Welcome to the beta version of Shelfari’s new Book Detail pages!
These pages are editable by the community, so please contribute! Click here to learn more about this feature. We’d love to hear your feedback.
Description
To Arthur Fraser, a young Englishman, Sardinia in 1960 is perfect. It's an island filled with Roman ruins, exotic scenery, local customs, and morally traditional values-he loves everything. To assimilate into the strange and belong to a society different from his own has always been his... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis
Summary
A. Colin Wright: SARDINIAN SILVER
Synopsis
A first-person, literary novel of about 73,000 words. The title is the name of an actual Sardinian wine, described as “slightly sad, more like the memory of a Sardinian summer” after the glories of its sweeter counterpart, “Sardinian Gold.”...
read more (warning: may contain spoilers)
Cast of Characters
- Arthur Frasaer: A young representative for a tourist company, seeking love in Sardinia
- Anna Lorcas: A Sard girl who lives in Rome and is no longer accepted at home. Mischievous and free-thinking.
- Gavino Palmas: An introspective Sard lawyer, becomes a friend of Arthur and, later, of Anna
- Teresa: A tempestuous Sard maid in Arthur's hotel
- Jim: Another English tourist representative, with a Sard girl-friend
- Marcella: Jim's girl-friend
- Isabelle or Isabella Schurz: A somewhat crazy American tourist representative, who constantly offends Sard susceptibilities
- Enrico: A local teacher
- Margaret Morley: An English tourist representative, with whom Arthur develops a flirting but platonic relationship
- Maurice: Arthur's boss
- Caterina: A young girl with a crush on Arthur
- Claudia: A high-class prostitute whom Gavino goes out with
- Maria: Another Sard girl
Memorable Quotes
-
“To assimilate the strange and belong, in a society different from my own, had always been my desire.”
Arthur -
“Rather the beer-swilling debauchees every time (even if, alas, I'm too fastidious to be one myself) than the coercive, terrible respectability of ordinary people, who assure you that maturity and conformity are identical and confuse religion with being "nice, good people like us."”
Arthur -
“Hug and hold tightly in a dance, but be satisfied with this brief, despairing feel of another body, for it's all you<'re going to get unless you pay a prostitute for more: southern Italy in a nutshell.”
Arthur -
“How much time and energy was spent on this so often fruitless pursuit of sex? Had I, in Sardinia, no other thoughts? Of course I had. I had a love for literature and art, for the mystery of life, for the wonder of the universe glimpsed on any starry night above. But the torment of desire outweighed all this. Hasn't the erotic always been a sultry-sweet urge of mankind, worthy of glorification alongside our so-called higher instincts?”
Arthur -
“"I honestly don't know how much I'd want to change things. There's still a lot to be said for our simple lives. I think we're happier, even if one sometimes wants the freedom they have on the continent. ... So many of our desires just lead us into trouble." "But life IS trouble."”
Maria, Arthur -
“But will I ever return, I think, to the Sardinia of my soul?”
Arthur
First Sentence
A quarter to seven on a fresh, blustery morning in February.
Table of Contents
Glossary
- Sardinian Silver: The name of a Vernaccia wine, which, with its sweeter counterpart, Sardinian Gold, was produced under that name in the 1960s.
- Sard: The usual term for someone living in, or coming from, Sardinia
- Nuraghe: One of hundreds of towers in Sardinia dating from the earliest known civilization there.
Errata
p.11 "Scorregiare" should be "scoreggiare"
p.17 "Teresa took no noticed" should be "Teresa took no notice"
Authors & Contributors
- Anthony Colin Wright (Author)
Awards
- Indie Awards (Finalist, 2009: Fiction)
- New York Book Festival (Runner-up, 2009: Fiction)
- San Francisco Book Festival (Honourable mention, 2009: Fiction)
Popular Tags
Books with Additional Background Information
List the books that contain additional information about this book.
If you have any suggestions for how we can improve this page or if there are sections that you would like us to add, please let us know.
