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Italian Folktales | 
 enlarge | Author: Italo Calvino
Publisher: Harvest Books
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $13.99
You Save: $11.01 (44%)
New (19) Used (13) Collectible (1) from $10.00
Rating:  22 reviews
Sales Rank: 86770
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 800
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.3
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.7
ISBN: 0156454890
Dewey Decimal Number: 398.210945
EAN: 9780156454896
ASIN: 0156454890
Publication Date: November 15, 1992
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Z-2
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Product Description
Chosen by The New York Times as one of its best books in the year of its original publication, this treasure trove of 200 lively Italian folktales has won a cherished place among fans of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen. In this collection, Calvino combines a sensibility attuned to the fantastical with a singular writerly ability to capture the visions and dreams of a culture.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 17 more reviews...
Italian Folktales August 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a huge collection of some really fun stories. Most stories are a few pages long and this book is filled with many great stories. I recommend this to anyone that loves folktales and fairy tales.
Good heritage book July 18, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I bought this for my grand daughter who is half Italian. She enjoys having stories read to her and this is a good book to aquaint her with her Italian heritage.
Forever Favorite April 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This was a childhood favorite, and it remains today.
As my family's old copy fell apart, I bought this new one to keep it for the generations and children to come.
I love the virtue and morals behind each story.
It's a beautiful book.
Enjoyed this. September 23, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I have an older edition of this book. I quite enjoyed reading it. Of course, I more or less collect compilation of folktales and fairy tales.
Folk tales (and then some) March 1, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Italo Calvino is mostly known for being a brilliant magical realist. But he also collected two hundred Italian folk and fairy tales in "Italian Folktales," apparently because a publisher wanted a sort of Italian Grimm. The resulting collection is actually better than your average fairy tales -- full of the cute, bizarre and funny.
Basically, we have the usual collections of folk-tale oddities -- princesses and princes, talking animals, murderers, dragons, colourful peasants, ghosts, magical rings, bookworms, ogres, merchants, lots of money, wise professors, hunchbacks, people magically turned into dogs, and even an Italian version of Beauty and the Beast.
But there are also plenty of folktales in here that are outright weird: a kid with a goose that causes hands to stick to the holder, a young groom whose night in paradise has tragic consequences, a maid imprisoned in the sea, a girl transformed into a statue, the Queen of Luminous Souls, and a talking buffalo head. Even Jesus Christ and Saint Peter get to star in a longish story.
Fairy tales are always meant for kids, but folktales can be aimed at adults. And there's pretty much half-and-half in "Italian Folktales" -- Calvino includes some stories which are cute and have morals ("Don't be greedy, or a wolf will eat you"), but there are plenty that are weird, bizarre and grotesque (three dead men bowling with skulls).
Calvino can't include too much description, since most of these stories are straight-out fables. But he retells these stories with enchanting flair, funny dialogue and his knack for mixing the magical with the real. And the translator George Martin should get props for preserving the sparkling, spicy flavour of the original stories ("Cro! Cro! We come from brine/On gold and pearls we dine/Belsole's fair, as fair as day...")
These stories aren't the Brothers Grimm -- they're better. Calvino collected stories that were magical, horrifying and extremely funny, and "Italian Folktales" is a delightful, extremely fat book of folk stories.
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