani's own mother, and now he tells us that on this occasion, from his window overlooking the garden, he could hear her call his name again and again, lingering melodiously on the vowels.
I imagined her looking upwards towards the opera box window of her son's bedroom, singing Gii-or-gi-o, Gi-oor-gi-o, Gii-or-gi-o…
I'm certain that the soundtrack of Bassani's childhood must have included many versions of his mother's voice singing out his name over the years.
………………………………………
While reading (and very much enjoying) Bassani's novels which seem to draw so closely on his own childhood and youth in between-the-wars Ferrara, fixing that time and that place in print forever, I've been finding parallels between his work and Marcel Proust's more famous account of his unnamed narrator's times and places. This book, the fourth in the Ferrara series, offered me a couple of further echoes. During their teenage years, both narrators have friends who come from a different social milieu to themselves, and towards whom they feel a sense of superiority mixed with the kind of pity people feel towards the less fortunate. However, in their case, it's a pity mixed with dislike, dislike of the way their friend expresses himself, and of his accent and mannerisms. But the friends in each case are far more shrewd and worldly-wise than the narrators, and the reader doesn't see them as objects of pity but rather as potential manipulators of their more naive friends' feelings. All of this makes us aware of the great lack of self-knowledge on the part of the two narrators.
The gaining of self-knowledge is an important theme in both books, but particularly in this book by Bassani. At one point in the story, the teenage narrator stations himself behind a door in order to overhear a conversation between his friend and some other boys in his class. The experience is shattering. He hears his own personality and behavior, and his mother's personality and behavior, judged in critical and pitying terms by the friend whom he, in his blindness, believed admired him unreservedly — and respected his mother completely.
There's an episode in Proust too in which the narrator discovers his friend's true opinion of him. However, it is the clandestine nature of the 'behind the door' episode in Bassani that marks the most significant parallel between the two books. Proust's narrator has a tendency towards voyeurism and often places himself in a position where he can overhear other people's conversations or observe their private actions. Sometimes he's on a stairwell, sometimes in a passageway, but on at least one occasion, he's behind a door as in Bassani's book. In one such episode, he gets an unexpected blow to his self-image: he overhears himself being discussed in critical terms by the family housekeeper whom he imagined had placed him on a very high pedestal.
Acquiring self-knowledge is a painful process.
June 12, 2019
Unlike the circling-around of Within the Walls and The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, Behind the Door (all these titles are perfect indicators of the works' insular nature) is told straightforwardly; yet once again I had a nagging sense of familiarity throughout, as with my first reading of The Garden especially. Here it’s easy to pinpoint the reason: Behind the Door is the story of teenaged classmates, 15-to-16 year old boys, and their shifting loyalties, even though my thoughts kept turning to stories of teenaged girls, and girls are barely mentioned.
Within the overall framework of The Novel of Ferrara, the reader knows these school (mis)alliances stand for more. These boys are already leaders, collaborationists and informers, with the narrator likely remaining (through no fault of his own) the eternal outsider. It’s also the story of mentally separating from parents, keeping secrets from them for the first time, pretending that everything is just fine (which may parallel Ferrara itself).
During the climactic scene behind the door, though it is not the narrator’s idea to place himself there, I was reminded that the narrator of The Garden (certainly the same person in both) chose to be a voyeur several times. Behind the Door is set earlier than The Garden, leading me to wonder if the traumatic event behind the door is what turned the narrator into the observer he is and then into the writer he becomes.
*
I read the novella in this edition: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... .
Within the overall framework of The Novel of Ferrara, the reader knows these school (mis)alliances stand for more. These boys are already leaders, collaborationists and informers, with the narrator likely remaining (through no fault of his own) the eternal outsider. It’s also the story of mentally separating from parents, keeping secrets from them for the first time, pretending that everything is just fine (which may parallel Ferrara itself).
During the climactic scene behind the door, though it is not the narrator’s idea to place himself there, I was reminded that the narrator of The Garden (certainly the same person in both) chose to be a voyeur several times. Behind the Door is set earlier than The Garden, leading me to wonder if the traumatic event behind the door is what turned the narrator into the observer he is and then into the writer he becomes.
