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Description edit
A postmodern novel which combines a love and a detective story with a sardonic dissection of the publishing industry in an allegory of reading. Two readers attempt to finish the same book, but are comically and repeatedly frustrated.
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Characters/People edit
- The Reader: The main character, addressed in the second person.
- The Other Reader (Ludmilla): A second reader who shares the literary adventure.
- Lotaria: Sister of The Other Reader
- Ermes Marana: A trickster who 'believes the true and the false is only a prejudice of ours'.
- Silas Flannery: A popular Irish novelist.
Quotes edit
-
“Cigarettes within reach, if you smoke, and the ashtray. Anything else? Do you have to pee? All right, you know best.”
-
“The fact is that I find in the day's light, in this diffused, pale, almost shadowless luminosity, a darkness deeper than the night's.”
-
“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.”
-
“It writes. It reads. I read, therefore it writes.”
Silas Flannery -
“The book I'm looking for is the one that gives the sense of the world after the end of the world, the sense that the world is the end of everything that there is in the world, that the only thing there is in the world is the end of the world.”
The Other Reader (Ludmilla) -
“One reads alone, even in another's presence.”
-
“Mr. Kauderer is not here. But since the cemetery is the home of those who are not here, come in.”
First Sentence edit
You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a winter's night a traveler.
Table of Contents edit
Chapter one
If on a winter's night a traveler
Chapter two
Outside the town of Malbork
Chapter three
Leaning from the steep slope
Chapter four
Withoutfear of wind or vertigo
Chapter five
Looks down into the gathering shadow
Chapter six
In a network of lines that enlace
Chapter seven
In a network of lines that intersect
Chapter eight
On the carpet of leaves illuminated by the moon
Chapter nine
Around an empty grave
Chapter ten
What story down there awaits its end?
Chapter eleven
Chapter twelve
Glossary edit
- Hassock: An oversized upholstered ottoman large enough to be used as seating.
- Interstice: A minute space between one thing and another, especially between things closely set together.
- Quires: One-twentieth of a ream of paper; a collection of twenty-four or twenty-five sheets of paper of the same size and quality.
- Morphemes: The smallest linguistic unit that has semantic meaning.
- Phonemes: One of a small set of speech sounds that are distinguished by the speakers of a particular language.
- Aleatory: Random, depending on chance.
- Aubergine: An eggplant.
- Cress: Pungent leaves of any of numerous cruciferous herbs.
- Tench: Freshwater game fish of Europe and western Asia, noted for an ability to survive outside water.
- Knödel: Large round poached or boiled potato or bread dumplings, made without yeast
- Escarpment: A steep descent or declivity; steep face or edge of a ridge; ground about a fortified place, cut away nearly vertically to prevent hostile approach.
- Oblique: Neither parallel nor perpendicular, but at a slanting angle.
- Belvedere: A gazebo sited to command a fine view.
- Eczema: A generic term for inflammatory conditions of the skin.
- Chiaroscuro: A monochrome picture made by using several different shades of the same color.
- Apposite: Appropriate, relevant, well-suited; of striking appropriateness.
- Hawser: A large heavy rope for nautical use.
- Chandler: A retail dealer in provisions and supplies.
- Balaclava: A cap that is close-fitting and woolen and covers all of the head but the face.
- Afflatus: A strong creative impulse; divine inspiration.
- Penumbra: A fringe region of partial shadow, around a region of complete shadow resulting from total obstruction of light.
- Tallow: A substance obtained from suet and used in making soap, candles and lubricants.
- Cockade: A knot of ribbons, or other circular- or oval-shaped symbol of distinctive colors, which is usually worn on a hat.
- Lazaretto: A hospital for persons with infectious diseases.
- Epaulets: A decoration or flourish worn on the shoulders, as on a uniform.
- Chevrons: A V-shaped sleeve badge indicating military rank and service.
- Chinoiserie: A recurring theme in European artistic styles since the seventeenth century, which reflect Chinese artistic influences.
- Brazier: A container for fire, generally taking the form of an upright standing or hanging metal bowl or box.
- Soldered: Fastened by means of soldering, a process in which two or more metal items are joined, or 'fused', together by melting and flowing a filler metal into the joint.
- Brilliantine: A pomade to make the hair manageable and lustrous.
- Banlieu: A French term, meaning the outskirts of a city, or a zone around a city that is under the city's rule.
- Expatiating: Elaborating.
- Boîte: French for "box", the collection of an artist's work to be viewed by clients.
- Volubility: Fluency; the quality of being facile in speech and writing.
- Provenance: The origin or source of something, or the history of the ownership or location of an object.
- Metempsychosis: Transmigration of the soul, especially its reincarnation after death.
- Brousse: Describe this term.
- Graphomane: One who is irresistibly drawn to reading and writing.
- Petroliferous: Containing or yielding petroleum; usually used of a rock or geologic formation.
- Adenoidal: Having the nasal tones or impaired breathing of one with enlarged adenoids; sounding as if the nose were pinched.
- Decanting: The act of gently pouring out a liquid, usually a wine or liquor.
