If on a winter's night a traveler | 
| Author: Italo Calvino
Publisher: Harvest Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy Used: $0.83
You Save: $13.17 (94%)
New (44) Used (88) Collectible (2) from $0.83
Avg. Customer Rating:  134 reviews
Sales Rank: 64445
Media: Paperback
Edition: 259 pages
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 276
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.4 x 0.8
ISBN: 0156439611
EAN: 9780156439619
ASIN: 0156439611
Publication Date: October 20, 1982
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is a marvel of ingenuity, an experimental text that looks longingly back to the great age of narration--"when time no longer seemed stopped and did not yet seem to have exploded." Italo Calvino's novel is in one sense a comedy in which the two protagonists, the Reader and the Other Reader, ultimately end up married, having almost finished If on a Winter's Night a Traveler. In another, it is a tragedy, a reflection on the difficulties of writing and the solitary nature of reading. The Reader buys a fashionable new book, which opens with an exhortation: "Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade." Alas, after 30 or so pages, he discovers that his copy is corrupted, and consists of nothing but the first section, over and over. Returning to the bookshop, he discovers the volume, which he thought was by Calvino, is actually by the Polish writer Bazakbal. Given the choice between the two, he goes for the Pole, as does the Other Reader, Ludmilla. But this copy turns out to be by yet another writer, as does the next, and the next. The real Calvino intersperses 10 different pastiches--stories of menace, spies, mystery, premonition--with explorations of how and why we read, make meanings, and get our bearings or fail to. Meanwhile the Reader and Ludmilla try to reach, and read, each other. If on a Winter's Night is dazzling, vertiginous, and deeply romantic. "What makes lovemaking and reading resemble each other most is that within both of them times and spaces open, different from measurable time and space."
Product Description
Calvino shows that the novel, far from being a dead form, is capable of endless mutations. If on a winter’s night a traveler turns out to be not one novel but ten, each with a different plot, style, ambience, and author. Translated by William Weaver. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 129 more reviews...
 "I read, therefore it (the world) writes" July 22, 2008
I'd flopped on a bed in a luxury hotel in Amman, Jordan last spring and flipped through a magazine, landing on page with little blurbs about about books. I was intriuged by a couple of titles. One was a book about the international sex slave trade (still not available in the USA until this fall) and the second was IF ON A WINTER'S NIGHT A TRAVELER.
The little blurb said this book had ten Chapter Ones. You read that right. One book, ten first chapters.
I wrote these titles down and ordered the latter after I got back home. And I just finished it. Wow.
I won't try to explain everything that goes on in this book but I can tell you--and this was the part that really surprised me--I was able to follow it all. Even when I suspected about two-thirds of the way in that my attention would waver and I'd lose complete track of this strangely-written book, I still knew what was going on. I have to chalk that up to the writer. I've gotten lost in far more conventional stories after wading through thick and ponderous writing...but not this one!
This is a book about books, about reading, about the solitary existence of readers and the fantastic journeys they find on pages. The writing is particularly strong and I wonder how much credit the translator should receive.
I can't imagine anyone who really loves reading disliking this book.
If On a Winter's Night a Traveller June 26, 2008
This superb work of fiction is a bit confusing at first but totally engrossing as you get into it. It is the first book I've ever run across in which the author tells the reader what the reader is doing, making the reader the lead character in the story.
It's unusual style, combined with a truly original plot that is both entertaining and thought provoking at the same time, make IF ON A WINTER'S NIGHT A TRAVELER a truly wonderful book and heartily good read.
Entertaining and Ingenious June 6, 2008
Yes, this book requires thought to fully understand. However, it is not tedious, as some have claimed it is. It's ingenuity and novelty keep it entertaining, even at parts that otherwise would be boring. Regardless, it will definitely change the way you think about literature, writing, and reading (if you're a casual reader and not an academic, of course).
Creative and Complex May 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Calvino's 'If On a Winter's Night a Traveler' is a wonderfully complex literary dip into post-modernity in which the author distances the narrative and holds it under a fractured telescope. The plot is a peculiar combination of stories told with a cool detachment which all eventually converge with the two readers, who are in truth the protagonists of the story. This does not make for easy reading, and it's nearly impossible to get it all the first time through, but Calvino's remarkable command of ideas and prose will pull you into his rich imagination.
Italo Calvino's Masterpiece February 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have read many books over my life and am incredibly picky as to the authors, possibly to my detrement. Even among the authors I do enjoy I find flawed writings, whether it be Jorge Luis Borges, Salmon Rushdie, philosophers like Marcus Aurelius or Thomas Paine. Of all Calvino's writings from The Path to the Spiders' Nest, to his collection of Italian Folktales, I have never failed to enjoy his writing. As I have read all his writing, I can say with confidence If on a Winters Night a Traveler is his greatest novel, his masterpiece. I can not think of a better novel to read to provoke the mind, find pleasure, or to relax with. It like Salmon Rushdie's Grimus, or Dashiell Hammett's black mask writing, stays with the mind almost as a dream, a friend until present day.
|
|
|
