Natalia Ginzburg

The Little Virtues

Konrad Glogowski

I enjoy each essay to a different degree but i love how personal and heartfelt everything is overall. The last one's especially important for parents (to be). It's abgreat food for thought whatever way you end up deciding to parent. I'll try to look if there's a stand-alone version to share. Lovely!

The last 3 essays in here are 🔥🔥🔥

Gabe Cortez

Nadine 

A beautiful set of essays from the 60's. In particular the keystone essay "The little virtues" is one for every parent and educator to ponder. What values do we pass down to our children consciously and unconsciously and what impact do they have on the people they become?

David Whipps

Anna 

Cassie B

In this collection of her finest and best-known short essays, Natalia Ginzburg explores both the mundane details and inescapable catastrophes of personal life with the grace and wit that have assured her rightful place in the pantheon of classic mid-century authors. Whether she writes of the loss of a friend, Cesare Pavese; or what is inexpugnable of World War II; or the Abruzzi, where she and her first husband lived in forced residence under Fascist rule; or the importance of silence in our society; or her vocation as a writer; or even a pair of worn-out shoes, Ginzburg brings to her reflections the wisdom of a survivor and the spare, wry, and poetically resonant style her readers have come to recognize. "A glowing light of modern Italian literature . . . Ginzburg's magic is the utter simplicity of her prose, suddenly illuminated by one word that makes a lightning streak of a plain phrase. . . . As direct and clean as if it were carved in stone, it yet speaks thoughts of the heart.' — The New York Times Book Review

The Little Virtues

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