- Seraglio: A harem; a living quarters reserved for wives and concubines and female relatives in a Muslim household
- Enervating: Weakening; depriving of strength or vitality.
- Bitumen: A highly viscous, tarry, black substance found in the earth or made from petroleum. Sometimes called asphalt or pitch.
- Internecine: Within a group or organization; usually used to describe a conflict.
- Archon: A generic term denoting a magnate or powerful official, especially for a city, region or department.
- Nihilist: One who believes that everything is unreal, that there is no value in the world, moral or otherwise. One who believes in the truth of nothing.
- Arboreal: Of or relating to or formed by trees.
- Inexorability: An unwillingness to relent or let up.
- Panoply: A panoply is a complete suit of armour; a complete and impressive array.
- Affective: Pertaining to emotional expression.
- Peremptory: Precluding debate or expostulation; not admitting of question or appeal.
- Extrinsic: Not forming an essential part of a thing, or arising or originating from the outside.
- Mastic: A pasty cement used as an adhesive or filler.
- Schist: Any crystalline rock having a structure of thin layers, and hence admitting of ready division into slabs or slates.
- Scansion: A systematic way to mark the metrical patterns of a line of poetry.
- Parallelepiped: A three-dimensional figure formed by six parallelograms.
- Catoptric: Relating to the branch of optics dealing with formation of images by mirrors.
- Polydyptic: Having chronic excessive thirst and fluid intake.
- Pied-à-terre: A small living unit usually located in a large city, some distance away from an individual's primary residence; often an apartment or condominium. French for "foot on the ground".
- Incipit: The opening words of the text proper of a work, of sufficient length to identify the work uniquely.
- Mythomane: One who has a pathological trend of lying.
- Nipponese: Japanese. (Nippon is the Japanese word for Japan.)
- Excogitate: To think over something carefully; to consider fully. To come to a conclusion through reason or careful thought.
- Raptus: A seizure; a state of rapture.
- Sidereal: Of or relating to the stars or constellations.
- Wrack: Dried seaweed, especially that cast ashore; the destruction or collapse of something.
- Bole: The trunk of a tree; the main structural member of a tree that supports the branches and is supported by and directly attached to the roots.
- Papillae: A tiny outgrowth; a small nipple-shaped protuberance.
- Sacroiliac: Relating to the joint between the sacrum and the ilium of the pelvis.
- Telluric: Pertaining to the Earth; of or relating to or containing the chemical element tellurium.
- Anorak: A type of heavy jacket with a hood, often lined with fur, to protect the face from a combination of freezing temperatures and wind.
- Fausse maigre: A woman who seems very thin but in fact has well shaped body. French for "one who carries her weight well".
- Carbine: A smaller, lighter, version of a rifle with less power and a shortened barrel.
- Divagation: A digression; straying off from a course or way.
- Calumny: A false accusation of an offense or a malicious misrepresentation of someone's words or actions.
- Appellative: A common noun; an epithet.
- Estancia: A ranch or farmstead in Spanish speaking South America.
- Planisphere: Any representation of part of a sphere on a plane surface; a chart of the celestial sphere having an overlay or window that may be adjusted to show the stars visible at a particular time, or from a particular place
- Edulcorated: Made sweeter in taste.
- Trice: To hoist up or in and lash or secure with a small rope.
- Caryatid: A supporting column carved in the shape of a female figure.
- Balustrade: A bannister; a railing at the side of a staircase or balcony to prevent people from falling.
- Plinth: A block or slab upon which a column, pedestal, or statue is based.
- Metope: A panel on the frieze of a Doric building.
- Punctiform: Very small but not microscopic.
- Pulviscular: Dusty; resembling fine powder.
- Aperture: A device that controls amount of light admitted; or a natural opening in something.
- Centrifugal: Tending to move away from a center.
- Confutation: The act or process of refutation.
- Saffron: A shade of yellow tinged with orange.
Series & Lists edit
This is book 10 of 11 in The Bibliophile Club - Selected Reads of 2010. (community list)
Preceded by The Woman in White, and followed by Middlemarch.
This is book 201011 of 28 in The Bibliophile Club - Monthly Selected Reads. (community list)
Preceded by The Woman in White, and followed by Middlemarch.
This is book 15 of 29 in Biblioteka XX. stoljeće (Jutarnji list). (edition-based publisher list)
Preceded by The Castle, and followed by Swann's Way.
This is book 300 of 1271 in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. (authoritative list)
Preceded by The Safety Net, and followed by The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Authors & Contributors edit
- Italo Calvino (Author)
Other Contributors:
- Lili Golestan (Translator)
- William Weaver (Translator)
First Edition edit
Original Language: Italian
Publisher: Add the publisher.
Country: Italy
Publication Date: 1979
ISBN: Add the ISBN.
Page Count: 260
Publisher: Add the publisher.
Country: Italy
Publication Date: 1979
ISBN: Add the ISBN.
Page Count: 260
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: PQ4809.A45S3713
- Dewey: 813
Subjects edit
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