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1. One, No One, and One Hundred Thousand (Eridanos Library) by Luigi Pirandello | |
Paperback: 176
Pages
(1992-09-01)
list price: US$12.95 -- used & new: US$7.68 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 0941419746 Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description Customer Reviews (5)
A soliloquy fun to read
My 100-thousand faces in the others' perception...., It is an outstanding philosophical and psychological novel, fresh and humoristic, but deep and contemplative at the same time, that deals with the theme of 'identity'. It develops concepts that foresee our contemporary sensibility so well, that after almost a century their validity is perfectly unchanged. Reality is illusory, relative and subjective, and always becomes the expression of personal interpretations. Communication is made out of subjective distortions, of standardized definitions through `labels' that are attached to persons and situations. And the characters built by these labels end up by having their own lives, in the projection of our ego in the perception of the others, as well as in our occasional will to become what the others want us to be. But our identity is fluid, in a `continuous becoming'. It cannot be made still, in a definition, if not at the price of losing its dynamic character, or even its transitory reality. Such lack of identification leads each of us to become, in the end, absolutely alone, with our own misperception of ourselves, unknown even to ourselves. It is a 'cerebral' writing, full of contorted but still delicious meditations that give the reader the chance to recognize himself into the main character of the novel, "Vitangelo Moscarda". The style is however bright and colorful, at times able to admirably convey inner sensations in the description of certain landscapes, at times so immediate and simple in the use of humor and comicity, to effectively entertain the reader throughout the book.
Turmoil in the Mirror. The central character in the novel, a small-town squire, looks in the mirror one day, touches a nostril and feels some pain. His wife tells him his nose tilts to the right, something he had not realized before. Catching sight of his reflection in the mirror again, he concludes that he possesses different personalities. So begins a search to discover his various selves. After a series of bizarre incidents, he is deserted by his wife and is declared insane. The court gives his money to a poorhouse; he becomes its first guest. In the poorhouse, he becomes the "no one"of the book's title. By being no one, the squire becomes everyone. He can be reborn again and again. "I am I and you are you," the squire, speaking as the first-person narrator of the novel, declares. In the end, he says: "I no longer look at myself in the mirror, and it never even occurs to me to want to know what has happened to my face and to my whole appearance. The one I had for the others must have seemed greatly changed and in a very comical way, judging by the wonder and the laughter that greeted me." Trying to explain a Pirandello plot is like trying to catch a tiger by the tail or walking with Vulcan on the lava of Mount Etna: dangerous. Put it this way: "One, No One, and One Hundred Thousand" is Pirandellian...
Engaging meditation on identity
Who are you? |
2. Six Characters in Search of an Author (Signet Classics) by Luigi Pirandello | |
Paperback: 112
Pages
(1998-05-01)
list price: US$5.95 -- used & new: US$2.19 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 0451526880 Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description Customer Reviews (7)
Signet version... The plot, I'm sure you know, involves six characters who stumble upon a theater rehearsal.They are not so much looking for an author as a play in which to exist.Pirandello breaks the fourth wall as no other author had before him.It is a very daring and original piece. A must for any serious student of drama.
The thin line between performance and reality In "Six Characters," a dysfunctional family confronts a theater director and his whole company. They challenge the director to turn their story into a play--a "painful drama." This richly ironic play deals with many issues: the relationship between life and literature; the limitation of words as tools of communication; sexual transgression; authority and art; secrecy and shame; the fractured, shifting nature of personal identity; the relationship between an author and the characters he/she creates; and more. This is truly a play of ideas; it's a constantly shifting intellectual house of mirrors. But Pirandello never loses sight of the emotional issues of human shame, pain, and interpersonal alienation. The play is full of great lines; my favorite is spoken by the director: "There's no author here at all." It's amazing to think that (at the time of this review) this play is more than 80 years old. When I look at the contours of popular culture in the decades since this play premiered in Rome, it seems that Pirandello was as much a cultural prophet as he was a literary genius. "Six Characters" seems to prefigure such phenomena as reality TV shows (like "An American Family" or MTV's "The Real World") and films which explore the shadowy line between fiction and reality (like "The Blair Witch Project" or "Scream 3"). After all these decades, "Six Characters" remains a fresh, compelling, and relevant theatrical masterpiece.
