Racconti fantastici

by Iginio Ugo Tarchetti

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Genres: Short Stories, Horror, Fiction, Gothic, Fantasy, Italian Literature, Italy

88 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1869

About the author

Iginio Ugo Tarchetti was an Italian author, poet, and journalist.

Born in San Salvatore Monferrato, his military career was cut short by ill health, and in 1865 he settled in Milan. Here he entered literary study, becoming part of the Scapigliatura, a literary movement animated by a spirit of rebellion against traditional culture. He worked on several newspapers and published short stories, novels, and poems. He contracted tuberculosis and died in poverty at the age of 29. [wikipedia]

Reviews

[Savasandir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Racconti sublimemente ottocenteschi, fra l'onirico, la fiaba e il weird; ci sono castelli incantati, fantasmi senza menischi, scriteriati che nutrono un odio mortale contro determinate lettere dell'alfabeto e persino persone che cambiano sesso mangiando un lampone.

[Ends of the Word · Rating 4 out of 5]

Iginio (or Igino) Ugo Tarchetti (1839 – 1869) was a journalist and author, a leading figure within the Scapigliatura movement. The Scapigliatura consisted of a like-minded group of Italian authors, musicians, painters and sculptors who, in the wake of the Risorgimento, sought to revitalise their country’s predominantly conservative culture. The literal meaning of “Scapigliato” is “dishevelled”, whereas “Scapigliatura” is equivalent to the French term “bohème” (bohemian). It was derived from the title of the novel La Scapigliatura e il 6 Febbraio by Cletto Arrighi, the pen-name of Carlo Righetti (1830-1906), one of the forerunners of the movement. The Scapigliati often sought to shock the Catholic establishment (whose authority had already been questioned, on the political front, by the ongoing upheavals in the newly-formed Italian state). To achieve their aims, they sought models outside the Italian tradition. While the musicians within the group (such as Arrigo Boito and Franco Faccio) looked towards Wagner, authors such as Tarchetti were influenced by the German Romantics (such as Heine and E.T.A. Hoffmann), the French Bohemians (such as Gautier) and the poetry of Charles Baudelaire. Another source of inspiration was Edgar Allan Poe.

The literature of the fantastic has illustrious antecedents in Italian literature. Indeed, Dante’s Divine Comedy, with its tour of Heaven, Purgatory and Hell, can be read as a work of supernatural – and in some aspects Gothic – fiction, and Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, with its sorcerers and fantastic creatures in an imagined East, is a worthy forerunner of Oriental Gothic. Yet, the resurgence of the literature of the weird and the fantastic in Italy owes much to the Scapigliati and their interest in works of figures such as Hoffmann and Poe.

In this regard, Tarchetti’s Racconti Fantastici, first published by Treves in 1869, is an important, not to say seminal, collection. Lawrence Venuti’s translation was first published by Mercury House in 1992, and is now being issued on Archipelago Books. Reading this collection, one detects two distinct currents in Tarchetti’s style. Some stories harken back to an earlier form of Gothic. This is the case, for instance, with The Legends of the Black Castle with its well-worn tropes of ruined castles and old clerics with mysterious histories. A Spirit in a Raspberry and A Dead Man’s Bone are, essentially, ghost stories where, once again, the Anglo-Saxon tradition of supernatural fiction is evident. The Lake of the Three Lampreys, “A Popular Tradition”, reminded me of the folklore-infused stories of Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, but its “nature writing” and inevitably sinful monks are also close to Radcliffe. Nowhere is the influence of English Gothic more obvious than in The Elixir of Immortality. Tarchetti subtitles it “In Imitation of the English”. It is, in effect, a plagiarised version of Mary Shelley’s “The Mortal Immortal”.

The theme of “Fate” recurs in Tarchetti’s stories. Often, the protagonists battle against the vicissitudes of Fortune, with scant results. Fate can set some individuals on the course of tragedy (as in The Fated) but, in other cases, has a decidedly benevolent influence (Captain Gubart’s Fortune).

In other works, Tarchetti is particularly reminiscent of Poe. In Bouvard, the eponymous protagonist is haunted by his own ugliness, which keeps him from winning the love of his life. The conclusion of the story brims with morbid horror. Then there is what is possibly the most original story in the collection – The Letter U (A Madman’s Manuscript). When I started reading this tale about a man obsessed with the “evil” letter U, I smiled at this absurd, quasi-comic premise. By the end of it, I definitely felt uneasy.

