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.The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story (Oxford World's Classics)
City Travel Guides > Books > Italian
by: Horace Walpole

April 02, 1998
This review refers to the Oxford World's Classics edition, edited by WS Lewis, with a 26-page introduction and eight pages of endnotes by EJ Clery. There is a select bibliography and a chronology of the author, Horace Walpole. Importantly, the book includes both the first and second editions' title-pages and prefaces.

The first edition, "The Castle of Otranto: A Story, translated by William Marshal", was published in December 1764 (but marked 1765 on the title-page). It's preface tried - and succeeded for awhile - to give the impression that the tale had been "found in the library of an ancient catholic family in the north of England" and had been "printed at Naples ... in the year 1529. ... The style is the purest Italian."
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.The Castle of Otranto (Penguin Classics)
City Travel Guides > Books > Italian
by: Horace Walpole, Michael Gamer

January 28, 2007
This review refers to the Oxford World's Classics edition, edited by WS Lewis, with a 26-page introduction and eight pages of endnotes by EJ Clery. There is a select bibliography and a chronology of the author, Horace Walpole. Importantly, the book includes both the first and second editions' title-pages and prefaces.

The first edition, "The Castle of Otranto: A Story, translated by William Marshal", was published in December 1764 (but marked 1765 on the title-page). It's preface tried - and succeeded for awhile - to give the impression that the tale had been "found in the library of an ancient catholic family in the north of England" and had been "printed at Naples ... in the year 1529. ... The style is the purest Italian."
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.A Sentimental Journey (Penguin Classics)
City Travel Guides > Books > Italian
by: Laurence Sterne

November 29, 2001
Best read if you've already read Tristram Shandy, Sterne uses similar techniques as in his more ambitious work, and it has a similar 'finished or unfinished?' question hanging over it.

Whilst we only get to see a snapshot of one of Tristram Shandy's best characters, A Sentimental Journey gives us more of the inimitable parson Yorick, a magnanimous, hilarious, bumbling, rather-more-lustful-than-a-parson-should-be Englishman abroad. Yorick, along with Tristram is another of Sterne's autobiographical incarnations, (his sermons, which are actually Sterne's own, are collected elsewhere) giving a fascinating insight into one of the most idiosyncratic, hilarious and genuinely brilliant writers in the English language.


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.NICHOLAS
City Travel Guides > Books > Italian
by: Elizabeth Amber

November 10, 2007
Lord Nicholas Satyr is a well known successful and wealthy vineyard owner, but what makes him so fascinating is a well-kept secret that ties him to the ElseWorld. Nicholas and his brothers are satyrs, the last of their kind. None of them are in any hurry to marry but a letter from King Feydon of the ElseWorld dictates that each of the brothers are to marry one of the king's half human/half fairie daughters. Daughters he spawned on mortal women while they slept. It's imperative that these women be found and brought into the protection that the Satyr's can provide. The brothers decide to take turns going in search of the females which each of them will marry. First up is Nick and his destination is Rome - where King Feydon stated that one of his daughters could ... Read More:
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.Reasonable Doubts
City Travel Guides > Books > Italian
by: Gianrico Carofiglio

July 02, 2007
This is the third book I've read by Carofiglio, and what you need to know is that, although not a lot 'happens' - we are defnitely not in plot-driven thriller territory here - the characters are so convincingly drawn that we get deeply involved, and care about them. For my money, Carofiglio is the outstanding 'crime' writer of today - and astonishingly, his subtleties have survived in the excellent translations.

If you like excellent writing, moral ambiguity and character led stories, go out and buy the whole series!
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.Italian Short Stories: Racconti Italiano (New Penguin Parallel Text Series): Italian
City Travel Guides > Books > Italian
from: Penguin Books Ltd

September 30, 1999
This is a useful little book, well aimed at school-level students of written Italian. The stories are by well known names, some very famous (e.g. Primo Levi). As works of literature, they are not all particularly inspiring. However, if you have the stomach to read about the somewhat disgusting sex-lives of unclean peasants (as occurs in one story), then it is fine.

A strong point is the notes about idiomatic usages, some of which are very useful, and indeed illuminating about life in modern Italy. I can confirm the accuracy of these notes.

Recommendable, on the whole. Indeed, I hope that the author will continue, and give us further volumes.
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.Involuntary Witness
City Travel Guides > Books > Italian
by: Gianrico Carofiglio

July 21, 2005
I'm having a good run on Mediterranean crime fiction - having read everything by the excellent Massimo Carlotto, and hearing that Carofiglio is one of Carlotto's favourites I came to this.

Guido Guierri is a lawyer who finds himself representing a Senegalese beach trader accused of killing a 9-year old boy. And that's about it. To describe this as a thriller is a misnomer, as there are no thrills, no surprises, no switchbacks etc. It's also incorrect to describe it as a courtroom drama, as there is no drama! It's a simple linear description of a court case, with two sides, prosecution and defence. End of story.

I actually enjoyed the sub-plots much more than the main thrust. Guierri is recovering from a broken heart, and his meditations and slowly coming-back-to-life is ... Read More:
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.Italian Stories/novelle Italiene: A Dual-language Book
City Travel Guides > Books > Italian
by: Jr. Hall

September 17, 1990
The short stories are entertaining, and they cover Italian writers from Machiavelli to Pirandello.

But the reason I bought this book is to study Italian. With Italian on the left and English on the right, this collection presents students with an easy way to build vocabulary and sample "literary" writing not found in regular textbooks.

Students should have at least an intermediary knowledge of Italian, in order to at least recognize the various past tenses employed.
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.The Enchanted April (Virago modern classics)
City Travel Guides > Books > Italian
by: Elizabeth Von Arnim

November 27, 1991
Having loved both filmed versions of this story, I came to the book not anticipating any surprises, and in that respect I was correct. What I did get, however, was a more fully-formed understanding of each of the four women who come to San Salvatore. Each has her own quest, and each is surprised in the way that her quest is resolved.

Elizabeth von Arnim can harness language in ways that few other authors are able. She is, for instance, able to display what a walking joke Mr. Wilkins is, while letting him think that he's the very model of an educated man.

I started off loathing both Mrs. Fisher and Lady Caroline Dester in a way that wasn't true when watching the films. This made their transformations that much more satisfying, in the end.

I'm now interested in ... Read More:
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.Monte Cassino (Cassell Military Paperbacks)
City Travel Guides > Books > Italian
by: Sven Hassel

August 14, 2003
The hill is Monte Cassino, and the horror is the carnage of Allied attempts to wrest it from the Germans in 1944, among whom are numbered the lads of the 27th Penal Battalion.
A classic Sven Hassel, with all the right ingredients - blood, guts, fear, high comedy and magnificent courage - with the shattered monastery ruins and the seedy streets of wartime Rome as the backdrop. The plot? Defend the hill to the last man.
The outcome? A compelling tale from the master of World War Two pulp fiction.
Enjoy it.
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