Notte di festa

by Cesare Pavese

Ventitré racconti postumi che ancora oggi possiamo apprezzare come i primi validi risultati di Pavese narratore.

Genres: Short Stories

314 pages, Paperback

First published May 22, 1953

About the author

Cesare Pavese was born in a small town in which his father, an official, owned property. He attended school and later, university, in Turin. Denied an outlet for his creative powers by Fascist control of literature, Pavese translated many 20th-century American writers in the 1930s and '40s: Sherwood Anderson, Gertrude Stein, John Steinbeck, John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, and William Faulkner; a 19th-century writer who influenced him profoundly, Herman Melville (one of his first translations was of Moby Dick); and the Irish novelist James Joyce. He also published criticism, posthumously collected in La letteratura americana e altri saggi (1951; American Literature, Essays and Opinions, 1970).
A founder and, until his death, an editor of the publishing house of Einaudi, Pavese also edited the anti-Fascist review La Cultura. His work led to his arrest and imprisonment by the government in 1935, an experience later recalled in “Il carcere” (published in Prima che il gallo canti, 1949; in The Political Prisoner, 1955) and the novella Il compagno (1947; The Comrade, 1959). His first volume of lyric poetry, Lavorare stanca (1936; Hard Labour, 1976), followed his release from prison. An initial novella, Paesi tuoi (1941; The Harvesters, 1961), recalled, as many of his works do, the sacred places of childhood. Between 1943 and 1945 he lived with partisans of the anti-Fascist Resistance in the hills of Piedmont.
The bulk of Pavese's work, mostly short stories and novellas, appeared between the end of the war and his death. Partly through the influence of Melville, Pavese became preoccupied with myth, symbol, and archetype. One of his most striking books is Dialoghi con Leucò (1947; Dialogues with Leucò, 1965), poetically written conversations about the human condition. The novel considered his best, La luna e i falò (1950; The Moon and the Bonfires, 1950), is a bleak, yet compassionate story of a hero who tries to find himself by visiting the place in which he grew up. Several other works are notable, especially La bella estate (1949; in The Political Prisoner, 1955).
Shortly after receiving the Strega Prize for it, Pavese took his own life in his hotel room by taking an overdose of pills.

Reviews

[Martinis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Con questi racconti termino un maggio fra i pensieri di Pavese, un mondo di natura, luce, dolore.
Indimenticabile.

[Claire Admiral · Rating 3 out of 5]

★★★☆☆ 3 stars

[•Paola• · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sto ancora cercando di capire se Pavese mi piace molto o se per me sta in mezzo al mare.

[Elia Mantovani · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mi ha emozionato proprio poco, probabilmente non sono riuscuto a cogliere i sentimenti dell'opera. L'ho vissuta come un'ennesima lettura della vita agreste tra limiti e nostalgia che si risolve nel nulla cosmico, con un retrogusto di un Joyce che non ce la ha fatta.

[Selçuk · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first encounter with Pavese, and I read him primarily to make sure that I understood the Turkish female author Tezer Özlü well enough, who was so genuinely fond of his literature that this obsession led her to write a semi-autobiographical novel, Voyage to the End Of Life, in which she embarks on a journey to his home city in order to search for his traces long after he passed away. Having read Festival Night and Other Stories, I feel that her writing indeed makes better sense now. As for Pavese, on the other hand, I cannot say that his stories are a particular delight to read. In addition, I find it hard not to imagine Pavese as a man who loved women a lot in his unique way, but became frustrated and rageful when he realized that not everybody was capable of loving a person in this same way. This, of course, might just make him all the more interesting for some readers, but I unfortunately do not see in him much of anything that can be likened to a fine literary use of that psychological aspect.

[Deni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Estos son los primeros cuentos de Cesare Pavese pero su estilo magistral ya se ve desde el comienzo. En estos cuentos hay siempre una atmósfera similar donde corre vida, son historias donde uno puede meterse a husmear en una Italia amplia, repleta de aromas, por lo general con calor, con personajes entrañables e historias tristes, profundas. Esperas, amores, intrigas se desarrollan en este mundo donde el misterio convive con la fluidez de la brisa, los recuerdos, la crueldad, la inocencia. Todos los cuentos son hermosos y están escritos con un estilo inconfundible.

[Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection contains one of my very favorite short stories: The Villa on the Hill. It was a slog getting through the rest of the collection and I only recommend it to those studying Pavese or the early 1950s in Italian literature.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag. I sort of liked "The Intruder" and "The Cornfield," but was repelled by "Friends" for its racism and "Suicide" for how badly a man treats the woman who loves him.

In general, I found the stories obscure and I could not figure out what the author intended the reader to get out of them. I understand why others have found Pavese an important writer, but I could not get to that judgment with thie collection of stories.

[Stefano Amadei · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scritto veramente molto bene un po' duro da leggere se uno non ha mai letto nulla di P.
L'audiolibro ogni tanto saltava, forse era difettoso, per questo una stella in meno.
Mi è venuta in mente una canzone dei Camaleonti: In paese è festa...

[Giuseppe Aresi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Non ho capito il senso del racconto

[GONZA · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mi ero scordata quanto scarna fosse la scrittura di Pavese e quasi primitive le sue storie. Un buon ascolto, ma ci sono racconti più belli di questo, secondo me.

[Silvia Rota · Rating 3 out of 5]

L'ho trovato noioso, famiglia rurale con figli sfruttati e maltrattati. Un prete, un professore, giostre itineranti e soliti pregiudizi sugli zingari

[Andrea Puig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hay que leer los relatos de Pavese con los ojos entrecerrados, como la mayoría de sus personajes, para percibir las sutilezas con las que narra la soledad, el desamor, el hastío. Nos imaginamos caminando entre la gente, deslumbrados por los ecos de una orquesta al amanecer, exiliados en una playa rocosa, adormilados ante el traqueteo de un tranvía o segando las cosechas que no sembramos. Luce el libro como una sola historia, contada en tramas paralelas, abiertas para que continúen en el rumbo de nuestras noches, sobretodo de nuestras noches.