Lawrence Venuti’s translation is excellent. The authenticity of the language he uses does not stem only from its faithfulness to the original but also from the fact that Venuti bases his style on that of the (English-speaking) Gothic authors of the nineteenth century. As a result, his prose, albeit flowing, has a slightly archaic feel to it which fits the subject perfectly.

Fantastic Tales is an enjoyable read, but it is also a window onto an as yet underappreciated era of Italian fiction.

Head to https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/20... for an illustrated review with a playlist of Italian opera.

[FranzD · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tarchetti non delude mai, nonostante in questa raccolta un paio di racconti siano più debolini rispetto agli altri, ho comunque trovato il consueto quid che contraddistingue questo autore e lo fa arrivare sul podio, tra i miei scrittori preferiti. Moltissimi sono i passaggi su cui si potrebbe discutere per lungo tempo e per tale ragione ogni scritto reca in sè molteplici interpretazioni.
Consiglio comunque di partire partire da “Fosca” per apprezzare meglio tutta la “poetica” dell’autore, e in seguito passare ai suoi racconti.

Come dico sempre Tarchetti è un autore da riscoprire, assolutamente!

[Ευθυμία Δεσποτάκη · Rating 3 out of 5]

Απάτη! Το αντίτυπό μου είναι ελαττωματικό, του λείπουν 2 σελίδες. Ωστόσο νόημα βγαίνει.

Εκτός από τους Αμερικάνους, τους Άγγλους και τους Γερμανούς είιχαν κι οι Ιταλοί γοτθική λογοτεχνία! Σοκ;

Ο Ταρκέτι, επιρρεασμένος από τον Πόε, αλλά δίχως να αγγίζει τη μαεστρία εκείνου, καταφέρνει να γράψει ενδιαφέρουσες ιστορίες... και να τις πνίξει σε μια θάλασσα από φλυαρία. Ξεπερνάει το σύνηθες μπλα-μπλα της εποχής του κάποιες φορές (εκτός του αριστουργηματικού "Το γράμμα U", που ροκάρει άγρια με κιθάρα την τρέλα και λέει τόσα όσα πρέπει). Η απλή και συνιθισμένη ιδέα του "πνεύματος στη βατομουριά", που σποϊλάρει το τέλος από τον τίτλο, δίνεται τόσο γοητευτικά, που δεν ένιωσα στιγμή την ανάγκη να πηδήξω ηγραμμή (όπως συχνά μου συμβαίνει σε κάτι τέτοια κείμενα με οφθαλμοφανή λύση).

Για το μέγεθός του και το είδος του, πολύ ενδιαφέρον ανάγνωσμα.

[♑︎♑︎♑︎ ♑︎♑︎♑︎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story collection is such a delightful read. First published in 1869, Tarchetti's "Fantastic Tales" fits comfortably in my head in a region close to E.T.A. Hoffman and Edgar Allen Poe, but these tales have a gentle underlying humor to them that make them unique. They're such a surprising pleasure to read. I mean, yes, Poe can be funny, too, in his excesses, but I don't ever get the feeling that he was trying to be funny on purpose. Tarchetti's stories are traversing the same fictional landscape of the weird and the uncanny, but the narrator here is full of self-awareness. He is in on the joke.

I love the way the translation from the original Italian captures the era and the cadence of the language. I kept feeling delight with each sentence. Here is an excerpt from "Captain Gubart's Fortune"--I can't help but feel joy to read sentences like this--

"Poor Gubart! He was born a lazy beggar, took a wife when he reached sixteen, and had three sons. One night, there was nothing for supper in Gubart's house, and these fasts were not growing any less frequent. His wife thrust his violin into his hands and said to him, "Gubart, go and play, please, try to scrape together some change for these children. And may God give you good fortune." Gubart reluctantly took his violin and looked at it rudely. Between player and instrument there existed a kind of coldness, a long-standing grudge. Gubart considered the violin an enemy: no matter how many times he ventured out with it, everyone avoided him, and that never happened to him when he was alone."

I loved reading these tales. It felt like finding a forgotten trove of stories from the past. Thanks to Archipelago for the electronic review copy.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing collection of gothic tales from the nineteenth century Italian Scapigliatura movement.

Tarchetti's stories of weirdness and obsession are frequently metaphysical, sometimes humorous, He builds atmosphere superbly, yet appears to lose interest at each story's culmination, with endings such as 'and that was the last I saw of him'. Translated by Lawrence Venuti, the stories retain their gothic creepiness, while being accessible to a modern audience. Standouts for me are The Elixir of Immortality, The Lake of the Three Lampreys, and The Letter U.

