Calvino wanted to be Italy's Brothers Grimm. Not in the sense of collecting the tales, which folklorists had been doing, but creating a popular collection. This is the result, down to the 200 tales. He notes that he also, like the Grimms, spruced up the tales. Unlike them, he put in end notes about what tales he combined, and what little details he added. (He went by the language and not by the country's borders.)

It's a wide variety, including some religious legends and animal fables and tales about fools, but it's mostly fairy tales. A few are retellings of Greek myths, like Perseus, or the Cyclopes, after they are run through the folkloric lathe to pare them down to simplicity. A few others are obviously derived from the chivalric romance, also pared down.

A familiarity with many tales will often recognize them and what fillips Italy added -- which sometimes Calvino noted as well. "A Man Wreathed With Seaweed" is a common European tale, except that elsewhere the hero has to be lowered through a well or other hole in the ground "The Ship With Three Decks" combines an opening like "The Lord of Lorn" with a tale type like "The Firebird, the Princess Vasilisa, and the Horse of Power." "Bella Venezia" gives a Snow White tale with a innkeeper not a queen, and bandits instead of dwarves -- and guess how the bandits get into their cave. A girl must be silent for seven years to save her brothers not from being birds, but from Hell -- and instead of her husband the king only be persuaded to execute her at the very end of that time, she has to flee and ends up with bandits. "Misfortune" is one I've only run across in Mediterranean tales -- a heroine whose Fortune is bad. We have children born as apples and rosemary plants, crabs and snakes. In one, two royal children reclaim their kingdom from their wicked uncle before the brother foolishly marries a beggar woman, whose new position goes to her head and makes her hate her sister-in-law. A Cinderella tale where first the heroine sneaked into the prince's castle to do mischief.

And a lot more.

One annoyance -- the translator also, sometimes, translated the names. John, Jack, William, Andrew. . . though not consistent

3.5⭐️ | Fiabe Italiane è una lettura veramente piacevole e leggera, soprattutto perché tutti i racconti sono molto brevi. Ho apprezzato molto l’idea di poter conoscere le fiabe che provengono da tutta Italia, notando le similitudini e le differenze che si riscontrano nelle fiabe a seconda del luogo d’origine.
Sicuramente non lo ritengo un libro che si possa leggere tutto d’un fiato: molte delle fiabe hanno una trama molto simile, la successione degli eventi è la stessa e i protagonisti si somigliano. Leggerlo in poco tempo lo renderebbe ripetitivo, se non noioso, cosa che non è affatto.

This book is truly wonderful. I loved immersing myself in the imagery of these folktales, and understanding the themes, characters, and motifs that repeat themselves in many of the stories. Calvino does an outstanding job collecting and telling over these stories, and this is an invaluable book for learning about Italian culture.

It was a joy to read from start to finish, and it enriched the way I look at other Italian works. There’s a lot of humor and plenty of sadness, plus a healthy dose of gory, insane details told in the most nonchalant manner. I smiled and cried my way through this book, and I’m sure I will return to it many times throughout my life. They’re great stories.

Wow! It's hard to even know where to begin reviewing this collection. I started reading it in 2015 for a group read, and finished about a third. I set it aside meaning to return to it, but never did. At the start of this year, I decided I would read 10 fairy tales from it between every print book I finished. And 7 months later, I'm finished! I enjoyed the process so much I'm going to start doing that with another fairy tale collection.

And I literally read it to pieces. Both the front and back cover have torn off, and now a chunk fell out. I'm going to have to upgrade to a hardback version!

These tales are magical. If you're someone only familiar with the Grimms, you have to read this. Or any fairytale fan needs to read this. Or if you think you're not a fairytale fan, then maybe you should read this.

So much fun and weirdness.

azıcık korkutan sonu hep gülmeli masallar. Favorim 'gümüş burun' babaannemin anlattığı masalla, mavi sakal arasında bi yerlerde ;)

Molti re e regine

In a way, I guess I was expecting more from the 200 tales in this collection, which Calvino collected from throughout Italia in the 1950s.

