Seven years ago, I tried to read this but abandoned it after a few pages as I knew next to nothing about the political context in which the book was set. This time, with some information about the Risorgimento, I tackled the book and can confirm it lives up to its tag of a ‘masterpiece’ … Continue reading Lampedusa’s ‘The Leopard’
A couple of days after mentioning Jhumpa Lahiri in a blog post, I unexpectedly saw her in person. The Italian Cultural Centre in Delhi, as part of an ongoing series where prominent Indian writers introduce their favourite Italian films ahead of screenings, had invited Lahiri to present the inaugural film — 'Il Sorpasso'. Sruthi and … Continue reading Jhumpa Lahiri on ‘Il Sorpasso’ at IHC Delhi
Allesandro Manzoni’s ‘Betrothed’ is the ‘national novel’ of Italy. Every school child in Italy is familiar with the work and in the words of Bruce Penman whose translation I read: If Dickens had written only one novel, and there had been no Fielding or Thackeray; if his novel had foreshadowed the theme of a successful … Continue reading Allesandro Manzoni’s ‘Betrothed’
As I wrote last month, Alberto Moravia was the literary discovery of 2025 for me. His wife Elsa Morante was also a celebrated writer best known for her novels ‘Arturo’s Island’ and ‘History’. Their marriage was a stormy affair (literary icons you see), and Moravia himself had at one point confessed: There were days when … Continue reading The Moravia–Morante Marriage
Florence today has a population of around 360,000 and an area of around 100 sq km. ChatGPT informs me that the equivalent Indian city to Florence would be Sambalpur. For nearly three centuries, beginning in the thirteenth century, Florence produced an extraordinary constellation of luminaries who launched the Renaissance and changed the course of our … Continue reading The Miracle of Florence
This November, although I was physically in Delhi, I spent most of the month mentally wandering the streets of Naples. I was immersed in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet, and I’m still not sure how to fully describe the experience. The four books, spanning 1700 odd pages was one of the most powerful literary encounters I’ve … Continue reading Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet
In his lecture on Othello, the critic Harold Bloom has this memorable line: “Shakespeare was the greatest theorist of sexual jealousy the world had ever seen before the advent of Freud and Proust”. While ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ had jealousy as one of its themes, it is in Othello that Shakespeare explores this in all … Continue reading Othello