Best read by dipping into now and then: taken all at once, the stories tend to blur into each other.

My thanks to NetGalley and Hanover Publisher Services for the ARC.

[Roberta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stava andando tutto molto bene, tra jettatori, lamponi-gender e fantasmi senza ginocchia, poi si arriva all'appedice dove il simpatico Igino vuole educarci con qualche aforisma serio come "la donna è un capolavoro abortito, il grande errore della creazione", e girano le balle.
Godetevi i racconti, tutti in prima persona. Mi è piaciuto particolarmente quello contro la lettera U.

[fdifrantumaglia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leggere i 'Racconti fantastici' di Igino Ugo Tarchetti vi permetterà di fare un viaggio a decisamente tinte fosche e pieno di mistero, un viaggio a ritroso nel tempo e nelle paure degli uomini, ma non così tanto lontane da quelle che viviamo adesso. Una lettura perfetta sì, per il periodo di vacanza, in cui si ha più tempo magari per dedicarsi a un tipo di scrittura più ricercata e quindi che ha bisogno di tutta la nostra concentrazione, ma anche per questi primi giorni autunnali in cui il binomio libro dalle atmosfere horror e plaid sul divano di casa va sempre bene.
Leggi la recensione completa qui: http://illunedideilibri.it/racconti-f...

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this collection of stories from my Archipelago subscription. The stories were first published in 1869 and the author is considered to be the first Italian author to experiment with the Gothic style. He has been compared to Edgar Allan Poe and was an inspiration for Italo Calvino.

These nine tales are sometimes comical, sometimes grotesque. Tarchetti's long and winding sentences caused me to have to read aloud and pay attention! Romantic excess, nightmares, evil and spiritual shenanigans all feature in bizarre scenarios.

I was not completely taken by the collection but it did make me want to read Edgar Allan Poe someday. Maybe even try Italo Calvino.

[Il lettore sul trespolo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Letta tutta fra le varie antologie (in particolare quella degli scapigliati) è un'ottima raccolta: veramente un raggio di sole nel fantastico italiano dell'ottocento.

[Uncannystories · Rating 3 out of 5]

Qui la recensione sul mio blog.
https://www.uncannystory.com/post/igi...

[Gloria Marino · Rating 3 out of 5]

Il primo racconto mi è piaciuto di più degli altri due. Non avevo mai letto niente della Scapigliatura prima d’ora ma è stato un esperimento interessante. L’ho interpretato come un misto di sfarzo e orrore, di quotidianità di medio-alta borghesia e di elementi di disturbo.
Tutto sommato, una lettura rapida, discretamente accattivante, consigliato per la spooky season!

[Susan]

I read the first three of these stories for Halloween, and my reaction was total surprise that I’ve never heard of this author who is clearly a master of the gothic ghost story. Plan to read some more for the next spooky season.

[Blowersdaughter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I racconti fantastici di Tarchetti richiamano il modello di Poe, ma in versione forse semplificata e nostrana. Non mancano però, se non di sorprese, di una certa leggerezza e di spunti interessanti. I "pensieri" in coda al volume invece non mi hanno particolarmente entusiasmato.

[Kathy Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

there are two stories at the end, which were pretty cute. They are by a couple of Tarchetti's influential authors.

[Theediscerning · Rating 4 out of 5]

Come here for a different spread of horror and fantastical stories to what you've found anthologised countless times before. The first work, as was too often the norm in the 1860s when this was written, takes an inordinate amount of waffle to be endured before we crack on with the story, a mystical visit to a world of either dream or nightmarish past lives. What comes next was much more snappy – almost too brief, indeed – and was an amusing vignette about a poor man who is the village's worst violinist. 'A Spirit in a Raspberry' has exactly that – but it's actually a wonderful look at possession, and a baron forced to discover the woman within him. 'Bouvard' gave me a strong sense of deja vu, although that may have come not from me reading it before, but from the fact that what it does in struggling for something profound over forty pages, Poe could do in three. While rhyming.

Concerning the second half, we have a fine short chiller from the world of the séance, in contrast to 'The Lake of the Three Lampreys', which is equally good but with what is a very traditional folk tale mood. Next we see the results of drinking the alchemist's latest potion, but the story brings a frisson of love to things – and not for the only time in these pages – which shows this author, I think, to be quite a human and humane one, and one capable of having much more in the way of character for his narrators than the usual redoubtable young man or fusty old academic. That said, the madman narrator is also rather more familiar than he might be – yet the reason for the instance of it in the next piece is really quite fun and different. Or plain silly, if you're less charitable. And we close with one of this book's longer, more flowery instances of dark drama, but to these eyes the one that seemed the most original. What would be worse, after all, than one person who spreads misfortune and death wherever they go? Why, two of them, of course.

