If on a Winters Night a Traveler / Invisible Cities / The Baron in the Trees

by Italo Calvino

3 TRADE SIZE BOOKS, IN A BOXED SET

Genres: Fiction, Italian Literature, Novels

Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

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 simply "modern". He wrote: "My working method has more often than not involved the subtraction of weight. I have tried to remove weight, sometimes from people, sometimes from heavenly bodies, sometimes from cities; above all I have tried to remove weight from the structure of stories and from language."

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

When people ask me what's my favorite book - well, this is it! Don't expect a linear structure. Be ready for a story within a story, within a story. Be prepared to watch that fourth wall crumble. And if you're an avid reader, be prepared to giggle as you recognize yourself in the novel. I understand the structure of the novel may be too esoteric for some, but it's not unapproachable by any means. If you don't mind experimenting a little bit, give it a try. It's short and you may just enjoy it.

[Janet · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is a story within a story within a story and very hard going and difficult to understand. Apparently the chapter before explains the way the chapter after it is to be read. I imagine you have to be a literature professor to really appreciate it. If you understood it, please explain it to me.

[Hoang Minh Luong · Rating 3 out of 5]

“I have had the idea of writing a novel composed only of beginnings of novels. The protagonist could be a Reader who is continually interrupted. The Reader buys the new novel A by the author Z. But it is a defective copy, he can’t go beyond the beginning … He returns to the bookshop to have the volume exchanged …”

---

2.5/5


Even though there’re remarks of an excellent writer here and there, the main idea is too crazy to comprehend.
The whole reading experience feels like the author is playing with his readers in such an unfair way, that makes it quite uncomfortable sometimes.

However, must say that I’m still very much in love with his witty and sensational writing. Will try another book from him later for sure.

“It is the hour when the little provincial city crawls into its shell again. At the station bar the only ppl left are locals who all know one another, ppl who have no connection with the station but come this far through the dark square perhaps because there is no other place open in the neighbourhood, or perhaps because of the attraction that stations still exercise in provincial cities, that bit of novelty that can be expected from stations, or perhaps only in recollection of the time when a station was the single point of contact with the rest of the world.
It's all very well for me to tell myself there are no provincial cities any more and perhaps there never were any: all places communicate instantly with all other places, a sense of isolation is felt only during the trip between one place and the other, that is, when you are in no place”.

[James Violand · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Baron in the Trees (1957)
A spoiled noble in a childish snit, takes to the trees and remains there for life. How he lives and his adventures and loves are chronicled. Too many inconsistencies to make it recommended.
Invisible Cities (1972)
Kublai Khan listens to Marco Polo describe thirty plus cities he has visited in his travels. The imagery is like a description of an opium dream. Hardly entertaining because there seems to be neither a conflict nor a plot. Don’t waste your time.
If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler (1979)
Various novels end abruptly infuriating the protagonist – a reader – who tries to discover and read the rest of the truncated work, only to find he has been misdirected into another work which similarly ends midstream. Don’t bother.

[Lee Sorensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anything by Calvino is excellent. This book is a series of "first chapters" to books never written by ficticious authors. For readers and writers, lots of inside asides. My edition is only the first one, 'If on a Winter's Night . . . ' so my comments are only about that. The Library of America edition I have is not the tiny-type, fragile paper stock and cheap binding. The 1993 edition is a solid vademecum easy to carry and enjoy.

[lea lae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Give this guy some adderall

It’s a ride tho I rly liked it

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I might have enjoyed this more if I had been more focused - the plot is confusing, to say the least. With a books within books, plots within plots, blending and shifting between "reality" and the "fictional" world's within the novel... Sit down and read this all in one go if you're going to try it! The language is beautiful and the characters are charming.

[Joseph Spinale · Rating 3 out of 5]

This a lesson on how to read a novel wrapped around several loosely connected stories that never end.

The author says. "... like elemental particles making up the work's nucleus around which all the rest revolves." He's right.

[Isa McLaren · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was too esoteric for me. I couldn't parse it well enough to get into it.

[Teri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inventive. Mesmerizing.