Political Prisoner - Hardcover

Pavese, Cesare

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0720662028 ISBN 13: 9780720662023

Publisher: Peter Owen Publishers, 1969

Synopsis

Contains two of Pavese's best novels. In The Political Prisoner, Stefano awaits his freedom in a small Italian seaside village where his life becomes interwoven with that of the inhabitants, but he remains fundamentally aloof. The Beautiful Summer, set in Turin, is the story of a young girl who becomes involved with artists and their models.

About this title

Review:

"Highly acclaimed contemporary classic."

"He (Pavese) brings to each scene of natural beauty the strain of the fresh eye of a person who sees these things as for the last time and to say goodbye . . . The flavour of anarchy this author distils in each setting is quite remarkable." --"Observer"

Synopsis:

The Political Prisoner has its autobiographical roots in Pavese's own arrest and imprisonment in Calabria for his writings in the anti-fascist magazine La Cultura. This story describes the day to day life of Stefano, an anti-fascist who has served a prison sentence and is banished to a remote southern Italian seaside resort where he awaits an official pardon. Pavese describes the monotony, the grimness and the sensuality of life in the village through the eyes of a man who realises his habits have been broken. When the summer ends Stefano can no longer kill the days by swimming and lying on the seashore. His life is empty, relationships seem pointless and he begins to take refuge in his dreams. The second novella, The Beautiful Summer, is a tale of corruption and maturity based a colony of inferior artists and their models in Turin. When a fourteen-year-old Ginia falls in love with one of the artists from this group she gradually comes to comprehend not the glamour but the futility and callousness of so-called bohemian 'freedom'.

About this edition

• Publisher: Peter Owen Publishers
• Publication date: 1969
• ISBN 10: 0720662028
• ISBN 13: 9780720662023
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 237