Italian Studies

... Read The Cheese And The Worms Summary

This guide refers to the 2003 Penguin Classics edition, translated by Henry Bettenson and edited by G.R. Evans. Your page numbers may vary. Please note that this guide covers only Part 1 (Books 1-10) of the 22 books of City of God. Begun in 413 AD, only a few years after the Sack of Rome, City of God is Augustine’s rejoinder to pagan misconceptions of Christianity. In the aftermath of a disastrous and unprecedented attack... Read The City of God Summary

The Decameron is a collection of short stories by Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio, completed in 1353. The book was published in the wake of the Black Death, a bubonic plague which swept through Europe in the 14th century. The plague killed a large percentage of the population of Boccaccio’s native Florence. Boccaccio uses the epidemic as a key part of the book’s framing narrative, as in the book, a group of young Florentine men and... Read The Decameron Summary

In 1516, at the height of the Italian Renaissance, Niccolò Machiavelli pens his Discourses on Livy while in exile from his native city of Florence. The Discourses are Machiavelli’s commentaries on the republic of ancient Rome—how it is founded, maintained, and protected—and how Roman wisdom in the art of statecraft can be used by all republics.The Roman Republic is an early democracy that lasts from 509 BCE to 49 BCE. Roman scholar Titus Livius—“Livy”—first recorded... Read The Discourses Summary

First published in Italy in 1986 as I sommersi e i salvati, The Drowned and the Saved, is a collection of eight essays by Primo Levi about his experiences in the concentration camp at Auschwitz. The book was translated into English in 1988 by Raymond Rosenthal. Some critics categorize The Drowned and the Saved as a memoir, while others believe it to be an autobiography; still other critics name this book a treatise in which... Read The Drowned and the Saved Summary

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The Enchantress of Florence is a 2008 magical-realist novel by Salman Rushdie. The story incorporates many fantastical, folkloric elements as it portrays life in the Mughal Empire and Renaissance Florence in the 16th century. In the novel, a mysterious European man arrives in the Mughal court with a story which can only be told to the emperor. Rushdie described the novel as his most heavily researched work and The Enchantress of Florence was praised by... Read The Enchantress Of Florence Summary

The Flamethrowers is a historical fiction novel published in 2013 by the American author Rachel Kushner. It follows the story of Reno, a young woman experiencing the turbulence of the 1970s in New York City. An aspiring artist, Reno finds herself in remarkable situations both in New York and abroad in Italy. Kushner weaves Italian and American history to highlight how people experience the implications of the societies and histories they inherit. Kushner subverts typical... Read The Flamethrowers Summary

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The Lying Life of Adults (2020) by Elena Ferrante is a work of fiction. Set in Naples, Italy, the narrative is a coming-of-age story, also known as a bildungsroman, told by Giovanna Trada. Giovanna details her adolescence from 13 to 16 years of age and the growing pains she endured while searching for identity and autonomy. Themes include the struggle between good and evil, women as either sinners or saints, and compunction and gender roles... Read The Lying Life of Adults Summary

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The year is 1327. William of Baskerville, a Franciscan friar, and Adso of Melk, a young novice travelling under his protection, arrive at a wealthy Benedictine abbey somewhere in Italy on an important secret mission. A group of Franciscans has come under fire from Pope John XXII, who suspects them of heresy. The Holy Roman Emperor, Louis IV, has aligned himself with the Franciscans, and the abbey has been chosen as a neutral location for... Read The Name of the Rose Summary

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The Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James, is considered one of the most important novels written in English. It was published first in serial form between 1880 and 1881, and later revised for another edition in 1908. The novel details the experience of a young American woman, Isabel Archer, who travels to Europe. She is committed to her freedom, rejecting two marriage proposals. After she inherits an unexpected fortune, she falls victim to the... Read The Portrait of a Lady Summary

The Prince is a 16th-century political treatise of the Renaissance period written by Italian diplomat and philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli. The work, which was likely distributed for years prior to its official publication in 1532, is one of the most influential works of political philosophy in human history. Machiavelli wrote The Prince as a guide for new and future rulers, instructing them on how to seize and hold onto power, frequently citing specific examples from history... Read The Prince Summary

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The Story of a New Name is the sequel to My Brilliant Friend, the first book in Italian writer Elena Ferrante’s world-acclaimed quartet of Neapolitan novels. The second book in the quartet continues to document the friendship between Elena Greco and Lila Cerullo and opens in 1966 when first-person narrator Elena, burdened by the contents of the notebooks that Lila has entrusted to her, throws all of them into the river Arno in Pisa (where... Read The Story of a New Name Summary