If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

Paperback, 260 pages

Published Oct. 23, 1982 by L&OD Key Porter.

ISBN:: 978-0-08-861945-1

(1 review)

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is a marvel of ingenuity, an experimental text that looks longingly back to the great age of narration—"when time no longer seemed stopped and did not yet seem to have exploded." Italo Calvino's novel is in one sense a comedy in which the two protagonists, the Reader and the Other Reader, ultimately end up married, having almost finished If on a Winter's Night a Traveler. In another, it is a tragedy, a reflection on the difficulties of writing and the solitary nature of reading. The Reader buys a fashionable new book, which opens with an exhortation: "Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade." Alas, after 30 or so pages, he discovers that his copy is corrupted, and consists of nothing but the first section, over and over. Returning to the bookshop, he discovers the volume, which he thought …

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is a marvel of ingenuity, an experimental text that looks longingly back to the great age of narration—"when time no longer seemed stopped and did not yet seem to have exploded." Italo Calvino's novel is in one sense a comedy in which the two protagonists, the Reader and the Other Reader, ultimately end up married, having almost finished If on a Winter's Night a Traveler. In another, it is a tragedy, a reflection on the difficulties of writing and the solitary nature of reading. The Reader buys a fashionable new book, which opens with an exhortation: "Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade." Alas, after 30 or so pages, he discovers that his copy is corrupted, and consists of nothing but the first section, over and over. Returning to the bookshop, he discovers the volume, which he thought was by Calvino, is actually by the Polish writer Bazakbal. Given the choice between the two, he goes for the Pole, as does the Other Reader, Ludmilla. But this copy turns out to be by yet another writer, as does the next, and the next.

2 editions

Chungledown Bim reviewed If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino

Review of "If on a Winter's Night a Traveler" on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

What a marvellous book! I wish I could remember whom or where it was recommended to me, a crisp high five is in order. But that sort of adds to the experience of If on a winter's night a traveller - & it is an experience - delving into chance & the absurd. What a turn of phrase this Italo Calvino has. Such a skilfully-wrought novel. Why haven't I heard of it, even in passing? I plan on reading it again & will be sad if it's immediately purged from my memory by some quirk of the universe or bureaucratic subterfuge. Or perhaps I won't, delightedly reading it for the first time then returning here to find my own review waiting for me.