Italian literature in 5 books

[kev67]

If you wanted to do Italian literature in five books, which would you choose?

[North Star]

Something like this, perhaps:

Dante - The Divine Comedy
Boccaccio - Decameron
Ariosto - Orlando furioso
Leopardi - a volume of poetry
Calvino - Invisible Cities

[JBI]

The Betrothed is an essential text, that and Dante's works, particularly the Comedia are the essence of Italian literary education.

[Danik 2016]

I would add to these suggestions:
Six Characters in Search of an Author, play by Luigi Pirandello.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Characters_in_Search_of_an_Author

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

My exposure to Italian literature is extremely limited, any literature for that matter. Have I read five Italian authors?
Regardless, there is one I've read that I would certainly include in a list of five, that being Giuseppe di Lampedusa's The Leopard
Dante was already mentioned, that seems to be a given, same with Boccaccio.

[JCamilo]

Petrarca Cancionero is together with Dante and Boccaccio the most influential work written in italian ever... basically the motive sonnets are the most popular lyrical form...

[mortalterror]

1.Dante's Divine Comedy
2.Petrarch's Canzoniere
3.Boccaccio's Decameron
4.Ariosto's Orlando Furioso
5.Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered
6.Leopardi's Canti
7.Manzoni's The Betrothed
8.Goldoni's Servant of Two Masters
9.Calvino's If On a Winter's Night a Traveler
10.Svevo's Confessions of Zeno
11.Pulci's Morgante
12.Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato
13.Castiglione's Book of the Courtier
14.Lampedusa's The Leopard
15.Carducci's Hymn to Satan

[Red Terror]

These are generally good lists. I read only Dante's Divine Comedy which I did not like (and I read it slowly and carefully with end notes and all the trimmings. I've been wanting to read the Decameron but it's too long; my life is hard right now. I have a copy of the Courtier which is still collecting dust.

[kev67]

My exposure to Italian literature is extremely limited, any literature for that matter. Have I read five Italian authors?
Regardless, there is one I've read that I would certainly include in a list of five, that being Giuseppe di Lampedusa's The Leopard
Dante was already mentioned, that seems to be a given, same with Boccaccio.

I am glad someone mentioned The Leopard as it is the only one mentioned that I have read. It is one of those books for grown-up people, which I had problems following myself because it was so political. The Decameron sounds very interesting. Boccacio wrote it about the time of the Black Death. I have watched a soft-porn version of it by Paolo Pasolini, which was, nevertheless, quite good. Of course, The Devine Comedy by Dante is the one we've all heard of.

[Jackson Richardson]

Visconti's film of The Leopard is very beautiful, hysterically Italian to my mind, misses out bits of the book and is considerably longer as a film than the book is as a book.

I'm rather fond of The Bethrothed because I came across it in a bookshop without anyone telling me how important it is. I believe that because it is the only significant C19 Italian novel, it is an invariable school set text and lots of Italian schoolchildren are put off it as a result.

[Jack of Hearts]

You're all picking the wrong Calvino!

The Cosmicomics. Definitive offering for 20th century Italian literature. Perhaps the small, regional author Giovanni Arpino?

But early than 1900, Jack of Hearts wouldn't know what to include, never having read Dante to completion.




J

[milagros]

Hello:

I propose The Prince by Machiavelli. The book is read for people who study ethics, philosophy or politics.

[ennison]

I think this is about what we like because it is not sensible to reduce a great literature to five books. Pirandello yes. Dante yes. Morante. Ferrante and Italian cinema.

[EmptySeraph]

Papini, perhaps?

[stacy55]

I wouldn't waste my time on that!!

[EmptySeraph]

Why not?

Dante
Boccaccio
Petrarca
Papini

:ciappa:

It looks quite marvelous!