La Signorina E Altri Racconti: An MLA Text Edition

Greatly influenced by writers ranging from Dickens and Proust to Woolf and Colette, Anna Banti was a prominent figure on the Italian literary scene from the 1940s until her death in 1985. The five tales in "La signorina" e altri racconti display her talent across many genres―fiction, science fiction, historical fiction, mystery.

Banti's stories portray the ageless conflict between the expectations of society and the aspirations of the individual. In "Vocazioni indistinte," the young Ofelia becomes a pianist after her marriage prospects fail, but self-doubt turns her success into miserable mediocrity. In the futuristic "Le donne muoiono," men acquire a new evolutionary ability; women, lacking that ability, are consigned to the status of an inferior race. "Joveta di Betania," set in the time of the Crusades, follows the daughter of King Baldwin II of Jerusalem as she escapes to a life of seclusion as an abbess―a life that becomes for her a source of proud freedom and deep bitterness. In "I velieri," a young boy creates an imaginary world from an uncertain childhood memory. "La signorina" tells of a young woman who eventually finds herself, as a writer.

Anna Banti was the pseudonym of Lucia Lopresti-Longhi (1895-1985), the author of eight novels (including the widely acclaimed Artemisia), a play, and seven collections of short stories. She wrote critical works on artists from Fra Angelico to Monet and translated works by, among others, Alain-Fournier, Thackeray, and Woolf. Carol Lazzaro-Weis is professor of French and Italian at the University of Missouri. Her research interests include the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French novel, feminist literary theory, and twentieth-century Italian literature.