So there you have it, nine pieces in this selection. I see other editions have only had five contents, but there is not much here you could call disposable filler – if this is how it was presented in Italian in the 1860s they were on to a winner. I would wish for a brief introduction to the author, for my digital copy at least came with no information or education about him. He deserves at least that on this evidence. Genre fans I think would really appreciate the chance to discover these lost pieces. While 'Bouvard' and a beat here and a beat there were a little old-fashioned for my tastes, this as a whole was well worth a strong set of four shiny ones.

[Harvey Hênio · Rating 5 out of 5]

O escritor nascido no território hoje conhecido como Itália, Iginio Ugo Tarchetti (1839/1869) teve uma vida breve porém produtiva. Membro de destaque do gótico italiano, vertente literária hoje reconhecida, valorizada e estudada com afinco por um número crescente de aficionados, depois de décadas de ostracismo e baixo reconhecimento, o autor foi, pela primeira vez, traduzido para a língua portuguesa.
Tarchetti fez parte de um movimento de vanguarda intitulado Scapigliatura (palavra do idioma italiano que diz respeito a descabelar, desgrenhar, agitar, bagunçar) que, de uma maneira geral, caracterizava-se como um movimento rebelde em que os artistas compartilhavam “um sentimento de rebeldia, uma exigência de romper as pontes com os modelos artísticos e de vida tradicionais”.
A primeira edição em português desse livro, editada com esmero pela Editora Ex Machina/Sebo Clepsidra e viabilizada através de um financiamento coletivo, traz além dos excelentes contos do autor, uma seleção de poesias de vários autores, membros da Scapigliatura, além de uma oportuna e muito informativa apresentação, um ótimo ensaio intitulado “Notas sobre a Scapigliatura” de autoria da professora licenciada em Letras: Português-Italiano pela UFRJ, Julia Lobão e “Scapigliatura Milanesa: Fragmentos (1858)”, trechos de uma obra do scapigliati Cleto Arrighi (1828/1906).
São seis os contos de Tarchetti presentes nesta coletânea e todos são ótimos e mostram uma clara influência do “rei dos góticos”, o estadunidense Edgar Allan Poe (1809/1849), com toques de originalidade.
Em “Os fatais” o autor discorre sobre a existência de seres que trazem desgraça à vida das pessoas apenas com a sua presença e proximidade. “As Lendas do Castelo Negro” talvez seja o mais “puramente gótico” dos contos em que presságios macabros trazem vislumbres de segredos do passado de uma família. “A letra U (manuscrito de um louco)” é um curioso ensaio sobre a loucura e o processo de enlouquecimento de uma pessoa. “O osso de um morto” nos conta a história, repleta de humor negro, de um falecido que queria de volta um osso seu que se extraviou. E o surpreendente “Um espírito numa framboeseira” que tem como um de seus destaques o tema sempre polêmico da possessão.
Excelente oportunidade de conhecer um grande escritor e dar apoio a uma oportuna e necessária iniciativa de uma pequena editora.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review originally published in Looking FOr a Good Book. Rated 3.5 of 5

I know nothing about Iginio Ugo Tarchetti, but the description of these short stories sounded like something right up my alley. "Italian Gothic tales of obsessive love, mysterious phobias, and the hellish curse of everlasting life." Yes, this sounds fascinating to me.

And best of all ... I really enjoyed these stories.

Writing roughly around the same time as America's favorite macabre storyteller, Edgar Allen Poe, Tarchetti shows a great deal of versatility here with these works - from the dark an eerie stories that would rival Poe or Lovecraft, to the humorous to the absurd. It was fun not knowing what i was going to get next with each story. Though with the first major shift in story genre, I did go back to make sure i had opened the correct book on my Kindle because it wasn't what I was expecting.

Unlike a lot of Western literature from the 19th century, which I often find to be onerous to read, Tarchetti was extremely approachable. His tone was generally quite casual and direct, speaking to the reader in a conversational manner. How much of this is the author and how much is the result of the translation by Lawrence Venuti is hard to say.

I'm really glad to have had the opportunity to read these short stories and to be introduced to a 'new' author.

