The Iguana (English Edition) (English and Italian Edition) - Hardcover

Anna Maria Ortese; Henry Martin; Translator

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0914232878 ISBN 13: 9780914232872

Publisher: McPherson, 1987

Synopsis

In this magical novel a Milanese count stumbles upon a desolate community of lost noblemen on an uncharted island off the coast of Portugal. When he discovers, to his utter amazement, that their ill-treated servant is in fact a maiden iguana, and then proceeds to fall in love with her, the story of Aleardo, Estralitta and don Ilario becomes universal -- the fantastic merges with the commonplace until a resonant reality emerges with subtle distillation. From first page to last, the reader is given a tale of tragic love and delusion that ranks among the most affecting in contemporary literature. The Iguana has the force of "The Tempest," and is written with a grace comparable in every way to the works of Izak Dinesen and Djuna Barnes. Little wonder, then, that this novel was called by the noted critic Pietro Citati, "one of the very few books destined to redeem the honor of Italian literature since the Second World War." First published in Italian in 1965, where it was awarded the Fiuggi Prize, this masterpiece is by one of the original Italian "magic realists."

About this title

About the Author:

Anna Maria Ortese was born in Rome on June 13, 1914, one of seven children, and grew up in southern Italy and in Tripoli. Her formal education ended at age thirteen. Her first book, Angelici dolori, was issued in 1937. In 1953 her third collection, Il mare non bagna Napoli, won the coveted Viareggio prize; thereafter, Ortese's stories, novels, and journalism received many of the most distinguished Italian literary awards, including the Strega and the Fiuggi. Although she lived for many years in Naples following the Second World War, she also resided in Milan, in Rome, and for most of the last twenty years of her life in Rapallo. In addition to The Iguana, McPherson & Co. has published two volumes of of her stories under the collective title, A Music Behind the Wall, also translated by Henry Martin. Anna Maria Ortese died in Rapallo on March 9, 1998.

Language Notes:

Text: English, Italian (translation)

About this edition

• Publisher: McPherson
• Publication date: 1987
• ISBN 10: 0914232878
• ISBN 13: 9780914232872
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 198