*
I read the novella in this edition: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... .
April 10, 2019
I've been unhappy many times in my life, as a child, as a boy, as a man; many times, if I consider it, I've touched what are called the depths of despair. And yet I can recall few periods blacker for me than the months from October 1929 to June 1930, when I had just started liceo [6th form]
After the sublime and complicated unfolding of the Finzi-Continis story, this flip back in time feels deceptively simple - but we should take the narrator at his word: this ominous opening sets the mood for how this story will end even if it is told with some tentative lightness at times.
Ostensibly a tale of teenage boys and their school-based friendships, rivalries and competitions, as the story develops it becomes darker and more psychologically vexed. The advent of a new boy and the consequent realignments of allegiances has been done many times, but Bassani imbues it with a significance that belies the trope.
As the narrator and his compromised friendship with Luciano Pulga gets increasingly unsettling, another story shimmers faintly into focus. 'No one had ever made me feel it mattered that I was Jewish', the narrator says and it's true that the word 'Jew' hardly has a place in the narrative.
But it's there when the boys compare their penises (boys, huh?!) and Luciano inspects the narrator's circumcised organ. And it's there when Luciano compares his house with the narrator's, his father's medical position with the narrator's father who is a non-practising doctor living off his private income. And we can only presume it's there in the climactic 'behind the door scene' when the narrator suffers the first betrayal of his young life.
Slow to understand, nailed by birth to a destiny of exclusion and resentment, it was useless to think I'd ever be able to throw open the door behind which I was yet again hiding. I just couldn't do it - there was no remedy. Not now. Not ever.
It's a rare author who can pack so much thought and emotion into a scant 120 pages - and the ties between the Ferrara novels/novellas/stories starts to pull tighter.
December 25, 2018
Bassani's Ferrara series, in this new translation by Jamie McKendrick, has been an ongoing Penguin project for several years, and the collection has now been completed by the recent publication of The Heron, which I already have on the to-read shelf. This novella is part four of the series, but the fifth of the six to be published in this form (Bassani's ordering seems arbitrary and they are all self-contained).
The best known part, and perhaps Bassani's masterpiece, is The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, and this short story of schoolboy friendships and rivalries has many similar elements, notably the elegiac tone and the gradual revelation of the impact of Fascist anti-Semitic prejudice on young lives in 30s Italy.
The best known part, and perhaps Bassani's masterpiece, is The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, and this short story of schoolboy friendships and rivalries has many similar elements, notably the elegiac tone and the gradual revelation of the impact of Fascist anti-Semitic prejudice on young lives in 30s Italy.
June 30, 2021
4.5, rounded down.
The fourth volume of Bassani's opus, builds from the previous three entries, and continues the saga of life in the town of Ferrara before and during the war years. The focus of this tightly plotted novella is the loss of childhood innocence and betrayal by one's compatriots, foreshadowing what's to come for the unnamed (though surely autobiographical) narrator, and the rest of the town's Jewish inhabitants.
The fourth volume of Bassani's opus, builds from the previous three entries, and continues the saga of life in the town of Ferrara before and during the war years. The focus of this tightly plotted novella is the loss of childhood innocence and betrayal by one's compatriots, foreshadowing what's to come for the unnamed (though surely autobiographical) narrator, and the rest of the town's Jewish inhabitants.
December 31, 2019
2019 yılının daha önce okumadığım bir yazarla kapatmak istedim.
Kapının Ardında'nın Bassani'nin Ferrara Romanları'nın dördüncü romanı olduğunu kitaba başladıktan sonra öğrendim. Olayları kavrama açısından bunun bir sorun yarattığını söyleyemem, bir devam romanı okuyor gibi hissetmedim. Önceki kitaplar arasında nasıl bir bağlantı var merak ediyorum; ilk kitabı da bu sebeple almayı düşünüyorum.
Kapının Ardında ile İtalya'da yaşayan maddi durumu iyi bir Yahudi aileye (Bassani de bir Yahudi ve bu serinin "otobiyografik" özelliklere sahip olduğu söylenmekte) konuk oluyoruz. Bu ailenin liseye giden oğlu ve arkadaşları ile İtalyan toplumunda yaşanan çatışmalara tanık oluyoruz.
