The Complete Cosmicomics

Author: Italo Calvino
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0544231937
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 367

Book Description
The complete collection of “nimble and often hilarious” short stories exploring the cosmos by the acclaimed author of Invisible Cities (Colin Dwyer, NPR). Italo Calvino’s beloved cosmicomics cross planets and traverse galaxies, speed up time or slow it down to the particles of an instant. Through the eyes of a “cosmic know-it-all” with the unpronounceable name of Qfwfq, Calvino explores natural phenomena and tells the story of the origins of the universe. Relating complex scientific and mathematical concepts to our everyday world, they are an indelible and delightful literary achievement. Originally published in Italian in three separate volumes—including the Asti d’Appello Prize-winning first volume, Cosmicomics—these thirty-four dazzling stories are collected here in one definitive English-language anthology. “Trying to describe such a diverse and entertaining mix, I have to admit, just as Calvino does so often, that my words fail here, too. There’s no way I—or anyone, really—can muster enough of them to quite capture the magic of these stories . . . Read this book, please.” —Colin Dwyer, NPR

Cosmicomics

Author: Italo Calvino
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780156226004
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 172

Book Description
Enchanting stories about the evolution of the universe, with characters that are fashioned from mathematical formulae and cellular structures. “Naturally, we were all there, - old Qfwfq said, - where else could we have been? Nobody knew then that there could be space. Or time either: what use did we have for time, packed in there like sardines?” Translated by William Weaver. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

The Complete Cosmicomics

Author: Italo Calvino
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0544146441
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 433

Book Description
The definitive edition of the cosmicomics, Italo Calvino's short stories exploring natural phenomena and the origins of the universe. The Complete Cosmicomics brings together all of these enchanting stories -- including some never before translated -- in one volume for the first time.

The Distance of the Moon

Author: Italo Calvino
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0241339111
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 55

Book Description
'Time is a catastrophe, perpetual and irreversible.' Science and fiction interweave delightfully in these playful Cosmicomic short stories. Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York's underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.

Invisible Cities

Author: Italo Calvino
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 054413320X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 179

Book Description
Italo Calvino's beloved, intricately crafted novel about an Emperor's travels—a brilliant journey across far-off places and distant memory. “Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.” In a garden sit the aged Kublai Khan and the young Marco Polo—Mongol emperor and Venetian traveler. Kublai Khan has sensed the end of his empire coming soon. Marco Polo diverts his host with stories of the cities he has seen in his travels around the empire: cities and memory, cities and desire, cities and designs, cities and the dead, cities and the sky, trading cities, hidden cities. As Marco Polo unspools his tales, the emperor detects these fantastic places are more than they appear.

Difficult Loves

Author: Italo Calvino
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780156260558
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Book Description
In a collection of stories written during the 1940s and 1950s, the author captures moments of revelation in the lives of ordinary people, instants blending recognition and alarm as deceptions and illusions are laid bare.

Under the Jaguar Sun

Author: Italo Calvino
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780156927949
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 100

Book Description
One of Italy's greatest and most popular writers offers three witty, fantastical stories, each dominated by one of three senses--taste, hearing, or smell.

Why Read the Classics?

Author: Italo Calvino
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0544146379
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 291

Book Description
A posthumously published collection of thirty-six essays offering Italo Calvino's invigorating and illuminating analysis of his most treasured literary classics.

Hermit in Paris

Author: Italo Calvino
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0544146697
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Book Description
A posthumously published collection of Italo Calvino's autobiographical writings recounting his experiences in Italy's antifascist resistance, paying homage to his influences, tracing the evolution of his literary style, and commenting wryly on his travels in the United States.

Fantastic Tales

Author: Italo Calvino
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0544152093
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 609

Book Description
Twenty-six fantasy tales from the 19th century, tracing the genre from its roots in German romanticism to the ghost stories of Henry James. The editor, who prefaces each story, analyzes the resurgence of the fantastic in our day.