Nessuno insegna come leggere i classici come Calvino - cosmopolita anche nei gusti e conoscenze letterarie. Ho imparato moltissimo da questo libro e, a modo suo, è adesso un mio classico.

Not any kind of discussion of the benefits of reading the classics, but a loose bunch of essays about different authors and books that Calvino admired. Many of the essays were very boring to read.

127th book of 2020.

I’ve been wanting to read this for a long time: It is a book that has managed to elude me, by being hard to get hold of or else expensive to get hold of. I am in debt to my old university housemate who bought and gifted me this. Despite wracking my brain for a Calvino related anecdote involving us, I cannot think of one. The only thing that comes to mind is reading my first ever Calvino, [b:Invisible Cities|9809|Invisible Cities|Italo Calvino|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1468623303l/9809._SY75_.jpg|68476], whilst lying on my bed in our old house in Chichester. So can give only my thanks; it was worth it.


- Italo Calvino

All that can be done is for each one of us to invest our own ideal library for our classics; and I would say that one half of it should consist of books we have read and that have meant something for us, and the other half of books which we intend to read and which we suppose might mean something to us. We should also leave a section of empty spaces for surprises and chance discoveries.

Calvino writes with grace in both his fictions and his essays. He is a fantastic writer in the fact I believe he is quite multifaceted, and by that I also mean that my own view of him is multifaceted. My lecturer referred to him once as being ‘icy’ – a term I have adopted as my own in reference to him. In fact, the full quote, as I have quoted before in my [b:The Baron in the Trees|9804|The Baron in the Trees|Italo Calvino|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1344432724l/9804._SY75_.jpg|865256] review: “An icy postmodernist”, whom one “admires more than enjoys”. In some cases, I would agree. I am in awe of [b:If on a Winter's Night a Traveler|374233|If on a Winter's Night a Traveler|Italo Calvino|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1528312857l/374233._SY75_.jpg|1116802], but my enjoyment when reading it is another matter entirely. Any iciness, postmodernist-ness, is void here – what is left is Calvino at his intelligent and most graceful self.

The first essay is the title essay, and Calvino attempts to define a ‘classic’ novel, which ironically, his own novels fall into, in my opinion. He proposes 14 definitions, headings, and then further expansion into several; my favourite headings are:

5. A classic is a book which even when we read it for the first time gives the sense of rereading something we have read before.

6. A classic is a book which has never exhausted all it has to say to its readers.

9. Classics are books which, the more we think we know them through hearsay, the more original, unexpected, and innovative we find them when we actually read them.

After the title essay, in a further 35 essays, Calvino journeys through many essays on a number of writers and novels. He covers Conrad, Hemingway, Borges, Stevenson, James, Dickens, Twain, Tolstoy, Homer, Dafoe and more. Though I would only recommend these essays to readers particularly interested in the writers, Calvino’s thoughts on them and their style and influence, or simply in the grace and ease of his essay writing in general. Even essays concerning writers I was not aware of, or else uninterested in, I found great enjoyment through Calvino’s prose. The essays are dated between the 60s and the 80s. Of course, the most interesting essays for me were about writers I care for and read: Hemingway, Borges, Twain, Conrad, etc. The essays that surprised me the most were on Gadda and Pliny.

I considered adding quotes and thoughts on Calvino’s thoughts on other writers, but for one, I’d spoil it, and for another, it would end up being too like a Borges story, wouldn’t it? My thoughts, on Calvino’s thoughts, on someone else. Or even, sometimes, my thoughts, on Calvino’s thoughts, on another writer’s thoughts, on a final writer. We don’t have time.

برای فهمیدن نقدهایش لازم است که با بیشتر کتاب‌های مورد بحث آشنا باشید (که من نبودم). با این حال باعث شد که واقعا دلم بخواهد چند تا از این کتاب‌ها را بخوانم:
داستان مضحک احوالات و امپراتوری‌های ماه نوشته ساوینین دو سیرانو، «دوست مشترک ما» نوشته چارلز دیکنز، «آن ماجرای قاراشمیش خیابان مرولانا» نوشته ک.ا. گادا، «ماه و آتش» نوشته پاوزه

[a:Italo Calvino|155517|Italo Calvino|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1501975461p2/155517.jpg] poses this book's title as a question. I propose that it should be a statement. The essays in this book are, in my mind, exactly why you should read the classics. The "classics" you're thinking of are very likely in Calvino's list of classics. But his list is so extensive! Borges has the reputation of having read all the books but Calvino must have read nearly as many. His knowledge of 20th century literature is so vast that I, at least, was often left behind. Gladly so! Because now I know of so much more I should read. The danger of reading this book is all the books it will add to your reading list.

Here's an example sentence from the essay "The Philosophy of Raymond Queneau":

Between Homer, 'the father of all literature and all scepticism', and Flaubert who understood that scepticism and science are identical, Queneau accords positions of honor, first of all to Petronius, whom he considers as a contemporary and brother, then to Rablelais 'who in spite of the chaotic appearance of his work, knows where he is going and directs his giants towards their final Trinc without being crushed by it', and finally to Boileau.

OK, so I've read Homer. Who hasn't? But the rest of the list, including Queneau, leaves me in the dust.

Your mileage may differ. You may be vastly more well read than I. (not difficult) You may be an academic. Perhaps you've read all the books published in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. If so then these essays will be even more delightful for you than they were to me. Because don't get me wrong. These essays are pure delight. I was fascinated by those on authors unknown to me but totally enraptured by those on authors I do know. I gained new insights into the works of Borges, Pasternak, Twain, Stevenson, James, Dickens, Galileo, Ovid, and Homer.

Having finished [b:Why Read the Classics?|9814|Why Read the Classics?|Italo Calvino|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1385233848l/9814._SY75_.jpg|1194952] I can say one thing at least. I believe I have now read all I can find written by one of my three favorite authors: The incomparable Mr. Italo Calvino.