Genel olarak keyifle okusam da biraz fazla çabuk bitmiş gibi hissettim. Bassani'nin diğer kitaplarını okumak bu hissi giderebilir belki diye düşünüyorum.
Kapının Ardında'nın Bassani'nin Ferrara Romanları'nın dördüncü romanı olduğunu kitaba başladıktan sonra öğrendim. Olayları kavrama açısından bunun bir sorun yarattığını söyleyemem, bir devam romanı okuyor gibi hissetmedim. Önceki kitaplar arasında nasıl bir bağlantı var merak ediyorum; ilk kitabı da bu sebeple almayı düşünüyorum.
Kapının Ardında ile İtalya'da yaşayan maddi durumu iyi bir Yahudi aileye (Bassani de bir Yahudi ve bu serinin "otobiyografik" özelliklere sahip olduğu söylenmekte) konuk oluyoruz. Bu ailenin liseye giden oğlu ve arkadaşları ile İtalyan toplumunda yaşanan çatışmalara tanık oluyoruz.
Genel olarak keyifle okusam da biraz fazla çabuk bitmiş gibi hissettim. Bassani'nin diğer kitaplarını okumak bu hissi giderebilir belki diye düşünüyorum.
August 1, 2019
Questo breve romanzo di formazione segue i passi di un giovane adolescente nel primo anno del liceo classico. Con brevi tratti Bassani costruisce personaggi vivissimi che attraverso il protagonista trasmettono tutta l'inquietudine, lo smarrimento e anche il senso di solitudine che si prova in quella età critica della crescita. Sono anni che segnano perché i micro-problemi appaiono giganteschi agli occhi dei ragazzi e l'adolescenza può trasformarsi in un periodo nero. Dietro la porta diviene il posto del non detto, la tana in cui ci si nasconde per sfuggire a verità che ci spaventano e che non troviamo la forza di affrontare. Quel dolore che inglobiamo dentro di noi, che non lasciamo trapelare diventa un macigno sul cuore; e che a distanza di anni continua a pesare. In uno stile molto più asciutto che nei precedenti suoi libri, Bassani scrive un racconto intriso di solitudine e, infine, molto malinconico, amaro. Si conferma uno dei miei scrittori italiani preferiti.
September 13, 2019
The author quotes from Dante: 'The exile imposed on me I hold as an honor.' Then, the writer/narrator himself (if this isn't a flat-out autobiography, then it is much like Proust/auto-fiction) at about age 15/16 thinks about the Dante quote, "That could have been my banner and motto." But it does indeed become his motto as friendships collapse among betrayals. I'm reading the novels of Ferrara in a single volume, and this 4th story feels very honest and painful. Bassani writes so beautifully.
December 31, 2024
«Nuestra generación ha sido maltratada como pocas. La guerra y todo lo demás acabó truncando los sueños y la vocación de muchos de nosotros tan decididos como Carlo Cattolica. Sin embargo, algo me dice que está vivo, que es cirujano como soñaba y que, aunque se marchó de Ferrara siendo todavía adolescente, también terminó casándose con su Graziella».
La mejor forma de terminar el año, con una novela que te engancha desde la primera página hasta la última. Volveré a Bassani muchas veces más, estoy segura.
La mejor forma de terminar el año, con una novela que te engancha desde la primera página hasta la última. Volveré a Bassani muchas veces más, estoy segura.
February 10, 2015
Bassani, che meraviglia sei!
December 28, 2022
Kapının Ardında, liseye giden Yahudi olan genç bir çocuğun okuldaki yakın olan, ya da öyle olduğunu düşündüğü 2 arkadaşı ve arasında geçenleri anlatıyor. Biri, Luciano, okula yeni gelen tuhaf ama.cana yakın bir çocuktur. Diğeri ise Cattolica, sınıfın caliskani ve kahramanımızın sıra arkadaşı.
Aralarında geçen, lise arkadaşlığı ya da yetişkinliğe atılan ilk adımda yasanilanlari konu ediniyor eser kısaca.