An Innovative, Iconoclastic Masterpiece "Six Characters" is set in a theatre where a director, his stage manager and a group of actors are about to rehearse another of Pirandello's plays, "The Rules of the Game". The curtain is up, the stage is empty of props and background, and the lights illuminate the bare wall at the back of the stage. It is an austere setting, a kind of theatrical analogue to the blank sheet of paper an author faces each day he sits down to write. Suddenly, this austerity, this mundane theatrical rehearsal, is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of six characters--a father, a mother, a son, a stepdaughter, a boy, and a little girl. They are six characters who have lives, who have stories to tell, but whose dramatic text has not been written. They need an author. As Pirandello says in his 1925 introduction to the play: "Every creature of fantasy and art, in order to exist, must have his drama, that is, a drama in which he may be a character and for which he is a character. This drama is the character's raison d'etre, his vital function, necessary for his existence." The play proceeds, with the six characters relating fragmentary scenes of incidents in their lives, scenes which are accompanied by commentary, quarrels, dialogue, and interaction among the characters and between the characters and the actors. A kind of theatrical hall of mirrors, the actors who view these characters become, in effect, an audience. The actors are also, however, the actors who will be called upon to play the parts of the six characters in the dramatic text which is being created in their presence. For these actors and these characters, the stage becomes more real than the world. "Six Characters in Search of an Author" is a remarkable work of imagination, both in its structure and its dialogue. It is comic and absurd, tragic and ponderous. The play is a work of original genius; the text (like its characters) is open to multiple interpretations and meanings. As one character says, in an appropriate Pirandellian bit of dialogue: "[t]herein lies the drama . . . in my awareness that each of us thinks of himself as one but that, well, it's not true, each of us is many, oh so many, according to the possibilities that are in us."
interesting thought experiment, blessedly brief The play opens with a theater company getting ready to begin a rehearsal.As the director tries to bring some order to the proceedings, six people walk in off of the street looking for an author.They want someone to dramatize their sordid true life story.The tale that they unfold is in fact so melodramatic that the director has his troupe start acting out the six characters and repeating their lines.Meanwhile, the six quibble with the actors' interpretations and with the reproduced dialogue and even argue with the director over whether it is possible or appropriate for anyone other than the six to play themselves. The premise and structure of the play are amusing and thought provoking.One can only imagine how Pirandello would react to the permutations we see spun out today with reality tv and instant tv movies based on real events, even those we've all just witnessed on live tv like the OJ trial.In fact, just recently on the X-Files, Scully and Mulder were working with a police force which was being filmed for the live action show COPS.Fictional characters pretending to be on a "real" show, but the players on the "real" show are fictional for this episode...He would have loved it.But ultimately the actual content of this play seems to be totally superfluous.The ingenious set up is the whole point and so it ends up resembling one of those Saturday Night Live skits that doesn't know when enough is enough.It all makes for an interesting thought experiment but a somewhat tedious, though blessedly brief, drama. GRADE: C+
An Innovative, Iconoclastic Masterpiece "Six Characters" is set in a theatre where adirector, his stage manager and a group of actors are about to rehearseanother of Pirandello's plays, "The Rules of the Game".Thecurtain is up, the stage is empty of props and background, and the lightsilluminate the bare wall at the back of the stage.It is an austeresetting, a kind of theatrical analogue to the blank sheet of paper anauthor faces each day he sits down to write. Suddenly, this austerity,this mundane theatrical rehearsal, is interrupted by the unexpected arrivalof six characters--a father, a mother, a son, a stepdaughter, a boy, and alittle girl.They are six characters who have lives, who have stories totell, but whose dramatic text has not been written.They need an author. As Pirandello says in his 1925 introduction to the play: "Everycreature of fantasy and art, in order to exist, must have his drama, thatis, a drama in which he may be a character and for which he is a character. This drama is the character's raison d'etre, his vital function, necessaryfor his existence." The play proceeds, with the six charactersrelating fragmentary scenes of incidents in their lives, scenes which areaccompanied by commentary, quarrels, dialogue, and interaction among thecharacters and between the characters and the actors.A kind of theatricalhall of mirrors, the actors who view these characters become, in effect, anaudience.The actors are also, however, the actors who will be called uponto play the parts of the six characters in the dramatic text which is beingcreated in their presence.For these actors and these characters, thestage becomes more real than the world. "Six Characters in Search ofan Author" is a remarkable work of imagination, both in its structureand its dialogue.It is comic and absurd, tragic and ponderous.The playis a work of original genius; the text (like its characters) is open tomultiple interpretations and meanings.As one character says, in anappropriate Pirandellian bit of dialogue: "[t]herein lies the drama .. . in my awareness that each of us thinks of himself as one but that,well, it's not true, each of us is many, oh so many, according to thepossibilities that are in us." ... Read more |
3. The Oil Jar and Other Stories (Dover Thrift Editions) by Luigi Pirandello | |
Paperback: 96
Pages
(1995-04-03)
list price: US$1.50 -- used & new: US$0.15 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 048628459X Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description Customer Reviews (6)
Worth the price
I thoroughly enjoyed this
Oil Jar
Not the author's best works
Wonderful slice of 19th century Sicilian life |
4. Six Characters in Search of an Author and Other Plays (Twentieth Century Classics) by Luigi Pirandello | |
Paperback: 224
Pages
(1996-02-01)
list price: US$14.00 -- used & new: US$7.00 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 014018922X Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description Customer Reviews (4)
Pirandello's classic existentialist drama and two more plays
A nearly flawless work of the theater well ahead of its time
Masterpiece
One review in search of a reviewer |
5. Collected Plays Volume 2 (Pirandello, Luigi//Collected Plays) by Luigi Pirandello | |
Paperback: 230
Pages
(1988-11-24)
list price: US$19.95 -- used & new: US$9.12 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 0714539848 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description |
6. The Late Mattia Pascal by Luigi Pirandello | |
Paperback: 272
Pages
(2004-11-30)
list price: US$14.95 -- used & new: US$8.54 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 1590171152 Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description Customer Reviews (8)
The Ultimate Identity Crisis
Pirandello is literature.
