TWO STORIES And A MEMORY. Translated from the Italian by Archibald Colquhoun. With an Introduction by E. M. Forster

by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

Nederlandse vertaling van "I Racconti".

Genres: Short Stories, Italy, Fiction, Italian Literature, Literary Fiction

Paperback

First published December 1, 1962

About the author

Tomasi was born in Palermo to Giulio Maria Tomasi, Prince of Lampedusa and Duke of Palma di Montechiaro, and Beatrice Mastrogiovanni Tasca Filangieri di Cutò. He became an only child after the death (from diphtheria) of his sister. He was very close to his mother, a strong personality who influenced him a great deal, especially because his father was rather cold and detached. As a child he studied in their grand house in Palermo with a tutor (including the subjects of literature and English), with his mother (who taught him French), and with a grandmother who read him the novels of Emilio Salgari. In the little theater of the house in Santa Margherita di Belice, where he spent long vacations, he first saw a performance of Shakespeare's Hamlet, performed by a company of travelling players. His cousin was Fulco di Verdura.

Reviews

[Ademption · Rating 3 out of 5]

Given this collection's line-up, it should be the definitive collection of Giuseppe di Lampedusa minor works. This collection contains:

•The Professor and the Siren
•Blind Kittens (i.e. the two stories)
•Places of My Infancy (i.e. the memory)

Unfortunately, time has made these translations somewhat stale. The stories are good in spite of the translation, but the better, more au courant translations can be found in the recent NYRB edition.

What's sadly missing from the new NYRB edition is "Places of My Infancy." Though this "memory" is a problematic work, since it is somewhere between a curio and newly found answering machine message by Bigge Smalls laid over a single by The Police.

Here's the genesis of the memory: Lampedusa's wife was a psychoanalyst. He was inconsolably melancholic after his ancestral home, which he had lived in all his life, was bombed to pieces during WWII. Since he was bookish, she suggested he write out his memories of the home as a curative exercise. He wrote Places of My Infancy. This served as a template of sorts for The Leopard, and with renewed vigour, Lampedusa began a short writing career.

Places of my Infancy is kind of strange, sadly poetic and adorable. Lampedusa leaps between giving the reader a subjective, spatial tour of his house in words, and accumulating impressions of the objects and people of his childhood. He's a rustic royal giving you a tour of his old palace, which is no longer a home but a private museum of reminiscence. Included in this collection are archival photographs of the author, his town, surviving balconies, gardens, stairs and stuccoed wall art.

But I'm already a fan. I would watch a Lampedusa hologram order an espresso and scrawl in a notebook while his latest P Diddy-produced, dinner invitation card was read over "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da." So, you probably would do well not to take my word for it, and read The Leopard if you feel so inclined.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

As EM Forster notes in the introduction, in light of The Leopard I can’t rate this book as highly as I would otherwise. The Leopard is so brilliant, so perfect, that anything else must pale in comparison. And yet, to a fan of Lampedusa, it’s manna from heaven. Having finished only one novel in his lifetime, Lampedusa left his admirers forever wanting more. This is the more I was wishing for.

[Felice · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the only other book of the Italian author of The Leopard, still a great book that was made into a great movie by Luchino Visconti. The memory is titled "Places of My Infancy" and was not written for publication. It is exactly that, charming, and reminiscent. Also an intriguing social document about the way of life of another time. He writes about the houses--palaces really--being huge and empty of people. Which sounds right; the last days of fedualism. The second story, "The Blind Kittens" is not about kittens at all but about intellectual blindness. A bagatelle. But given our current life under 45, relevant. "The Professor and the Mermaid" is about exactly that, too but the set-up is 5/6s of its length and is a delightful study of an older and accomplished scholar and his dealings with a younger one--i.e. Lampedusa himself as a youth. Very funny, charming, and all-too-realistic. Even when the retired professor is about to say or do something nice, he puts down the younger man in a wonderfully trenchant way.

[milea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Places of my Infancy: Авторът сам предупреждава, че написаното е предназначено по-скоро за него самия и няма целта да забавлява. Много и живописни описания, нещо като личен дневник, но липсваха философските проникновения, които имаше в "The Leopard".
The Professor & the Siren: Очаквах спираща дъха любовна история, за съжаление не я почувствах, в целият разказ нещо ми убягваше. Но и двамата главни мъжки персонажи ми станаха симпатични в своето малко странно приятелство.
Blind Kittens: Започнат, но незавършен роман, само първата глава, стори ми се обещаващ, с тънък хумор и ирония.

Мисля, че при всички случаи, ако човек е в настроението на автора ще му бъде приятно за четене. Поне аз успях да се асоциирам много силно с него, особено в The Leopard.

[Jim Puskas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Re-reading "The Leopard" recently brought me back to this small collection, which I actually read originally before reading the novel. The description in "Places in my Infancy" is magnificent, the prose exact and professional despite Tomasi's limited time spent as a writer. A fine insight into Sicilian life at all levels, but as is often the case with autobiographic writings, it has its dull moments. "The Professor and the Mermaid" is a fanciful, uninhibited bit of light reading. "The Blind Kittens", really an opening chapter in what could have become another novel, is a treatise on Sicilian life. It appeared to have possibilities but the author died before taking it any further.
Today, Tomasi remains a curiosity, but he left some precious bits for us to contemplate.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

The memoir was the absolutely lovely part of this collection: a memory tour of much-loved places in acutely observant, poetically precise language.
Among the stories, I reread only Ligea. The misanthropy, or maybe more exactly the misogyny, of both the narrator and the Professor was off-putting initially, but the story has beauties and depths that linger in the mind.

[Francesco Strocchi]

Just a little gem. A pleasure to read it as a sort of compendium or appendix to The Leopard. A remarkable translation that gives justice, Sicily and Turin are there, gone into the past but utterly recognisable

[Cameron · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Blind Kittens: Great stuff.

[Hector Coles · Rating 4 out of 5]

While it is a bit slow and sometimes repetitive when he describes places from his childhood (many of which are similar since they are all in Sicily), the book is engaging and evocative and he portrays a beautiful time and place very well. It is colourful and you can feel the heat. The first chapter of his unfinished book is also really captivating and it is a shame he wasn’t able to finish it before he died.