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If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
 
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If on a Winter's Night a Traveler (Paperback)

de Italo Calvino (Author)
4.4étoiles sur 5  Voir tous les commentaires (77 évaluations de client)
Prix éditeur: CDN$ 18.95
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  • Cet article : If on a Winter's Night a Traveler de Italo Calvino

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From Amazon.com

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.

The real Calvino intersperses 10 different pastiches--stories of menace, spies, mystery, premonition--with explorations of how and why we read, make meanings, and get our bearings or fail to. Meanwhile the Reader and Ludmilla try to reach, and read, each other. If on a Winter's Night is dazzling, vertiginous, and deeply romantic. "What makes lovemaking and reading resemble each other most is that within both of them times and spaces open, different from measurable time and space." --Ce texte provient de la Hardcover édition.



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 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.


The real Calvino intersperses 10 different pastiches--stories of menace, spies, mystery, premonition--with explorations of how and why we read, make meanings, and get our bearings or fail to. Meanwhile the Reader and Ludmilla try to reach, and read, each other. If on a Winter's Night is dazzling, vertiginous, and deeply romantic. "What makes lovemaking and reading resemble each other most is that within both of them times and spaces open, different from measurable time and space."

(Amazon.com Review )

Avant-garde novel by Italo Calvino, published in 1979 as Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore. Using shifting structures, a succession of tales, and different points of view, the book probes the nature of change and chance and the interdependence of fiction and reality. The novel, which is nonlinear, begins with a man discovering that the copy of a novel he has recently purchased is defective, a Polish novel having been bound within its pages. He returns to the bookshop the following day and meets a young woman who is on an identical mission. They both profess a preference for the Polish novel. Interposed between the chapters in which the two strangers attempt to authenticate their texts are 10 excerpts that parody genres of contemporary world fiction, such as the Latin-American novel and the political novel of eastern Europe. (The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature )

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L'avis des consommateurs

77 évaluations
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3 étoiles:
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4.4étoiles sur 5 (77 évaluations de client)
 
 
 
 
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Commentaires client les plus utiles

 
5.0étoiles sur 5 ... wandered through the world of fiction, Fév 1 2005
Par E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - Voir tous mes commentaires
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
One definition of metafiction is "Fiction that deals, often playfully and self-referentially, with the writing of fiction or its conventions." That could pretty much describe Italo Calvino's "If On A Winter's Night A Traveler," a gloriously surreal story about the hunt for a mysterious book.

A reader opens Italo Calvino's latest novel, "If On A Winter's Night A Traveller," only to have the story cut short. Turns out it was a defective copy, with another book's pages inside. But as the reader tries to find out what book the defective pages belong to, he keeps running into even more books and more difficulties -- as well as the beautiful Ludmilla, a fellow reader who also received a defective book.

With Ludmilla assisting him (and, he hopes, going to date him), the reader then explores obscure dead languages, publishers' shops, bizarre translators and various other obstacles. All he wants is to read an intriguing book. But he keeps stumbling into tales of murder and sorrow, annoying professors, and the occasional radical feminist -- and a strange literary conspiracy. Will he ever finish the book?

In its own way, "If On A Winter's Night A Traveler" is a mystery story, a satire, a romance, and a treasure hunt. Any book whose first chapter explains how you're supposed to read it has got to be a winner -- "You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, "If On A Winter's Night a Traveler." Relax. Concentrate." And so on, with Calvino gently joking and chiding the reader before actually beginning his strange little tale.

As cute as that first chapter is, it also sets the tone for this strange, funny metafictional tale, which not only inserts Calvino but the reader. That's right -- this book is written in the second person, with the reader as the main character. "You did this" and "you did that," and so on. Only a few authors are brave enough to insert the reader... especially in a novel about a novel that contains other novels. It seems like a subtle undermining of reality itself.

It's a bit disorienting when Calvino inserts chapters from the various books that "you" unearth -- including ghosts, hidden identities, Mexican duels, Japanese erotica, and others written in the required styles. Including some cultures that he made up. Upon further reading, those isolated chapters reveal themselves to be almost as intriguing as the literary hunt. Especially since each one cuts off at the most suspenseful moment -- what happens next? Nobody knows!

It all sounds hideously confusing, but Calvino's deft touch and sense of humor keep it from getting too weird. There are moments of wink-nudge comedy, as well as the occasional poke at the publishing industry. But Calvino also provides chilling moments, mildly sexy ones, and a tone of mystery hangs over the whole novel.

At times it feels like Calvino is in charge of "If On A Winter's Night A Traveler"... and at other times, it feels like "you" are the one at the wheel. Just don't put this in the stack of Books You Mean To Read But There Are Others You Must Read First. Pure literary genius.
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5.0étoiles sur 5 The book lover's book, Avril 30 2002
Par A.J. (Maryland) - Voir tous mes commentaires
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   
Often when I'm reading an extraordinarily well-written book, I marvel at how difficult and even agonizing the writing process must be; here's a book that makes me realize that this is a phase most readers go through and a challenge that confronts most writers. A charmer from the very first paragraph, "If on a Winter's Night a Traveler" makes readers feel good about reading and writers feel good about writing.