📍
Yazardan okuduğum ilk eser, dili akıcı olsa da ben ana karaktere ısınamadığım için ve olaylar fazla yüzeysel ve gecistirici olduğu için üstüne üstlük yetişkinliğe atilan bu adımda bas karakterin aşırı pasif olması gibi sebeplerden eseri sevemedim.
Arka kapakta insan ruhu üzerine benzersiz bir roman yazsa da ben psikolojik kısmını hatta karakterlerin bize yansıtılan ruhsal kısmını ve iç sesleri yetersiz buldum. O yüzden pek sevemedim. Umarım siz seversiniz, şans verenlere şimdiden keyifli okumalar ♥️
Aralarında geçen, lise arkadaşlığı ya da yetişkinliğe atılan ilk adımda yasanilanlari konu ediniyor eser kısaca.
📍
Yazardan okuduğum ilk eser, dili akıcı olsa da ben ana karaktere ısınamadığım için ve olaylar fazla yüzeysel ve gecistirici olduğu için üstüne üstlük yetişkinliğe atilan bu adımda bas karakterin aşırı pasif olması gibi sebeplerden eseri sevemedim.
Arka kapakta insan ruhu üzerine benzersiz bir roman yazsa da ben psikolojik kısmını hatta karakterlerin bize yansıtılan ruhsal kısmını ve iç sesleri yetersiz buldum. O yüzden pek sevemedim. Umarım siz seversiniz, şans verenlere şimdiden keyifli okumalar ♥️
March 28, 2018
In questo quarto libro de "Il Romanzo di Ferrara", Bassani rivive un anno della sua adolescenza, quello della prima liceo, mettendo al centro i rapporti problematici con i compagni, complicati dalle diversità di carattere e di estrazione socio-culturale. Bassani confessa soprattutto le difficoltà proprie, legate non solo e non tanto al periodo: perché come in quell'anno scolastico gli capitò, nascosto dietro la porta, di sentire un compagno che sparlava di lui e di non saper reagire, così gli accadrà anche in seguito, nella vita adulta, incapace sempre - a suo dire - di spalancarla, quella porta, e di "accettare il confronto della verità". Un Bassani alquanto severo, dunque, forse troppo, con se stesso... ma con un livello di scrittura, in ogni caso, sempre molto alto.
March 9, 2022
Una storia breve e simpatica, che ho letto tutto d'un fiato e di vero gusto, praticamente ex novo, perché dalla prima lettura mi era rimasto solo il nome di Luciano Pulga.
Ho trovato la narrazione in prima persona particolarmente vincente, perché lo stile acquisisce un brio diverso e perché così l'autore può distaccarsi dal personaggio, rendendolo anche divertente e molto ben caratterizzato come sedicenne che si sente un po' uomo e un po' bambino.
Nonostante gli anni passati il racconto è fresco e piacevole e ci si immedesima subito nei piccoli problemi da giovane adolescente.
Sì, avrei preferito un finale liberatorio, ma anche così gli do 5* piene.
Ho trovato la narrazione in prima persona particolarmente vincente, perché lo stile acquisisce un brio diverso e perché così l'autore può distaccarsi dal personaggio, rendendolo anche divertente e molto ben caratterizzato come sedicenne che si sente un po' uomo e un po' bambino.
Nonostante gli anni passati il racconto è fresco e piacevole e ci si immedesima subito nei piccoli problemi da giovane adolescente.
Sì, avrei preferito un finale liberatorio, ma anche così gli do 5* piene.
October 12, 2025
ağırkanlı ama okunuyor, çok şey beklememek lazım...
September 8, 2020
Detrás de la puerta es la cuarta entrega de La Novela de Ferrara de Giorgio Bassani, un adolescente de clase media y raza judía, una vez terminados sus estudios primarios cambia de centro escolar, pierde por un traslado familiar a su mejor amigo y tiene que iniciar una nueva vida escolar, nuevos profesores, nuevos compañeros, el entorno no le es propicio, se encuentra fuera de lugar ya que muchos de sus nuevos compañeros ya provienen de una Ferrara cerrada, clasista, católica y familias tradicionales.
