A Tent in This World
SKU:
1585
$20.00
$20.00
per item
"To be young and in the middle of the world! In this delicious memoir of Naples and Capri at the end of the War, there is a special wisdom of youth that shows all things as loveable." —Robert Kelly
At the outset of the career of the man who is regarded today as having been the pre-eminent American translator of 20th-century Italian literature — as well as the distinguished author of many books on opera — William Weaver had, in fact, a somewhat different object in mind: he wished to be a novelist. Recently graduated both from Princeton and World War Two (as an ambulance driver), the youthful aspirant made a return visit to Naples in 1947, and stayed for some weeks with the Italian family of an equally aspiring and youthful friend. A Tent in This World records the weeks that followed, though it is both more and less than the diary which, with disarming wit and subtle irony, it purports to be. This novella à clef is, in fact, three things in one: a thoroughly engaging Isherwood-esque fiction of a not-quite-so-innocent abroad; an affectionately true portrait of the inhabitants of Naples and Capri; and a considerable literary rediscovery. For although not until now has A Tent in This World been published as a book in English, the text was printed in 1950 in an issue of one of the foremost international literary journals of the day, Botteghe Oscure. And only a few years ago, to great critical acclaim, A Tent in This World was published as a book in Italian. Its appearance, or reappearance, in English explains now what the literary world both gained and lost when William Fense Weaver, novelist-to-be, settled instead upon becoming "simply" William Weaver, translator of Italo Calvino, Umberto Eco, Alberto Moravia, and a host of Italy's most famous authors. A Tent in This World is the charming description, finally, of a gifted American sensibility discovering an irresistible attachment to the Italian soul.
Clothbound, sewn, jacketed, 160 pages, 5.25 x 8.25", 1999, 0-929701-58-5
A first edition of 1500 numbered copies, each signed by the author.
At the outset of the career of the man who is regarded today as having been the pre-eminent American translator of 20th-century Italian literature — as well as the distinguished author of many books on opera — William Weaver had, in fact, a somewhat different object in mind: he wished to be a novelist. Recently graduated both from Princeton and World War Two (as an ambulance driver), the youthful aspirant made a return visit to Naples in 1947, and stayed for some weeks with the Italian family of an equally aspiring and youthful friend. A Tent in This World records the weeks that followed, though it is both more and less than the diary which, with disarming wit and subtle irony, it purports to be. This novella à clef is, in fact, three things in one: a thoroughly engaging Isherwood-esque fiction of a not-quite-so-innocent abroad; an affectionately true portrait of the inhabitants of Naples and Capri; and a considerable literary rediscovery. For although not until now has A Tent in This World been published as a book in English, the text was printed in 1950 in an issue of one of the foremost international literary journals of the day, Botteghe Oscure. And only a few years ago, to great critical acclaim, A Tent in This World was published as a book in Italian. Its appearance, or reappearance, in English explains now what the literary world both gained and lost when William Fense Weaver, novelist-to-be, settled instead upon becoming "simply" William Weaver, translator of Italo Calvino, Umberto Eco, Alberto Moravia, and a host of Italy's most famous authors. A Tent in This World is the charming description, finally, of a gifted American sensibility discovering an irresistible attachment to the Italian soul.
Clothbound, sewn, jacketed, 160 pages, 5.25 x 8.25", 1999, 0-929701-58-5
A first edition of 1500 numbered copies, each signed by the author.