Giorgio Bassani

The young, middle-class Jewish narrator recounts his relationship with the Finzi-Continis, an insular, upper-class Jewish family, in Ferrara on the eve of World War II and the family's blindness to impending destruction. 10,000 first printing.

The Garden Of The Finzi-continis

Alla vigilia delle persecuzioni razziali contro gli ebrei un gruppo di giovani si riunisce nel giardino della villa ferrarese della famiglia Finzi-Contini. Qui fiorisce il delicato, effimero amore di Giorgio per Micol. Un nostalgico, appassionato ricordo della giovinezza alle soglie del conflitto mondiale.

Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini

A new Translation by Jamie McKendrick 'Singular . . . The town of Ferrara and its inhabitants are realized with an extraordinary clarity' Guardian Into the insular town of 1930s Ferrara, a new doctor arrives. Fadigati is hopeful and modern, and more than anything wants to fit into his new home. But his fresh, appealing appearance soon crumbles when the young man he pays to be his lover reveals the doctor's homosexuality in a public humiliation. As anti-Semitism spreads across Italy, the Jewish narrator of the tale begins to feel pity for the ostracized doctor, as the fickle nature of a community changing under political forces becomes clear.The Gold-Rimmed Spectacles is Bassani's most perfect novel, and a gripping and tragic study of the terrifying historical realities that can shatter the courses of isolated, individual lives.

The Gold-rimmed Spectacles

Gli occhiali d'oro

"A young working class woman abandoned by her bourgeois lover; the tensions of intermarriage between established classes and communities; a holocaust survivor seemingly back from the dead; a formidable socialist activist defying house arrest; the only surviving witness to the first local atrocity of the Second World War. In these five unforgettable stories, Bassani gave life to the characters that would inform the Romanzo di Ferrara, his suite of novels depicting life in the city."--Publisher's description.

Within the Walls

Il Giardino Dei Finzi Contini

Into the insular town of 1930s Ferrara, a new doctor arrives. Fadigati is hopeful and modern, and more than anything wants to fit into his new home. But his fresh, appealing appearance soon crumbles when the townsfolk discover his homosexuality, and the young man he pays to be his lover humiliates him publicly. As anti-Semitism spreads across Italy, the Jewish narrator of the tale begins to feel pity for the ostracized doctor, as the fickle nature of a community changing under political forces becomes clear. The Gold-Rimmed Spectacles is a gripping and tragic study of how lives can be destroyed by those we consider our neighbours.

The Gold-Rimmed Spectacles

Dentro le mura

Cinque storie ferraresi

The novel of Ferrara

The young, middle-class Jewish narrator recounts his relationship with an insular, upper-class Jewish family in Ferrara on the eve of World War II and the family's blindness to impending destruction

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis

Como novedad en el fondo editorial de Tusquets, publicamos El jardín de los Finzi-Contini, la novela más conocida del italiano Giorgio Bassani, un retrato de la burguesía judía de Ferrara al tiempo que una historia de amor no correspondido. El protagonista narra con nostalgia, en este relato de tintes autobiográficos, el desmoronamiento en la Europa fascista de la elite judía, distante, incapaz de aceptar la realidad y de prever el sombrío futuro que les aguarda, una elite encarnada en la familia Finzi-Contini. Su amor por la hija, Micòl, y el posterior desengaño sentimental, marcan el tránsito de la adolescencia a la madurez.

El jardín de los Finzi-Contini

Given new life by poet and translator Jamie McKendrick, The Novel of Ferrara combines six classic novels into the epic masterwork that Giorgio Bassani intended them to be. Set in the northern Italian town of Ferrara before, during, and after World War II, these interlocking stories present a fully rounded world of unforgettable characters: the respected doctor whose homosexuality is tolerated until he is humiliated by scandal; a survivor of the Nazi death camps whose return to Ferrara gradually results in ostracism; a young man discovering the ugly, treacherous price that people will pay for a sense of belonging. The city itself assumes a character and voice, deeply inflected by the Jewish community to which the narrator belongs. This seminal work seals Bassani's reputation as "a quietly insistent chronicler of our age's various menaces to liberty" (Guardian).

The Novel of Ferrara

The Smell of Hay

Una notte del '43

L'odore del fieno

Dietro la porta

"The narrator, a young middle-class Jew in the Italian city of Ferrara, has long been fascinated from afar by the Finzi-Continis, a wealthy and aristocratic Jewish family, and especially by their daughter Micol. But it is not until 1938 that he is invited behind the walls of their lavish estate, as local Jews begin to gather there to avoid the racial laws of the Fascists, and the garden of the Finzi-Continis becomes an idyllic sanctuary in an increasingly brutal world. Years after the war, the narrator returns in memory to his doomed relationship with the lovely Micol, and to the predicament that faced all the Ferrarese Jews, in this unforgettably wrenching portrait of a community about to be destroyed by the world outside the garden walls"--Provided by publisher.

Modern Classics Garden of the Finzi Continis

Behind the Door

Heron

De reiger beschrijft de laatste dag uit het leven van Edgardo Limentani, een joodse advocaat en grootgrondbezitter uit Ferrara. Hij besluit in de dagen tussen Kerstmis en Nieuwjaar op eendenjacht te gaan. Wanneer hij zich in zijn schuilplaats heeft verschanst, overvalt hem echter een droefgeestigheid waardoor hij geen schot gelost krijgt. Zijn helper Gavino haalt daarentegen de ene na de andere vogel naar beneden, waaronder een enorme reiger. De verhalen en romans van Giorgio Bassani zijn onlosmakelijk met elkaar verbonden en vormen een overweldigend portret van het Italië van na de oorlog. Ze spelen zich allemaal af in Ferrara, een stad in Noord-Italië die eeuwenlang het centrum van de joodse cultuur was, en waar Bassani zelf opgroeide. Voor Bassani is Ferrara een voedingsbodem voor de herinnering; ieder verhaal vormt een tegenwicht voor het wegvallen van het verleden.

Giorgio Bassani

About

Books

Join the club