Books about Naples suggested by B&B Donnalbina7
To see Naples as we saw it, in the early dawn from far up on the side of Vesuvius, is to see a picture of wonderful beauty."
Mark Twain
"One may write or paint as much as one likes, but this place, the shore, the bay, Vesuvius, the citadels, the villas, everything defies description."
Goethe
Eduardo de Filippo. Four Plays: "Grand Magic, The Local Authority, Filumena, Napoli Milionaria". Paperback Methuen Publishing Ltd
These plays include "Napoli Milionaria" produced at the Royal National Theatre in 1991.Eduardo de Filippo was one of Italy's leading popular dramatists, a fearless social critic, a supreme man of the theatre, and a humane and compassionate writer. The four plays in this volume present different facets of his prolific output, which focused on the lives of the Neapolitan people, their dubious cunning nourished by centuries of hunger, their fantasies and their love of life. The Local Authority, Grand Magic and Filumena Marturano are translated by Carlo Ardito, and Napoli Milionaria was translated by Peter Tinniswood for the Royal National Theatre's production in 1991.
Ermanno Rea: A Mystery in Naples Paperback. Guernica Editions Inc .Why did Francesca Nobili kill herself in Naples on Good Friday in 1961? What forces could drive a fervent believer in the redemption of humankind to the most desperate of human acts, to prefer an operatic staging of her death over her ideals and militant faith in social progress? In a diary that walks the subtlest of lines between fact and fiction, Ermanno Rea returns after thirty years to Naples, his beloved, petrified city, to discover why his unforgettable friend chose death over life. An intimate account of the Cold War, A Mystery in Naples explores how the great forces of history permeate our most vulnerable hopes and needs. Rea's Naples in the 1950s is a front line city in the battle between Stalin's communism and the West's transformation of its port into a vast military base run on secrecy and corruption. The author plunges into the city, excavates his own memory, digs up sources, and meets politicians, bureaucrats, journalists and activists who were friends and enemies of Francesca, many of whom are torn by regret about their collusion to survive those bitter years of belligerence. Rea's private inquest gradually expands to become the collective history of a still-scarred
Erri de Luca: God's mountain. hardcover Riverhead books. The diary of a 13-year-old boy at the cusp of manhood in an isolated world. The setting is Montedidio, or "God's Mountain," a "neighborhood of alleyways" in Naples in the 1960s. The unnamed narrator struggles to learn "proper Italian" in lieu of his native dialect as he labors at a carpentry workshop and stoically observes the inexorable decline of his mother's health. His upstairs neighbor, Maria, a sadly wise girl his own age who's been seduced by their landlord, initiates his sexual experience. The language, while simple, has surprising, fresh moments: the cobbler's cheerful stories "pump" the narrator's bones "full of air." Teardrops "burst" from eyes "with a shot from inside." While little new ground is covered, the book is effective in its poignant immediacy, as the narrator bears the rigors of a lonely and tragic coming of age. The story also chronicles the narrator's central passion: his boomerang, a gift from his father. As a simple and elegant trope, the boomerang encompasses both the freedom and hope inherent in his longing to escape, as well as the futility of his aspirations.
Norman Lewis Naples '44: An Intelligence Officer in the Italian Labyrinth.Eland Books, Paperback. A brilliantly-written diary of an intelligence officer that is at times shocking and moving. Armed with modesty, unfailing politness and, perhaps most impressively, a military pass allowing him to be anywhere at any time and in any uniform, Norman Lewis moves through the murky, dangerous world of wartime Naples. Lewis, who died in July 2003, was a London-born Welshmen whose diamond-sharp eye for observation and subtle satire and humour depicts with warmth and accuracy the idiosyncrasies of Italian culture, and a city that has descended into chaos. For Lewis, his stay in Naples was an unforgettable experience. Thanks to his writing talent it is also an unforgettable experience for any reader of Naples '44 - a fascinating and valuable historical document.
Nan Richardson, Jed Fielding. City of Secrets: Photographs of Naples. Hardcover Takarajima Books Inc. City of Secrets is Jed Fielding's first monograph. A student of Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind, Fielding mastered the subtleties of focal point and rim. These extraordinary images, the product of twenty years spent photographing in the streets of Naples, constitute a major body of work by an important American Photographer.
Italo Pardo. Managing existence in Naples. Cambridge University Press. Italo Pardo has produced a thoughtful and original account of the moral life of Naples, a city in which the ethics of work, family and neighbourhood exist in complex relationship with the teachings of the church and, crucial to key processes of democracy, with the power and limitations of law, bureaucracy and government. Dr Pardo identifies the importance of strong continuous interaction between material and non-material aspects in the entrepreneurial strategies of the ordinary Neapolitan and shows the ways in which different ethical systems are negotiated in everyday life. Success is measured not only by material gain, but also by satisfying spiritual obligations and meeting the claims of intimate loyalties. This is one of the very few ethnographic studies of a European city; it questions old assumptions and raises fresh issues in the field of urban studies, demonstrating the significance of empirical analysis to mainstream debates in social theory.
Jordan Lancaster. In the Shadow of Vesuvius: A Cultural History of Naples. Hardcover. With this engaging history, Lancaster, a professor of Italian, seeks to restore honor to Naples, which many Italians and prospective visitors see as a city of little more than pickpockets and pizza. As she stresses, for most of its history, Naples was a preeminent European city, a thriving home for music, philosophy, painting and science. Her book is organized into sections by epochs and ruling governments; at times, the compression of such a long history into this short space makes it hard to digest, but Lancaster stops often to recount captivating legends and anecdotes. She seems to have a quote from every writer or thinker who ever visited Naples or its surroundings (especially the nearby ruins of Pompeii), but her own expertise and love for the city holds the book together. She is extremely articulate about the city's musical history, which she credits as one of the traditions that kept Neapolitan culture alive over the years, from the popular tarantella to opera buffa (comedic opera) to modern singers like Pino Daniele. She also seamlessly incorporates many women's stories, whether they be queens, saints, activists or consorts. The years after Italian unification were brutal for Naples, which lost much of its prestige as well as thousands of people who emigrated north or to America. Though honest in describing these trials, Lancaster is hopeful about recent signs of recovery, and her vibrant portrait of the city's past will make readers join her in that optimism.
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