This book contains the following:

"The Legend of the Black Castle"
"Captain Gubart's Fortune"
"A Spirit in a Raspberry"
"Bouvard"
"A Dead Man's Bone"
"The Lake of the Three Lampreys (A Popular Tradition)"
"The Letter U (A Madman's Manuscript)"
"The Fated"
Looking for a good book? For readers who enjoy a surprise, love short stories, and don't mind the occasional dark gothic tale, Iginio Ugo Tarchetti's Fantastic Tales is a book to look for.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

[Dave Lovely · Rating 4 out of 5]

The name Iginio Ugo Tarchetti was a new one to me, as I suspect it will be to most readers. A leading light of a now almost forgotten group of Italian bohemians of the mid-19th century, portraits reveal a handsome, Romantic-looking countenance, with mutton-chop sideburns, and a harrowed expression. Rumoured, not entirely justifiably, to have been a haunter of cemeteries, his own grave became the brief focus of a cult amongst the more impressionable youth of Milan.

I highly recommend this collection for those with an interest in the macabre, gothic & fantastic, especially those keen to explore the less well-known pathways of the genre. Standout stories like “The Legends of the Black Castle”, “A Spirit in a Raspberry” & “The Fated” to greater or lesser extent transcend the overwrought late romantic panoply of doomed aristocrats and blighted lovers in favour of a more modern sense of malignity and a consuming concern with the nature of individual identity. It is as if the world of E. T. A. Hoffmann and Edgar Alan Poe were about to give way to that of Kafka and Calvino.

All in all, it is perhaps time for a modest revival of the cult of Iginio Ugo Tarchetti, and I am grateful to Steerforth Press, Archipelago, and Netgalley for the ARC.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

While one might think that the combination here (Italian author, suspenseful stories, printed by Archipelago) would be a surefire win for me, this suffered from being extremely dated. It's that overly formal narration peppered with self aware "woe is me" refrains. The need for the author to analyze every last human emotion. Whatever the hell the story about the letter U was about...

Of saving grace: "The Dead Man's Bone" uses its formality in a fun way, for a most understanding haunting, and the final story, while guilty of an unnecessarily lofty preamble, holds an interesting conceit and a number of striking images. I'd have much liked them in an anthology of some sort, but there was, it seemed to me, a lot of lesser work surrounding it.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I Racconti Fantastici di Igino Ugo Tarchetti, risentono dell’influenza di Edgar Allan Poe.
Tarchetti si distingue per una scrittura elegante e ricercata; crea atmosfere cupe e suggestive, permeate da un senso di inquietudine e di mistero.
L'ispirazione all'opera di Poe è evidente in molti racconti, sia per l'ambientazione gotica che per i temi trattati, come la morte, la follia e l'amore impossibile. Tuttavia, Tarchetti non riesce a raggiungere la profondità e la complessità psicologica di Poe.

[Carla (literary.infatuation) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tarchetti, in this collection of Gothic & horror tales transport us to Europe of the 1800s. The stories have a ring of fairy tales, but with some darkness to it; there are mysterious Counts, obsessive lovers, magic potions and haunting dreams. They are for the horror fan as well as those readers with a taste for literary fiction. Devoid of all the gore and cheap commercial terror of Hollywood movies, these stories are timeless and make for a fabulous quick read.

[Les75 · Rating 3 out of 5]

L'aspetto più affascinante di questa raccolta di racconti è la prosa curata e raffinata del Tarchetti. Per il resto, le trame dei racconti risultano piuttosto ingenue e talvolta poco accattivanti agli occhi di un lettore del XXI secolo: tutti questi racconti vogliono instillare nel lettore quella tensione derivante normalmente dalle storie di fantasmi e mistero, ma, almeno personalmente, hanno indotto più di uno sbadiglio.

[Cordelia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this wonderful collection of short stories, first published in 1869. The stories were wierd and uncanny, but also light and humorous. And so beautifully written.

A delightful read.

Thank you to Edelweiss and the publisher for sending me this ARC.

[Stefano Amadei · Rating 3 out of 5]

I racconti erano carini specie l'ultimo ma gli aforismi e i pensieri ecco... Lasciamo stare.

[mwr · Rating 3 out of 5]

4/5 for the genre. A few were pretty fun.

[Jodie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good scapigliatura work

[A L]

These gothic tales have a bit of social acuity to them.

[Michela Cacciatore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Racconti dalle tinte gotiche, Tarchetti non delude mai.

Tales with gothic hues, Tarchetti never disappoints.

[Rae Bell]

(I obviously read this in English but it’s not on goodreads in English)