Never have I read a book that communicates with and understands its reader so well. Writers like Nabokov and Pynchon like to have fun with their readers by posing literary puzzles, but here Calvino empathizes with the avid reader's feelings of frustration from interruptions, expectations, academic blathering, and personal efforts to reflect on literature.

The protagonist of this novel is none other than you yourself, the reader. The novel is about the protagonist's (i.e., your) attempt to finish reading the novel that you have started. However, problems keep cropping up, obstructing you from your goal: misprintings, mixups, interruptions, paramilitary operations, incarceration. Joining you in your quest is Ludmilla, a woman you met in the bookstore and whom you would like to date. Ludmilla has a sister, Lotaria, a feminist who thinks literature should be used to further her polemic agenda and represents the kind of "ideological cheerleading" for which critic Harold Bloom has so much disdain. Ludmilla, on the other hand, represents the perfect passive reader who reads for purely escapist purposes.

The novel's structure is entirely original and somewhat difficult to describe. It consists of two sets of alternating chapters; one set narrates your search for the missing remainder of the novel, and the other set consists of fragments of other novels you mistakenly pick up in your search. Each of these "other" novels is a brilliant piece of writing in its own right, each by a different fictitious author and with a distinctive plot and style. Just as you're becoming engrossed in whatever novel you're reading at a certain time, another interruption occurs, forcing you to resume your worldwide odyssey.

This may sound like a frustrating reading experience, but it's actually a lot of fun, as Calvino demonstrates that starting a new "novel" saves an old plot thread from wearing out. And just when things seem to start spinning out of control for the hapless protagonist (i.e., you, remember?), Calvino brings it all together in a narrative masterstroke that summarizes what all fiction is really about, which hasn't changed much since ancient times: it is simply about telling a story that hasn't happened in real life.

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5.0étoiles sur 5 Metaphysical Masterpiece, Avril 8 2002
A novel that questions the intricacies of the novel? A book that explores the intimacies of reading? Calvino gives us all that and more in *If on a Winter's Night a Traveler.*

It takes a very skillful writer to create a protagonist that can make direct contact with the reader. I've read more novels then I care to remember that attempted to pull this off and couldn't. But here, it's like, oh I don't know, we're handed a puzzle. A puzzle in which each individual piece is beautiful. There are so many dazzling images, brilliant colors, and something about the way they fit together is just radiant. But it feels like, as those pieces fall into place, the whole might be more than we can take. There is so much to process, but there is no question as to whether you have to continue.

Calvino manages to create a heady novel that is both intellectually stimulating and entertaining. You will relish every moment of following the threads of the broken novels within and you will long to find the protagonist in your favorite bookstore to discuss it with. This is one of those books that will make you change the way you think, that will change you in general, and you'll never be able to look at reading in quite the same way again. And then, don't stop here, at this one novel, read everything of Calvino's that you can find.

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Commentaires client les plus récents

4.0étoiles sur 5 A conceptual review of a conceptual book
You are getting ready to read an Amazon.com review of Italo Calvino's book "If on a winter's night a traveller". Is your mouse nearby? Read more
Publié le Mars 29 2002 par Mike Stone

5.0étoiles sur 5 I just reread the book and found myself swept away (again)
I first read "If on a Winters Night a Traveler" six years ago, when I was a far less skilled reader than I am right now. Read more
Publié le Mars 3 2002

5.0étoiles sur 5 the living illusion of the non-writer, and the non-reader
finishing a book, and bleeding for more. how can one beat being the protagonist of his own illusion; for reading is nothing more than the betrayal of the empirical world, and the... Read more
Publié le Janv. 25 2002 par marcos hadjiioannou

5.0étoiles sur 5 Reader seeks Other Reader
This is a brilliant novel. Calvino has for me lived up to all the hype -- here is a book that is simultaneously a virtuoso display of story telling and mixed narrative modes, an... Read more
Publié le Janv. 22 2002 par Bradley Weslake

3.0étoiles sur 5 I could be wrong about this ....
..... but about a half way through this book, when some characters become involved in intimate liaisons, I got the suspicion that Mr Calvino was representing sexual relations - or... Read more
Publié le Déc 12 2001 par A. G. Plumb

5.0étoiles sur 5 WOW
Calvino is a master. Having read _Traveler_ and _Italian Folktales_ I have come to believe that Calvino can write in more styles, effectively, than any other author I have ever... Read more
Publié le Oct. 18 2001 par Matthew Singer

5.0étoiles sur 5 A terrific novel about reading
=========================

QUOTE:

In the shop window you have promptly identified the cover with the title you were looking for. Read more

Publié le Jui 26 2001

5.0étoiles sur 5 Inventive and Fun
If on a winter's night a traveler is a very inventive and fun book that clearly illustrates the importance of the reader in a story. Read more
Publié le Mai 20 2001 par labibliophile

5.0étoiles sur 5 Don't read this if you can't stand open endings
This book is amazing. I have never had so much respect for an author. Italo Calvino manages to write over ten stories all with a completely different voice and all completely... Read more
Publié le Mai 16 2001 par meganica

5.0étoiles sur 5 A sidenote
Approximately 61 people have already written a review as it is. I think through them the story is mainly covered, as an interesting side note to attest to this books widely... Read more
Publié le Avril 21 2001 par Ralph Kelly

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