Leyendo entre líneas ya se agazapa el problema de fascismo y el encono hacia los judíos, rechazo, mentiras, enfrentamientos que duraran en el protagonista hasta la edad adulta, el ser quien es y el intentar ser uno mas entre los demás, los problemas propios de la adolescencia en busca de su identidad y todo ello representado por los compañeros que van influyendo en su carácter y dejando un poso de dolor, tristeza e incluso añoranza.
Como las anteriores entregas de la obra, me ha parecido magnífica, una forma de transmitir los sentimientos con un lenguaje delicado, una prosa deliciosa que transmite mucho más de lo que dice. Un mundo desaparecido, irrecuperable y una Ferrara que sin conocerla nos lleva de la mano a los distintos barrios y sus habitantes de una forma impecable.
Leyendo entre líneas ya se agazapa el problema de fascismo y el encono hacia los judíos, rechazo, mentiras, enfrentamientos que duraran en el protagonista hasta la edad adulta, el ser quien es y el intentar ser uno mas entre los demás, los problemas propios de la adolescencia en busca de su identidad y todo ello representado por los compañeros que van influyendo en su carácter y dejando un poso de dolor, tristeza e incluso añoranza.
Como las anteriores entregas de la obra, me ha parecido magnífica, una forma de transmitir los sentimientos con un lenguaje delicado, una prosa deliciosa que transmite mucho más de lo que dice. Un mundo desaparecido, irrecuperable y una Ferrara que sin conocerla nos lleva de la mano a los distintos barrios y sus habitantes de una forma impecable.
February 4, 2014
A beautifully written novella with an excellent translation by William Weaver. Bassani is known for the novel, The Garden of Finzi-Contini which was made into a well-regarded movie. This portrait of the private school (in the American sense) was fascinating. Those boys took their studies seriously. The story of a betrayal between 3 boys, told in the first person, takes place between 1929 and 1930; anti-Semitism in Italy was already evident. A shout out to New York Review of Books -- this would be a great book to be re-discovered.
June 18, 2018
Corruption is a strange thing, one associates with politicians and gangsters; Bassani shows that it is a fact of life even in schools. Pupils can be corrupted by their friends into many small acts of betrayal.
One assumes the narrators motives were selfless, that he just wanted a friend, to study with to share ideas with, etc. all the functions a good friend can perform. The betrayal in this case is made particularly bitter because of this.
One assumes the narrators motives were selfless, that he just wanted a friend, to study with to share ideas with, etc. all the functions a good friend can perform. The betrayal in this case is made particularly bitter because of this.
December 24, 2018
What an amazing book! Giorgio Bassani writes so well.The characters in this book are truly unforgettable.
Read
May 31, 2018A really interesting and captivating portrayal of adolescence and the betrayals, embarassments and excruciating angst of Teenage years.
I felt the underlying feelings of exclusion and feelings of internalised self reproach and longing to be accepted. Bassani writes in an often acerbic tone, and his caricatures and depiction of some of the protagonists classmates are particularly funny, as they are merciless.
I particularly related to the novels setting; I lived and worked in Italy as a Teacher in classes with adolescents that age. So on a personal level, it took me back with a role reversal! But, not least, because i happened to live in Ferrara for over a year and i was almost there, transported back, walking along the walls, brustling to life on viale Cavour, or cycling along the shadier back streets.
I felt a sense of longing and a power in what was hinted and left unsaid, more than in what is actually spoken.
All in all, a good, captivating read.
I felt the underlying feelings of exclusion and feelings of internalised self reproach and longing to be accepted. Bassani writes in an often acerbic tone, and his caricatures and depiction of some of the protagonists classmates are particularly funny, as they are merciless.
I particularly related to the novels setting; I lived and worked in Italy as a Teacher in classes with adolescents that age. So on a personal level, it took me back with a role reversal! But, not least, because i happened to live in Ferrara for over a year and i was almost there, transported back, walking along the walls, brustling to life on viale Cavour, or cycling along the shadier back streets.
I felt a sense of longing and a power in what was hinted and left unsaid, more than in what is actually spoken.
All in all, a good, captivating read.
