WULOLIFE
Marcovaldo Author: [Italy] Italo Calvino Publisher: Yilin Press Original title: Marcovaldo Translator: Ma Xiaomo Series: Calvino's Works (2019 Edition)
Marcovaldo Author: [Italy] Italo Calvino Publisher: Yilin Press Original title: Marcovaldo Translator: Ma Xiaomo Series: Calvino's Works (2019 Edition)
Description
Introduction · · · · · ·
The four seasons of the year repeat themselves, each season tells a story
Looking up at the stars in the ditch: the fun and joy of the city in the eyes of a worker
Marcovaldo is a city worker. In the city forest full of cement and asphalt, he tries to find nature. The mushrooms popping out of the flower beds in spring and the migratory birds flying over the city in autumn can make his gray and poor world colorful and fertile. He has a pair of sharp and sensitive eyes, always capturing the changes of the seasons and the secrets of the city. For him, "in addition to hourly wages, additional wage subsidies and family allowances, there are still some things to look forward to in life."
The long-awaited simplified Chinese version of Marcovaldo is a landmark work in Calvino's creative career, opening up his golden age. Calvino's observations and reflections on urban life in this series of stories laid a solid foundation for his later masterpiece Invisible Cities. After experiencing Marcovaldo's little misfortunes and joys, Calvino wrote this as his last love poem to the city when it became increasingly difficult for him to live in the city.
About the Author · · · · · ·
Regarding his life, Calvino wrote: "I am still one of those people like Croce who believes that an author is only valuable for his works. Therefore, I do not provide biographical information. I will tell you what you want to know. But I will never tell you the truth."
Born in Cuba on October 15, 1923, he died suddenly in a seaside villa on September 19, 1985, and missed the Nobel Prize in Literature that year.
Both of his parents were botanists, and "science was the only thing respected in my family. I was the black sheep, the only one involved in literature."
He spent his youth with books, comics and movies. He dreamed of becoming a playwright, but after graduating from high school he entered the agronomy department of university and later graduated from the Faculty of Arts.
In 1947, he published his first novel, The Path to the Spider's Nest, and since then he has been committed to exploring the infinite possibilities of the art of novel narration.
He lived in seclusion in Paris for fifteen years and had close contacts with Levi-Strauss, Roland Barthes, Queneau and others.
He fell ill while preparing for a lecture at Harvard in the summer of 1985. The surgeon said he had never seen a brain structure as complex and exquisite as Calvino's.