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Presented here for the first time together, and many for the first
time in English, are the writings that formed the genesis of "Six
Characters in Search of an Author," along with a new translation of
the theater masterpiece itself by Martha Witt and Mary Ann Frese
Witt. Although Pirandello's best-known play is now considered a
revolutionary modernist work, it did not begin as avant-garde art,
but rather in the musings of a relatively unknown Sicilian living
in Rome. The writings included in this volume display its genesis.
The idea of characters as living beings in dialogue with their
author first appears as a major theme in a short story titled
"Characters," published in 1906. Pirandello did not include it in
any of his collections of short stories, and it has not previously
been translated into English. The interaction between characters
demanding to "live" in writing and an author who rejects them would
be developed in Pirandello's 1911 story "The Tragedy of a
Character." In 1925, Pirandello conceived the idea of writing a
novel about an author who rejects the characters who come to him
begging to be put into a novel, and in a July 1917 letter to his
son, he gives the novel a title: "Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore:
Romanzo da fare" ("Six Characters in Search of an Author: A Novel
to Be Made"). In this volume Martha Witt and Mary Ann Frese Witt
provide all these materials for a complete appreciation of this
masterwork. "Wonderfully fresh and readable, consistent as well as
fluid, sensitive to the flows of the original language and yet
smooth and precise, this new translation succeeds in bringing
Pirandello's masterpiece to life once again. The introduction
brilliantly captures the playwright's sense of humanity's
unshakeable decency and moral dilemmas; the addition of a
previously untranslated short story, "Characters," enlightens the
play. English-speaking readers can now appreciate to the fullest
the creative energy of a twentieth-century literary genius." -
Valeria Finucci, Professor of Italian & Theater Studies, Duke
University
'Six Characters in search of an Author' is a is a satirical
tragicomedy play. First performed in 1921 at the Teatro Valle in
Rome, it had a very mixed reception, with the audience shouting
"Manicomio " ("Madhouse "). However, the reception improved
significantly and in 1922 it played on Broadway at the Princess
Theatre.The play starts with a group of actors preparing to
rehearse for a Pirandello play. The rehearsal is interrupted by the
arrival of six characters. One of then informs the manager that
they are looking for an author. He explains that the author who
created them did not finish their story, and that they therefore
are unrealized characters who have not been fully brought to life.
Initially, the manager goes to throw them out of the theatre, but
becomes more intrigued when they start to describe their story.
"Pascal, a landowner fallen on hard times and trapped in a
miserable marriage, runs away from home and wins a lot of money at
the gaming tables in Monte Carlo. Meanwhile a body has been found
in the millrace of his village and it is assumed that Pascal has
killed himself. Seizing what looks like a chance to create a new
life, he travels to Rome under an assumed name and struggles to
invent a different identity which he can inhabit. He fails, returns
home, finds his wife has remarried and has to act out the role of
being as it were a living ghost. All these tragic events are
recounted with verve and wit and comes across clearly in
Simborowski's spirited translation from the Italian."Robert Nye in
The Guardian
Luigi Pirandello's masterpiece, "Six Characters in Search of an
Author", presents the playwright's views about the isolation of the
individual from society and from himself. This play within a play
chronicles six characters as they seek an author to tell their
story, and to present their real lives on stage. But do their
realities make better tales than fiction?
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921) is a metatheatrical
drama by Luigi Pirandello. Viewed as an important work of absurdist
literature, the play was a critical failure when it was first
staged in Rome. Revised by its author and bolstered by successful
performances in New York City, Six Characters in Search of an
Author has been recognized as a pioneering examination of the
nature of creativity, the relationship of the director and actors
to the work of art, and the psychological stress associated with
staging a theatrical production. While preparing to rehearse a new
play by director Luigi Pirandello, a theatre company is interrupted
with the arrival of six strangers on set. After a moment of
frustration and confusion, the director is told that they are six
unfinished characters whose story cannot be told without his
intervention. The Father, Mother, Son, Stepdaughter, Boy, and Child
refuse to leave, forcing the director to convince his actors to
help them fulfill their wish. As the story begins to take shape,
the characters exert more and more control over the set and the
participation of the other actors, soon overtaking the director
entirely. Strange and compelling, Six Characters in Search of an
Author is a unique play which saw resistance from critics and
theatergoers for one reason only: its methods forced them to
question the nature of reality itself. With a beautifully designed
cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Luigi
Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author is a classic
work of Italian literature reimagined for modern readers.
Masterly stories include "Little Hut," "With Other Eyes," "A Voice," "Citrons from Italy," "A Character's Tragedy," six more. English translations.
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The Outcast - A Novel (Paperback)
Luigi Pirandello; Translated by Bradford A. Masoni; Foreword by Daniela Bini
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R446
Discovery Miles 4 460
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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A young wife in a nineteenth-century Sicilian village, Marta is
deeply in love with her husband Rocco and pregnant with his child.
But when Rocco discovers a letter written to Marta by a would-be
suitor, he falsely accuses her of infidelity and banishes her from
their home. Soon the whole village turns against the supposed
adulteress, setting in motion a series of tragic events that
culminates in the loss of Marta’s family home and business, as
well as the deaths of her father and newborn child. Plunged
into poverty and treated as a social leper, with practically
nothing else to lose, Marta is determined to claw her way back into
a society bent on excluding her.  The Outcast is an
early masterwork from Nobel Prize–winning Italian author Luigi
Pirandello that combines elements of Zolaesque naturalism with
emerging modernist aesthetics. This fresh English translation, the
first in nearly one hundred years, showcases Pirandello’s deft
play with language and his use of irony. Â
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