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phi g wrote this review 6 days ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Lots of fun! Historical fiction comedy? I would think that fans of "Princes Bride" would enjoy these stories.”
Leif wrote this review Tuesday, June 23 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Serenity 4 out of 5 stars This book is a collection of two novellas. In the Nonexistent Knight, an empty suit of armor who is a stickler for the rules and bureaucracy of being in a military camp in the Crusades, discovers that he must now prove his legitimacy of being made a knight by proving the virginity of a royal lady he saved from distress 15 years prior. This is thrown in with a very strange love triangle involving the empty knight, a young hothead knight out for glory and vengeance, and a female warrior. There are many twists and turns, but this is fun satire on the decorum of knights of that time.
Author, Author Shelf wrote this review Monday, April 6 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
The Cloven Viscount is a lot more macabre, in that a Viscount goes to the crusades only to meet with the business end of a cannonball and be cloven into two halves. One half gets picked up and returns to his home, but he is now very evil, and starts executing everyone, setting things on fire, and cutting random things in half, so that things can look more like him I suppose. Then the good half shows up and starts trying to set things right, but people soon realize that he is a little bit too good. How are things resolved? Well you'll just have to read it and find out!
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“These are wonderful novellas. Written as fables, there appeal lies on one level as simple fictional tales about knights and castles, so it could be something that children could enjoy quite easily. From there, it grows. Calvino packs so much wisdom and inquisitiveness into these stories, that it takes on the form of a metaphysical inquiry into morality, epistomology, and science. In "The Nonexistent Knight," the penultimate hollow man shuffles through Charlemagne's Europe maintaining some kind of external order, at least. That's all he has to offer to the world, of course, because there is nothing inside the shell. Don't you know people like that?
Mark V wrote this review Thursday, February 12 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Then in "The Cloven Viscount," a parable in an ethical style, Calvino splits a person in two and takes the reader on the journey of exploring all the ramifications of that fissure.
I believe these could be taught in a philosophy course, a literature course, read at the bedside with junior, and taken to the beach for summer reading, and an easy book to talk about at a dinner party or in a book group.
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“شوالیه ی ناموجود می خواهد بگوید که تصور انسان کامل تصوری بی هوده است. انسان کامل وجود ندارد و تنها در اسطوره ها و تفکرات عامه یافت می شود”
frida wrote this review Thursday, January 24 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Calvino's fascination with the Middle Ages seems almost satirical in these two very tongue-in-cheek novellas. In no way a beach read, these two pseudo-existential stories deal with basic principles of existence (or non-existence) after the fashion of a parable with omniscient narration.
Rebecca M wrote this review Friday, January 11 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
The characters are colorful, although sometimes the development is somewhat open-ended. Calvino molds his characters is such a way that one is not sure with whom to have sympathy. This perhaps is the novelist's greatest statement in showing the definitions of "good" and "evil" to be somewhat grey.
Highly recommended read...think Italian Beckett. ”
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