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Italian Folktales

italo calvino

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One of the  New York Times ’s Ten Best Books of the These traditional stories of Italy, retold by a literary master, are “a treasure” ( Los Angeles Times ).
 
Filled with kings and peasants, saints and ogres—as well as some quite extraordinary plants and animals—these two hundred tales bring to life Italy’s folklore, sometimes with earthy humor, sometimes with noble mystery, and sometimes with the playfulness of sheer nonsense.
 
Selected and retold by one of the country’s greatest literary icons, “this collection stands with the finest folktale collections anywhere” ( The New York Times Book Review ).
 
“For readers of any age . . . A masterwork.” — The Wall Street Journal
 
“A magic book, and a classic to boot.” — Time

800 pages, Paperback

First published November 1,1956

This edition

Format
800 pages, Paperback
Published
November 15, 1992 by Mariner Books Classics
ISBN
9780156454896
ASIN
0156454890
Language
English

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About the author

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italo calvino

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Italo Calvino was born in Cuba and grew up in Italy. He was a journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy (1952-1959), the Cosmicomics collection of short stories (1965), and the novels Invisible Cities (1972) and If On a Winter's Night a Traveler (1979).

His style is not easy to classify; much of his writing has an air reminiscent to that of fantastical fairy tales (Our Ancestors, Cosmicomics), although sometimes his writing is more "realistic" and in the scenic mode of observation (Difficult Loves, for example). Some of his writing has been called postmodern, reflecting on literature and the act of reading, while some has been labeled magical realist, others fables, others simply "modern". He wrote: "My working method has more often than not involved the subtraction of weight. I have tried to remove weight, sometimes from people, sometimes from heavenly bodies, sometimes from cities; above all I have tried to remove weight from the structure of stories and from language."

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Community Reviews

Rating(4 / 5.0, 99 votes)
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99 reviews All reviews
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kiwizzler1379
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Tough slog if you try to read in sequence, from start to finish. I picked up a few in between novels as I went here. Overall very enjoyable, feels like a back catalogue of Calvino's muses. Must re-read his intro, as I am now finished, I'm sure there is more insight to be gained now having absorbed it all.

This is bedside table reading - so much developed in such a short time. Once flush with these tales I did find I was missing the development of generations, will likely take up Cervantes again to feel tethered to a character for a length of plot.
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rohan121
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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More Italian fairy tales than you can shake a stick at.

Fairy tales told in clear, straightforward language. Ones that you've heard (and probably associate with the Brothers Grimm), ones that you haven't heard, and ones where you're like, "Wait...that's not quite the way it's supposed to go." Reading this collection, it's suddenly no surprise why folklorists love to classify tales like this according to theme. Being able to track tales across countries and centuries would be a hoot.

If you've read Italo Calvino before, this isn't like most of his work, but more like the Brothers Grimm.

Recommended for those who like fairy tales.
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Foxtrot_67
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Hundreds of 2, 3, and 4 pages folk tales. A lot of redundancy in the overall tropes, but still charmingly written by a master. I can pick it up, read a story or two, enjoy it, then put it down. If I try reading them in a row, at a time, it is a blur of castles, and princesses, and fairies, and talking animals, &c.

I have stopped and shelved it; enjoyable but - too much prose, too little joy
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wachotaku
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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The only downside here is that this book is exhaustive. So many fine tales! A few at a time is best, in much the same way that I read (long years ago) Andrew Lang. My favorite so far is "The Five Scapegraces." I'm also very much indebted to Mr. Calvino's informative and amusing introduction, in which he lays out the territory.
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whiteyaksha27
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Clone wars.

A collection of short italian folktales by renowned Italo Calvino. 200 tales, merely a few pages each. One of those yellowed books found in the dusty family bookcase.

The structure of every tale is pretty much always the same, a merchant, a princess or a king has some sort of problem or something bad happening, a magic solution is found, bingo, hea for everyone. Multiply by a few hundreds of utterly bland tales, so similar you could almost brand them clones. After the thirtieth tale they all start to feel the same, add increasing boredom with each new one, until you find yourself craving to reach the end so the torture is finally over.

There's not much I can rescue from this book, except that it makes me very happy knowing that I’ll soon get rid of it.

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n  PERSONAL NOTEn:
[1956] [944p] [Collection] [HIGHLY Not Recommendable]
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Guerra de clones.

Una colección de cuentos cortos de folclore por el renombrado Italo Calvino. 200 cuentos, meramente un par de páginas cada uno. Uno de esos libros amarillentos hallados en la polvorienta biblioteca familiar.

La estructura de cada cuento es básicamente siempre la misma, un mercader, una princesa o un rey tiene algún tipo de problema o algo malo sucediendo, una solución mágica aparece, bingo, todos felices para siempre. Multiplicar por un par de cientos de terriblemente sosos cuentos, tan similares que casi podrías llamarlos clones. Después del trigésimo cuento todos empiezan a parecer iguales, añadir creciente aburrimiento con cada uno nuevo, hasta que te encuentras a tí mismo anhelando llegar al final sólo para que la tortura finalmente termine.

No hay mucho que pueda rescatar de este lbro, excepto que me hace muy feliz saber que pronto me voy a deshacer de él.

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n  NOTA PERSONALn:
[1956] [944p] [Colección] [ALTAMENTE No Recomendable]
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_saturnine
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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One of my religion professors in undergraduate school always used to say that she loved Italian myths because they always include food and weddings. I gleaned this and didn't really pick that up, but it's fun to have around the house. The majority of stories are bite-sized so its cool to pick up and read with a friend if you're just hanging around. However, it might be more fun to skim through and find the interesting ones beforehand, as they are folktales so some are a bit meandering with no resolution. Some are just racist (e.g. I think it's called The Laziest Turk - it's a story that's just about how the Turks value laziness and mentor each other in the trade) so head's up on that.

Anyway, it was fun and is a great coffee table book.
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cookiebandit18
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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As a tiny child, I read this an enormous number of times -- I remember bringing it in to my kindergarten class to show to my teacher (who, certainly, had doubts that I'd actually read it. Psh. (Yes. I am hugely pretentious.))

Regardless. I've read bits and pieces of it again and again over the years, and it remains one of the most delightful books I know. There is no reason for this not to be a favorite book for kids -- it's exciting, full of an enormous number (200!) of vivid stories perfect in size for a child's attention span (just a few pages each). There's also, though, no reason for this not to be a favorite book for adults. Each story is a perfect little gem, sometimes dark but never grim (or, for that matter, Grimm), sometimes wry and funny but never mean-spirited, and on and on and on.

I've started reading these to my days-old son, ostensibly for his benefit but really for my own. With 200 stories, I figure this should last us until he's 7 months plus, and then I intend to start over again. Seriously. I can't get enough of these.
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