June 21, 2018
Bassani is a Master
I didn't read this William Weaver version (I couldn't find it, and was disappointed, because William Weaver is a great translator) but read the new Penguin edition, in which Jamie Mckendrick is re-translating them all -- very capably, I might add. I've recently been reading ALL the Ferrara cycle, and they are truly amazing. By focusing on a single Italian city, and the emotions and recollections of its residents, Bassani manages to tell the story of a good chunk of the 20th century, and its sad history of intolerance. I think other works by Bassani (particularly The Golden Spectacles, and a few of his short stories) are his greatest works, but this is masterful, compelling and enigmatic. It has a kind of Proustian style, and a delicacy of perception that readers of Bassani know and love, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's obviously the work of a master, even if it may not be his single greatest work.
I didn't read this William Weaver version (I couldn't find it, and was disappointed, because William Weaver is a great translator) but read the new Penguin edition, in which Jamie Mckendrick is re-translating them all -- very capably, I might add. I've recently been reading ALL the Ferrara cycle, and they are truly amazing. By focusing on a single Italian city, and the emotions and recollections of its residents, Bassani manages to tell the story of a good chunk of the 20th century, and its sad history of intolerance. I think other works by Bassani (particularly The Golden Spectacles, and a few of his short stories) are his greatest works, but this is masterful, compelling and enigmatic. It has a kind of Proustian style, and a delicacy of perception that readers of Bassani know and love, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's obviously the work of a master, even if it may not be his single greatest work.
September 13, 2019
Al weer het derde boek (een novelle eigenlijk) dat ik van Giorgio Bassani lees. Onderdeel van de zogenaamde Ferrara reeks. Ferrara de plaats waar Bassani opgroeide. Alle boeken kunnen los van elkaar worden gelezen. Aardig detail: ook nu weer komt dokter Fadigati, de man uit De gouden bril, even om de hoek kijken.
Opnieuw onder de indruk van de sfeer die Bassani weet te creëren. En allemaal uiterst subtiel uitgeserveerd. Het anders zijn is ook nu weer het thema. We maken de overgang mee van de 17-jarige hoofdpersoon/verteller naar een volgende klas op het lyceum. Zijn beste vriend Otello Forti heeft de school en Ferrara verlaten. Een nieuwe jongen van buiten Ferrara doet zijn entree.
Over de subtiele lijn tussen vriendschap, jaloezie en verraad. Het verhaal speelt zich eind jaren ’20 af. Een aantal knappe scenes, met name de sleutelscène die zich letterlijk achter de deur afspeelt. Bravo!
Opnieuw onder de indruk van de sfeer die Bassani weet te creëren. En allemaal uiterst subtiel uitgeserveerd. Het anders zijn is ook nu weer het thema. We maken de overgang mee van de 17-jarige hoofdpersoon/verteller naar een volgende klas op het lyceum. Zijn beste vriend Otello Forti heeft de school en Ferrara verlaten. Een nieuwe jongen van buiten Ferrara doet zijn entree.
Over de subtiele lijn tussen vriendschap, jaloezie en verraad. Het verhaal speelt zich eind jaren ’20 af. Een aantal knappe scenes, met name de sleutelscène die zich letterlijk achter de deur afspeelt. Bravo!
February 20, 2022
"Sono stato molte volte infelice, nella mia vita, da bambino, da ragazzo, da giovane, da uomo fatto; molte volte, se ci ripenso, ho toccato quel che si dice il fondo della disperazione. Ricordo tuttavia pochi periodi più neri, per me, dei mesi di scuola fra l’ottobre del 1929 e il giugno del ’30, quando facevo la prima liceo. Gli anni trascorsi da allora non sono in fondo serviti a niente: non sono riusciti a medicare un dolore che è rimasto là come una ferita segreta, sanguinante in segreto. Guarirne? Liberarmene? Non so se sarà mai possibile."
"Duro a capire, inchiodato per nascita a un destino di separazione e di livore, la porta dietro la quale ancora una volta mi nascondevo inutile che pensassi di spalancarla. Non ci sarei riuscito, niente da fare. Né adesso, né mai."
