Novel
A Tale of Poor Lovers
Cronache di poveri amanti
Vasco Pratolini · 1947
Synopsis
In Florence, the via del Corno is a narrow lane between the Palazzo Vecchio and San Firenze. From 1925, the narrative follows its inhabitants, most of them poor: an honest, anti-fascist blacksmith, a fruit seller, young girls and their love affairs, and the Signora, a former prostitute who has grown rich and rules the street from her apartment. Their miseries, loves and quarrels become entangled with the rise of fascism and the clashes between fascists and anti-fascists.
Context
The novel appeared with Vallecchi, in Florence, in 1947, and received the Libera Stampa prize of Lugano the same year. It has more than fifty characters, who together form a single protagonist, and depicts working-class Florence at the moment when fascism prevails; the Britannica ranks it among the finest works of Italian neorealism. It appeared in French with Albin Michel under the title “Chronique des pauvres amants”; the English translation, published in 1949, is titled “A Tale of Poor Lovers”.
Who it is for
A novel with a great many characters, in which one moves from one life to another through the houses of the street.
Prizes and reception
Carlo Lizzani adapted it for the cinema in 1954, and the film received an international prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
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