Among Calvino's very best. Two novellas, similar in length (143 & 102 pages), in folklore-fantasy (a knight who is an empty suit of armor; a viscount who is cloven into a good and evil half), and in narration. Both superb.

Two interesting, fun, and at times thought-provoking reads. Recommended.

Didn't expect anything less from Calvino!!! A very amusing novela with many twists as well as some really interesting philosophical comments. It was the second time I read "The Nonexistent Knight" and I found it superb once more!!! Highly recommended!!!

The Nonexistent Knight was beautiful, awesome, tragic - 4/5. I would give that a 5 but I was incredibly thrown off by what happens with Bradamante and how it's treated emotionally by her...... Very uncomfortable and disturbing narrative choice

The Cloven Viscount was cute - 2.5/5

Two good novellas but each a notch below The Baron in the Trees, since I felt that both leaned more towards allegory than fable and neither was as spirited. The Nonexistent Knight was quirky and seems to poke fun at the ethos of large organizations, in this case Charlemagne's army. The Cloven Viscount is very clearly about the inseparability of good and evil. Both novellas are rapidly paced and limited in character development.

A viscount gets blown in two by cannon fire during battle but miraculously survives and returns home as literally half a man. This half is all evil, though, and spends his days terrorizing the countryside. One day his other half, which also survived the battle, arrives home and travels round to the local residents doing as much good as he possibly can, even if the results are sometimes not exactly wanted. So one is too evil and the other too good, until they finally battle one another and rediscover an equilibrium.
Meh. I've loved the other Calvino stuff I've read, but this one fell flat for me. A little too heavy handed with the parable feel, maybe, and also maybe a little too silly.

I picked this book up on a whim, since I've thoroughly enjoyed Calvino's other books, and I absolutely don't regret it. Published relatively early in his career (1952, 1959), the two novellas are both quick reads, both taking place in the same general era, and both with fantastical elements woven throughout. They work very effectively together. The first follows a small cast of characters; namely a knight that doesn't seem to exist, an enthusiastic squire with rapidly evolving ideas about what fighting a war is like, and a knight-errant chasing an impossible ideal. Throughout it functions as a meditation on what it means to exist, particularly in a world obsessed with titles, lineages, symbolism, and order. The story follows a Viscount who somehow survives being blown in half while at war and returns home a changed man, followed shortly by his miraculously-alive other half. The misadventures that ensue slowly spiral around ideas about what it means to be whole in a world of complex and incomplete humans. I really enjoyed the satirical elements in both, it's clear Calvino got to have some fun writing these novellas, particularly through his unreliably and often snarky narrators. While not as structured as his later Invisible Cities (1972), nor as distinctly charming as Marcovaldo (1963), I'd recommend this book to anyone looking for particularly well-written satire that still provides plenty to think on at the same time.

Entertainingly bonkers.

Clever riffs on familiar themes. Not as an enthralling as Comsicomics or Invisible Cities but a still an enjoyable read.

Two novellas, peculiar as ever, by the great Italian fabulist. Both take place during the era of Charlemagne; the first is a witty comic romp of sorts, as a hero in an empty suit of armor must leave the battlefield to find the virgin he saved from rape years before; and the second of a nobleman bisected by a cannonball, turning into a good half and a bad half, who fall in love with the same woman. Many brilliantly-written passages in both twisting turning parables, which charmingly skewer history and writing conventions alike.

These two novellas are aptly named as they completely identify the main characters in each story. The nonexistent knight is a suit of armor who servers under Charlemange and is the most perfect of knights in his actions. When he discovers that the actions that made him a knight might not be true, he sets off to track down the virgin he saved in order to prove his worth. He is followed by his squire who may be the most inept squire ever, a young impressionable knight wanna be, and a female knight who has the hots for the nonexistent knight. The story is narrated by a nun who takes us through these amusing and improbably escapades. I loved this story so much.

The second story is of the cloven viscount who found himself in that situation after being split exactly in half during battle. One half of the viscount returns home where it soon becomes clear that this half is the evil half. Eventually, the other half returns home as well and overwhelms people with his goodness. When the two halves fight a duel to win the hand of a young lady things come to an unusual end.

Both of these stories have Calvino's subtle unique sense of humor that appeals to my funny bone.

these novellas were written early in calvino's career, yet are colored with many of the literary elements for which he'd come to be known and loved. a fabulist of the highest order, italo's tales are gently conveyed, with nary a smidgen of sanctimoniousness to be found. with unassuming literary prowess and ample humor, calvino (whose snubbing by the swedish academy is unpardonable) possessed one of the most unique imaginations (to say nothing of styles) in all of modern literature.

both the nonexistent knight and the cloven viscount are fantastic stories woven with an ease and simplicity that leave considerable room for the reader to ponder calvino's manifest moral offerings. while clearly not his intent, calvino's remarkable inventiveness exposes the lack of creativity with which many authors are (somehow) still able to ply their trade. too, italo's characters, main and secondary, are some of the most quaint, eccentric, and lovable ever to animate a page.

"so of love as of war i shall give a picture as best i can imagine it. the art of writing tales consists in an ability to draw the rest of life from the nothing one has understood of it, but life begins again at the end of the page when one realises that one knew nothing whatsoever." ~from the nonexistent knight