"Duro a capire, inchiodato per nascita a un destino di separazione e di livore, la porta dietro la quale ancora una volta mi nascondevo inutile che pensassi di spalancarla. Non ci sarei riuscito, niente da fare. Né adesso, né mai."
December 31, 2018
"La guerra y todo lo demás acabó truncando los sueños y la vocación de muchos de nosotros tan decididos como Carlo Cattolica. Sin embargo, algo me dice que está vivo, que es cirujano como soñaba y que, aunque se marchó de Ferrara siendo todavía adolescente, también terminó casándose con su Graziella. ¿Acabaremos encontrándonos algún día? Quién sabe, todo es posible."
February 13, 2014
A stirring novella, set in the early 1930's in Italy reminds me a bit of Philip Roth's writing, with its observations, emerging adolescence, and masked betrayls. Actually, the things that weren't said spoke louder than the things that were.
January 15, 2012
Outstanding fictional account of a Jewish Italian boy's friendships as he matures.
January 7, 2024
In our contemporary time, Behind the door (Dietro la porta) could easily be called young adult for editorial reasons, as it concerns the period in the life of Bassani's self-narrator just after starting high school. But, of course, it goes way beyond the simple attempt of classifying works of literature for the public it intends to reach. This is quite an interesting piece of literature.
Teenagehood is a troubled time. When Bassani's self-narrator enters the first day of high school, he has to face the changes brought by the new phase in life. The two classes that existed in elementary school merge into a single one and his best friend and schoolmate, Otello Forti, moves to another city to attend a different school. It is time to forge new bonds or to avoid them at all. At first, old schoolmates tend to come together, thus leaving the narrator with a single option: a double desk at the back of the class, where there was no one else to share it with him. That is until Luciano Pulga appears. A small strange (and somewhat repulsive) teen that has just arrived in Ferrara with his family, coming from Bologna. There is not much to do than to accept to share the desk with the new boy. Slowly, though with lots of self-questioning, the narrator starts accepting Luciano into his life, even inviting the boy to study at his home, something that pleases his mother well, once up to then, he would always go study at Otello's house.
As in the case of Gli occhiali d'oro and Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini, this is not only a story about teenagehood but the whole process of psychological and moral growth (Bildungsroman) than can be both satisfying but also painful, for it usually leaves its scars in our souls, some being able to overcome them, some not being able to do so.
It is also a book that somehow reflects what happened with the spread of fascist ideals all over Italian society between the First and the Second World Wars. It could seem the great solution at first, even for those who suffered its later consequences, but as in any State where fascism becomes the norm, we know it slowly tears society apart.
Teenagehood is a troubled time. When Bassani's self-narrator enters the first day of high school, he has to face the changes brought by the new phase in life. The two classes that existed in elementary school merge into a single one and his best friend and schoolmate, Otello Forti, moves to another city to attend a different school. It is time to forge new bonds or to avoid them at all. At first, old schoolmates tend to come together, thus leaving the narrator with a single option: a double desk at the back of the class, where there was no one else to share it with him. That is until Luciano Pulga appears. A small strange (and somewhat repulsive) teen that has just arrived in Ferrara with his family, coming from Bologna. There is not much to do than to accept to share the desk with the new boy. Slowly, though with lots of self-questioning, the narrator starts accepting Luciano into his life, even inviting the boy to study at his home, something that pleases his mother well, once up to then, he would always go study at Otello's house.
As in the case of Gli occhiali d'oro and Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini, this is not only a story about teenagehood but the whole process of psychological and moral growth (Bildungsroman) than can be both satisfying but also painful, for it usually leaves its scars in our souls, some being able to overcome them, some not being able to do so.
It is also a book that somehow reflects what happened with the spread of fascist ideals all over Italian society between the First and the Second World Wars. It could seem the great solution at first, even for those who suffered its later consequences, but as in any State where fascism becomes the norm, we know it slowly tears society apart.
May 12, 2021
4.5
so beautiful!
the allusions to classical literature were just so beautiful too.
so beautiful!
the allusions to classical literature were just so beautiful too.
May 14, 2024
Giorgio Bassani sei stato un grandissimo signore
August 5, 2020
Erg mooi en fijn geschreven zoals al zijn boeken.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews