Italo Calvino

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Italo Calvino


Born
in Santiago de Las Vegas, Cuba
October 15, 1923

Died
September 19, 1985

Genre

Influences


Italo Calvino was born in Cuba and grew up in Italy. He was a journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy (1952-1959), the Cosmicomics collection of short stories (1965), and the novels Invisible Cities (1972) and If On a Winter's Night a Traveler (1979).

His style is not easy to classify; much of his writing has an air reminiscent to that of fantastical fairy tales (Our Ancestors, Cosmicomics), although sometimes his writing is more "realistic" and in the scenic mode of observation (Difficult Loves, for example). Some of his writing has been called postmodern, reflecting on literature and the act of reading, while some has been labeled magical realist, others fables, others simpl
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Average rating: 3.96 · 512,350 ratings · 43,009 reviews · 569 distinct worksSimilar authors
If on a Winter's Night a Tr...

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4.01 avg rating — 115,207 ratings — published 1979 — 43 editions
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Invisible Cities

4.09 avg rating — 100,229 ratings — published 1972 — 3 editions
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The Baron in the Trees

by
4.02 avg rating — 54,882 ratings — published 1957 — 43 editions
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Il visconte dimezzato

3.82 avg rating — 33,097 ratings — published 1952 — 35 editions
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Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno

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3.78 avg rating — 26,826 ratings — published 1947 — 33 editions
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Il cavaliere inesistente

3.82 avg rating — 26,488 ratings — published 1959 — 30 editions
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Cosmicomics

4.14 avg rating — 21,421 ratings — published 1965 — 152 editions
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Marcovaldo

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3.83 avg rating — 17,428 ratings — published 1963 — 203 editions
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Difficult Loves

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3.90 avg rating — 12,500 ratings — published 1958 — 98 editions
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Six Memos for the Next Mill...

4.17 avg rating — 10,986 ratings — published 1988 — 113 editions
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More books by Italo Calvino…
Il visconte dimezzato The Baron in the Trees Il cavaliere inesistente
(3 books)
by
3.93 avg rating — 118,743 ratings

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Quotes by Italo Calvino  (?)
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“A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.”
Italo Calvino, The Uses of Literature

“Sections in the bookstore

- Books You Haven't Read
- Books You Needn't Read
- Books Made for Purposes Other Than Reading
- Books Read Even Before You Open Them Since They Belong to the Category of Books Read Before Being Written
- Books That If You Had More Than One Life You Would Certainly Also Read But Unfortunately Your Days Are Numbered
- Books You Mean to Read But There Are Others You Must Read First
- Books Too Expensive Now and You'll Wait 'Til They're Remaindered
- Books ditto When They Come Out in Paperback
- Books You Can Borrow from Somebody
- Books That Everybody's Read So It's As If You Had Read Them, Too
- Books You've Been Planning to Read for Ages
- Books You've Been Hunting for Years Without Success
- Books Dealing with Something You're Working on at the Moment
- Books You Want to Own So They'll Be Handy Just in Case
- Books You Could Put Aside Maybe to Read This Summer
- Books You Need to Go with Other Books on Your Shelves
- Books That Fill You with Sudden, Inexplicable Curiosity, Not Easily Justified
- Books Read Long Ago Which It's Now Time to Re-read
- Books You've Always Pretended to Have Read and Now It's Time to Sit Down and Really Read Them”
Italo Calvino, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

“Melancholy is sadness that has taken on lightness.”
Italo Calvino

Polls

February 2018 New School Poll

 
  58 votes, 17.1%

The Castle by Franz Kafka, 316 pages, 1926
 
  50 votes, 14.7%

 
  44 votes, 13.0%

 
  35 votes, 10.3%

Peyton Place by Grace Metalious, 384 pages, 1956
 
  20 votes, 5.9%

The Wreath (book one of Kristin Lavransdatter) by Sigrid Undset, 305 pages, 1920
 
  18 votes, 5.3%

Chess Story by Stefan Zweig, 104 pages, 1941
 
  16 votes, 4.7%

 
  16 votes, 4.7%

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, 127 pages, 1923
 
  15 votes, 4.4%

Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder, 405 pages, 1991
 
  15 votes, 4.4%

Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor, 256 pages, 1952
 
  14 votes, 4.1%

The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather, 417 pages, 1915
 
  11 votes, 3.2%

The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher, 530 pages, 1987
 
  10 votes, 2.9%

Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler, 216 pages, 1940
 
  8 votes, 2.4%

 
  8 votes, 2.4%

Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Miller, 357 pages, 1933
 
  1 vote, 0.3%

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