''The Baron in the Trees'' ( it, Il barone rampante) is a 1957 novel by Italian writer
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 '' Cosmicomi ...
. Described as a ''
conte philosophique
Conte may refer to:
* Conte (literature), a literary genre
* Conte (surname)
* Conté, a drawing medium
* Conte, Jura, town in France
* Conté royal family, a fictional family in Tamora Pierce's Tortallan world
* Conte, the title of Count in Italy ...
''
and a metaphor for independence, it tells the adventures of a boy who climbs up a tree to spend the rest of his life inhabiting an arboreal kingdom. Calvino published a new version of the novel in 1959.
Plot
Set in an imaginary village on the
Ligurian Riviera Ligurian may refer to:
* Ligurian, pertaining to modern Liguria in Italy
* Ligurian, pertaining to the ancient Ligures
* Ligurian language, a modern Romance language spoken in parts of Italy, France, Monaco and Argentina
* Ligurian (ancient langua ...
, Ombrosa represents the author's vision as a central theme, little inclined to judgments and dull opinions.
The novel is narrated by Biagio, the younger brother of the protagonist, and is the story of a young baron, Cosimo Piovasco di Rondò, firstborn of a noble family sadly behind the times. The main story begins with a dispute on June 15, 1767 in the villa of Ombrosa, between an adolescent Cosimo and his father, after which Cosimo, who had quarreled with his father because he had refused to eat a snail soup, climbs the trees of the home garden and promises never to come down again in his entire life.
After the quarrel, Cosimo's life takes place in the trees; first in the family garden and then in the surrounding woods. Cosimo's life is full of adventures, from friendships with fruit thieves and bandits to days spent hunting or reading. In the life of the baron there is no lack of amorous encounters either. Cosimo's fame spreads quickly. At first, he becomes famous as a freak show and his family is almost ashamed of him, but later he also finds a way to win the respect of the Ombrosa community. The return of Viola, his first love, triggers a mutual feeling, always existent, which sadly ends due to a series of misunderstandings. The love between the two is strong, even if the relationship is filled with furious quarrels. Its end comes about in an unusual way: aged and sick, feeling the onset of death, Cosimo climbs to the top of a large walnut tree and hangs himself on a passing balloon. Thus, without betraying his promise to never set foot on the earth again, he disappears into the sky, without even giving the earth his remains.
Reception
''The Baron in the Trees'' is the second volume in the fantasy trilogy ''
Our Ancestors
''Our Ancestors'' (Italian: ''I Nostri Antenati'') is the name of Italo Calvino's "heraldic trilogy" that comprises ''The Cloven Viscount
''The Cloven Viscount'' ( it, Il visconte dimezzato) is a fantasy novel by Italian writer Italo Calvino. ...
'', together with ''
The Cloven Viscount
''The Cloven Viscount'' ( it, Il visconte dimezzato) is a fantasy novel by Italian writer Italo Calvino. It was first published by Giulio Einaudi, Einaudi (Turin) in 1952 and in English in 1962 by William Collins (publisher), William Collins, w ...
'' (1952) and ''
The Nonexistent Knight
''The Nonexistent Knight'' (Italian: ''Il cavaliere inesistente'') is an allegorical fantasy novel by Italian writer Italo Calvino, first published in Italian in 1959 and in English translation in 1962.
The tale explores questions of identity, in ...
'' (1959). The novel received the
Viareggio Prize
The Viareggio Prize ( it, Premio Viareggio, italic=no or ) is an Italian literary prize, first awarded in 1930. Named after the Tuscan city of Viareggio, it was conceived by three friends, , Carlo Salsa and Leonida Rèpaci, to rival the Milanese ...
in 1957.
On publication, various Italian critics complained of "the 'tired' feel of the plot in the second half of the novel"
while novelist and critic
Elio Vittorini
Elio Vittorini (; 23 July 1908 – 12 February 1966) was an Italian writer and novelist. He was a contemporary of Cesare Pavese and an influential voice in the modernist school of novel writing. His best-known work is the anti-fascist novel '' Co ...
considered the "stylistic disunity between the early and later chapters" was a problem.
Despite these perceived flaws, critic
Martin McLaughlin
Martin L. McLaughlin is Professor of Italian and Agnelli-Serena Professor of Italian Studies in the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, University of Oxford where he is a Fellow of Magdalen College. argues that the novel "remains something of a tour de force in Calvino's oeuvre. It is an extraordinarily successful attempt to reproduce a utopian, philosophical ''conte'' for the 1950s, with a whole range of intertextual allusions and a sophisticated parody of the poetics of the early English moralising novel as practised by
Richardson
Richardson may refer to:
People
* Richardson (surname), an English and Scottish surname
* Richardson Gang, a London crime gang in the 1960s
* Richardson Dilworth, Mayor of Philadelphia (1956-1962)
Places Australia
* Richardson, Australian Cap ...
and parodied by
Fielding".
Together with ''
If on a winter's night a traveler
''If on a winter's night a traveler'' ( it, Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore) is a 1979 novel by the Italian writer Italo Calvino. The postmodernist narrative, in the form of a frame story, is about the reader trying to read a book called ...
'' (1979), ''The Baron in the Trees'' is Calvino's best-selling work of fiction.
References
Further reading
*
External links
Illustrationsto ''The Baron in the Trees'' by French artist Yan Nascimbene
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baron in the Trees, The
1957 novels
Novels by Italo Calvino
Novels set in Liguria
20th-century Italian novels
Giulio Einaudi Editore books