Adam, One Afternoon
By (Author) Italo Calvino
Translated by Archibald Colquhoun
Translated by Peggy Wright
Vintage Publishing
Vintage Classics
5th January 2001
20th August 1992
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
Classic fiction: general and literary
853.914
Paperback
192
Width 130mm, Height 198mm, Spine 13mm
141g
An acclaimed collection of enchanting, comic and clever tales from the Italian master This collection of playful, deadly febles is populated with waifs and strays, a gluttonous thief and a mischievous gardener. The grimly comic story The Argentine Ant moved Gore Vidal to declare 'if this is not a masterpiece of twentieth-century prose writing, I cannot think of anything better'.
Italo Calvino's Adam, One Afternoon confirms the part he has played in revitalising the art of fiction in our time. In these beautifully translated stories, the quality of the writing emerges as clearly as do the ease and range of his inventiveness. Calvino's special gift is to link the physical and immediate with an allegorical timelessness-All the characters and creatures in these stories conspire to convey a feeling of the wonder, mystery and terror of life * Guardian *
Calvino's strength is his economy and subtlety. The best of his allegorical fantasies have the power of the Brothers Grimm, rollicking stories on the surface, with an underlying savagery * Listener *
Italo Calvino was born in Cuba in 1923. He grew up in Italy. He was an essayist and journalist and a member of the editorial staff of Einaudi in Turin. In 1973 he won the prestigious Premio Feltrinelli. He died in 1985.