Thoughts (Hesperus Classics) - Softcover

Leopardi, Giacomo; Albinati, Edoardo; Nichols, J.G.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1843910128 ISBN 13: 9781843910121

Publisher: Hesperus Press Ltd, 2002

Synopsis

Penned by the greatest Italian poet and thinker of the nineteenth century, these precious musings contain immense philosophical and psychological insight. Ranging from mankind to nature, and from social order to the individual soul, they reveal a mind of brilliance, and a man struggling to reconcile all that he sees around him. Sharply observed and expertly constructed, Leopardi's 'Thoughts' remain remarkable in their timeless appeal.

About this title

Review:

'The 4,500 pages of Leopardi s notebooks end, in December 1832, with a poignant observation: ''The most unexpected thing that happens to you when you enter society, and often when you have grown old there, is to find the world just as they have described it and as you know and believe it to be in theory.'' The 'Thoughts' can be read as the fragmentary record of that discovery.' --Times Literary Supplement

'For Edoardo Albinati, who has written the foreword to this translation (by J.G. Nichols), Leopardi is a poet ''of almost unbearable purity'' who transfigures a kind of contrary intellectual energy which is essentially, and gloriously, adolescent. These maxims combine the urbanity of Voltaire and La Rochefoucauld with the rhapsodic immaturity of such artists, closer home, as Giovanni Pascoli and Pier Paolo Pasolini.' --Indian Telegraph

About the Author:

Giacomo Leopardi is the greatest poet of the Italian Romantic movement. Edoardo Albinati is a distinguished author, poet, newspaper journalist, and translator of, amongst others, Vladimir Nabokov, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Shakespeare. His latest book is '19' (Mondadori, 2001).

About this edition

• Publisher: Hesperus Press Ltd
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1843910128
• ISBN 13: 9781843910121
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 112