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The Slave Mother
"The Slave Mother" is an Italian fairy tale, collected by Italo Calvino in ''Italian Folktales'', from Terra d'Ortano.Italo Calvino, ''Italian Folktales'', p. 455. . Synopsis A couple of tenant farmers had five sons. One day the woman heard an owl ask her whether she would rather be rich while young or in old age. After telling her husband of it, she told it in old age. Soon she went out to get greens for a salad and was carried off by pirates. The family lamented her but had to go on. Two years later, the family found a treasure in the fields. They smuggled it off, gave up the farm, and went to the city to live a fine life. One day the sons wanted to buy a beautiful young slave girl. The father refused, saying they should buy an old slave woman, who knew how to work. He saw one and bought her, and they gave her new clothing and put her in charge of the house. Still, she sighed every time she saw the five sons. The old man asked her one-day, and she explained that she ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fairy Tale
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful beings. In most cultures, there is no clear line separating myth from folk or fairy tale; all these together form the literature of preliterate societies. Fairy tales may be distinguished from other folk narratives such as legends (which generally involve belief in the veracity of the events described) and explicit moral tales, including beast fables. In less technical contexts, the term is also used to describe something blessed with unusual happiness, as in "fairy-tale ending" (a happy ending) or "fairy-tale romance (love), romance". Colloquially, the term "fairy tale" or "fairy story" can also mean any far-fetched story or tall tale; it is used especially of any story that not only is not true, but could not possibly be true ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Italo Calvino
Italo Calvino (, also , ;. RAI (circa 1970), retrieved 25 October 2012. 15 October 1923 – 19 September 1985) was an Italian writer and journalist. His best known works include the ''Our Ancestors'' trilogy (1952–1959), the '' Cosmicomics'' collection of short stories (1965), and the novels ''Invisible Cities'' (1972) and ''If on a winter's night a traveler'' (1979). Admired in Britain, Australia and the United States, he was the most translated contemporary Italian writer at the time of his death. Italo Calvino is buried in the garden cemetery of Castiglione della Pescaia, in Tuscany. Biography Parents Italo Calvino was born in Santiago de las Vegas, a suburb of Havana, Cuba, in 1923. His father, Mario, was a tropical agronomist and botanist who also taught agriculture and floriculture. Born 47 years earlier in Sanremo, Italy, Mario Calvino had emigrated to Mexico in 1909 where he took up an important position with the Ministry of Agriculture. In an autobiographical ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Italian Folktales
''Italian Folktales'' (''Fiabe italiane'') is a collection of 200 Italian folktales published in 1956 by Italo Calvino. Calvino began the project in 1954, influenced by Vladimir Propp's '' Morphology of the Folktale''; his intention was to emulate the Straparola in producing a popular collection of Italian fairy tales for the general reader. He did not compile tales from listeners, but made extensive use of the existing work of folklorists; he noted the source of each individual tale, but warned that was merely the version he used. He included extensive notes on his alterations to make the tales more readable and the logic of his selections, such as renaming the heroine of ''The Little Girl Sold with the Pears'' Perina rather than Margheritina to connect to the pears, and selecting '' Bella Venezia'' as the Italian variant of ''Snow White'' because it featured robbers, rather than the variants containing dwarfs, which he suspected were imported from Germany. It was first transl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Catherine And Her Destiny
Catherine and her Destiny is an Italian fairy tale collected by Thomas Frederick Crane in ''Italian Popular Tales'', and included by Andrew Lang in ''The Pink Fairy Book''. It is classified as Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index as ATU 938, "Placidas" (Eustacius): Synopsis Catherine was a rich merchant's beautiful daughter. One day a woman appeared to her and asked whether she would rather be happy in her youth or in her old age. Catherine decided on old age, and the woman, who was Catherine's Destiny, vanished. Shortly, Catherine's father lost his wealth and died. Catherine attempted to enter into service, but whenever someone hired her, her Destiny appeared and tore the home to pieces when Catherine there alone, she fled from fear that she would be blamed. After seven years, her Destiny stopped, and she became the servant of a woman who had her bring loaves of bread every day to the woman's Destiny . One day, the woman asked her why she wept so often, and Catherine told her story. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chivalric Romance
As a literary genre, the chivalric romance is a type of prose and verse narrative that was popular in the noble courts of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a chivalric knight-errant portrayed as having heroic qualities, who goes on a quest. It developed further from the epics as time went on; in particular, "the emphasis on love and courtly manners distinguishes it from the ''chanson de geste'' and other kinds of epic, in which masculine military heroism predominates." Popular literature also drew on themes of romance, but with ironic, satiric, or burlesque intent. Romances reworked legends, fairy tales, and history to suit the readers' and hearers' tastes, but by c. 1600 they were out of fashion, and Miguel de Cervantes famously burlesqued them in his novel ''Don Quixote''. Still, the modern image of "medieval" is more influenced by the romance than by any other medieval genre, and the word ''medieva ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sir Isumbras
''Sir Isumbras'' is a medieval metrical romance written in Middle English and found in no fewer than nine manuscripts dating to the fifteenth century. This popular romance must have been circulating in England before 1320, because William of Nassyngton, in his work '' Speculum Vitae'', which dates from this time, mentions feats of arms and other 'vanities', such as those found in stories of Sir Guy of Warwick, Bevis of Hampton, Octavian and Sir Isumbras.Hudson, Harriet. 1996. Unlike the other three stories, the Middle English ''Sir Isumbras'' is not a translation of an Old French original. Sir Isumbras is a proud knight who is offered the choice of happiness in his youth or his old age. He chooses the latter, and falls from his high estate by the will of Providence. He is severely stricken; his possessions, his children and, lastly, his wife, are taken away; and he himself becomes a wanderer. After much privation he trains as a blacksmith, learning to forge anew his armour, and h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Italian Fairy Tales
Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Italian, regional variants of the Italian language ** Languages of Italy, languages and dialects spoken in Italy ** Italian culture, cultural features of Italy ** Italian cuisine, traditional foods ** Folklore of Italy, the folklore and urban legends of Italy ** Mythology of Italy, traditional religion and beliefs Other uses * Italian dressing, a vinaigrette-type salad dressing or marinade * Italian or Italian-A, alternative names for the Ping-Pong virus, an extinct computer virus See also * * * Italia (other) * Italic (other) * Italo (other) * The Italian (other) * Italian people (other) Italian people may refer to: * in terms of ethnicity: all ethnic Italians, in and outside of Italy * in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fictional Slaves
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditional narrow sense, "fiction" refers to written narratives in prose often referring specifically to novels, novellas, and short stories. More broadly, however, fiction encompasses imaginary narratives expressed in any medium, including not just writings but also live theatrical performances, films, television programs, radio dramas, comics, role-playing games, and video games. Definition Typically, the fictionality of a work is publicly marketed and so the audience expects the work to deviate in some ways from the real world rather than presenting, for instance, only factually accurate portrayals or characters who are actual people. Because fiction is generally understood to not fully adhere to the real world, the themes and context of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
