If on a winter's night a traveler
A postmodernist frame story about a reader's quest to read a book.
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The novel features the fictional country Cimmeria, which existed between World War I and World War II with capital Örkko and resources of peat and bituminous compounds.[1] Cimmeria was located near the Gulf of Bothnia and its people and Bothno-Ugaric language have disappeared.[1] The book is a meditation on reading that also deals with writing and writers.[2]
Making and release
Calvino stated in a 1985 interview that the book was "clearly" influenced by Vladimir Nabokov.[3] In a 1979 letter, Calvino named Mikhail Bulgakov, Yasunari Kawabata, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, Juan Rulfo, José María Arguedas, Jorge Luis Borges and G. K. Chesterton as influences on the ten stories.[4] Dave Langford reviewed the novel for White Dwarf #45, calling it "a splendidly batty book about books".[5] The Telegraph placed the novel 69th in a 2009 list of "100 novels everyone should read".[6]
David Mitchell described being "magnetised" by the book as an undergraduate but found it had aged on rereading.[7][2] Calvino's 1985 interview with Gregory Lucente revealed that his work was "clearly" shaped by Vladimir Nabokov's writings, and his Oulipo membership also left its mark.[3] The novel's structure is considered to be derived from A. J. Greimas's approach to structural semiology.[3]
What the cited sources add
David Mitchell wrote that the book is "full of versions of itself" and called it a "trap-novel designed by the treacherous translator".[2] Mitchell concluded that "however breathtakingly inventive a book is, it is only breathtakingly inventive once".[2] The radio dramatisation was recorded in front of an audience at the BBC Contains Strong Language Festival.[8] Sting's 2009 album If on a Winter's Night... took its title from Calvino's book, according to a review by Andy Gill in The Independent.[9]
On 14 November 2011, Bill Ryder-Jones put out the album If..., which he described as an "imaginary film score" and a musical adaptation of the novel.[10][11]
References
- Wikipedia, "If on a winter's night a traveler" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: If on a winter's night a traveler, pp. 43–44 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- David Mitchell, "David Mitchell rereads Italo Calvino", The Guardian, 2004-05-21. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com
- Wikipedia, "If on a winter's night a traveler" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lucente, "An Interview with Italo Calvino", Contemporary Literature, Autumn 1985, p. 252; Calvino, "Comment j'ai écrit un de mes livres", Ramsay, 1982 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "If on a winter's night a traveler" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Calvino, "Italo Calvino: Letters, 1941–1985", Princeton University Press, 2013, p. 501 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "If on a winter's night a traveler" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Langford, "Downbelow Expectations", Games Workshop, September 1983, p. 12 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "If on a winter's night a traveler" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "100 novels everyone should read", The Telegraph, 2009-01-16 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "If on a winter's night a traveler" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: David Mitchell, "David Mitchell rereads Italo Calvino", The Guardian, 2004-05-21; Mitchell, "Guardian book club: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell", The Guardian, 11 June 2010 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- "BBC Radio 4 - Drama on 4, If on a winter's night a traveller", BBC, 2023-09-24. facts only, no text reused. bbc.co.uk
- Andy Gill, "Album: Sting, If on a Winter's Night... (Deutsche Grammophon)", The Independent, 2009-10-30. facts only, no text reused. independent.co.uk
- Wikipedia, "If on a winter's night a traveler" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bill Ryder-Jones, "Bill Ryder-Jones – If ... (exclusive album stream)", The Guardian, 2011-11-07 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Bill Ryder-Jones, "Bill Ryder-Jones – If ... (exclusive album stream)", The Guardian, 2011-11-07. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article If on a winter's night a traveler (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: If on a winter's night a traveler (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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