Many common threads braid these tales. A few seem duplicative of others, with minor variations; and some mirror prominent tales from Grimms collection. I will write down the threads I can recall while I'm on my vacation beginning tomorrow. Collectively, the list will undoubtedly prove very humorous.

I do know a lot more now about the common structure of these tales. I oughta use my gift for mimicry for entertainment purposes, forming fresh and funny folklore for fun. Good times.

This book was recommended to me during my research for my blog, 365 Cinderellas at http://rachelhopecrossman.blogspot.com. It is the Italian equivalent of Grimms Fairy Tales but a whole lot more racy. Favorite stories included are The Little Girl Who Was Sold With the Pears, The Snake, The Pot of Marjoram, Giricoccola, and a Cinderella story, Dear as Salt.

A legtöbb mesét ismertem más, általában teljesebb, tetszősebb változatban, amit meg nem, az leginkább kalandregény-kezdemény. És persze joban örültem volna feldolgozatlan meséknek, szerencsére a jegyzetekből kiderül, hol mancsolt beléjük Calvino, de akkor is.
A képek nagyon szépek, de hogy jönnek népmesékhez? :D

My Grandmother, from Italy, would tell my brother and I Giufa stories every night. We loved them. I have become the teller of Giufa stories. I was convinced that my Grandmother had made all these stories up about this poor farmboy, and his mother.

When my eldest son was in 1st Grade, he asked me one night after a Giufa story, "Is Giufa real, Dad."
Wanting my son to believe these stories to get the full impact, I replied, "Of course."
Then my son said, "Then tomorrow when we go to the library we can get Giufa books!"
"Yes," I squirmed, hoping he would forget.
When I picked him up from school, he excitedly said, "Let's go get Giufa books!"
After looking for a long time for these books, I told my son, "He is so popular, they are all checked out."
"Let's ask the librarian."
My lie was up.
She looked at my son and said, I don't think we have a book on Giufa, but we do have a book on ITALIAN FOLKTALES.
She got the book, the heavens opened, trumpets sounded, and divine light focused on the book. Inside were eight Giufa stories. I was in shock, as my Grandmother did not make them up. He was a real literary character.

Calvino was a genius. He collected stories from Italy in places where reading and writing were not developed. This book contains so many great stories, and have been read to my kids when they were young.

I am grateful to the storytellers from the beginning to Calvino.

The stories are stupid. In fact, they are not even stories. They are sketches. And the only thing that emerges is the christian fatalism: somewhere things are already written and have to happen as written, although Europe had to wait for Calvin to put this predestination into words. Maybe it is because writing was magic for an illiterate peasant who saw that only people who eat well, like the monks, have this particular skill. Maybe it was the way to ensnare the people to the Paul's S&M vision of the world.

Anyway, a sorry waste of time.

3.5 stars. Best read in tiny chunks; most of the individual stories are a lot of fun (albeit somewhat disorienting from our post-post-modern perspective on plot and characterization. Also, Why is it the third brother and the youngest daughter that’s always successful? Why are so many parents ready to sacrifice their kids (but not vice versa)? Why are so many husbands not able to recognize their wives (and vice versa)? Why is there a king on every street corner?). Read in larger chunks they can all bleed together and the trope and theme similarities that seem charming with separation grow boring. Very worthwhile if all you have read are Mother Goose or The Grimm brothers.

Just read about a third of it, because I wanted to get a taste of it, after enjoying Calvino's other work so much. It's not really a "Calvino" book, as much as it's a "folktale" book. That said, Calvino has done a great job of selecting and retelling these tales, without dumbing them down, or prettying them up. Much like the original versions of the tales from the Brothers Grimm, I like the fact that he's retained the many dark and gruesome moments that you don't expect if you're only used to the softer modern versions of folktales. Good stuff.