You can't escape from yourself
Great Book!!!
The brain is the piano and the player the soul |
7. Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello | |
Paperback: 80
Pages
(2010-01-01)
list price: US$5.95 -- used & new: US$5.39 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 1420934570 Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description Customer Reviews (9)
Indispensable Reading
Different from your normal play
What if?
Pirandello's classic play, the first existentialist drama
Captivating! |
8. Tales of Suicide: A Selection from Luigi Pirandello's Short Stories for a Year by Luigi Pirandello | |
Paperback: 217
Pages
(1987-10)
list price: US$14.95 -- used & new: US$7.98 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 0937832316 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
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9. Tales of Madness: A Selection from Luigi Pirandello's Short Stories for a Year by Luigi Pirandello | |
Hardcover: 146
Pages
(2009-03-12)
list price: US$19.95 -- used & new: US$18.74 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 093783226X Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description |
10. Loveless Love (Hesperus Classics) by Luigi Pirandello | |
Unknown Binding:
Pages
(2002-08-24)
-- used & new: US$9.18 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: B0040CB0JE Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
11. Collected Plays Volume 1 (Pirandello, Luigi//Collected Plays) by Luigi Pirandello | |
Paperback: 230
Pages
(1987-07-01)
list price: US$19.95 -- used & new: US$11.96 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 0714541109 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description This is the first volume of a collected edition of the complete plays of Luigi Pirandello, one of the major playwrights of the early 20th century. Henry IV (1922) has always been one of the most performed and popular of Pirandello’s works, both in Italy and in other countries. A study in the nature of reality and delusion, it has great dramatic impact and is intensely moving. The Man With the Flower (1923) is perhaps the best known of his shorter plays, poignant and devastating. Right You Are If You Think You Are (1917) is a major play that has had many successful productions and a strong message of live and let live. Lazarus (1929), although less known, remains one of Pirandello’s most haunting creations. |
12. Naked Masks: Five Plays (Meridian) by Luigi Pirandello | |
Paperback: 416
Pages
(1957-09-01)
list price: US$26.00 -- used & new: US$9.99 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 0452010829 Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Customer Reviews (4)
Naked Masks five plays by Luigi Pirandello
highly recommended
fantastic The only problem with this collection of plays (and the only reason that I didn't give it five stars) is that in the introduction to "Six Characters..." the editor discusses "Six Characters in Search of an Author," "Each in His own Way," and "tonight We Improvise," as a trilogy.He takes the time to discuss the relationship between these plays, and yet "Tonight We Improvise" is omitted from the collection.Thus, we are left with only the first two plays of the trilogy.What makes it worse is that they are both excellent plays (making me wish I didn't have to scrounge up another book to get the third). Other than that, this is an outstanding collection.Eric Bentley (the editor) writes an informative introduction to Pirandello, and adds Pirandello's own thoughts on "Six Characters...," as well as biographical information on the playwrite, in the appendix. I would recomend this for people who are, or aren't familiar with the work of Luigi Pirandello.It's definitely worth the read.
Modern Drama Must-Read |
13. Il Fu Mattia Pascal (Oscar Tutte Le Opere Di Luigi Pirandello) (Italian Edition) by Luigi Pirandello | |
Paperback: 293
Pages
(2002-06)
-- used & new: US$28.99 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 8804359277 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description |
14. Eleven Short Stories/Undici Novelle (A Dual-Language Book) (English and Italian Edition) by Luigi Pirandello | |
Paperback: 208
Pages
(1994-05-06)
list price: US$12.95 -- used & new: US$7.46 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 0486280918 Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description Customer Reviews (9)
For Advanced Students
11 short stories in Italian/English
Good book
Good modern Italian literature
Learning Italian |
15. Henry IV (Enrico Quarto) (Dodo Press) by Luigi Pirandello | |
Paperback: 76
Pages
(2009-01-23)
list price: US$12.99 -- used & new: US$9.40 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 1406574481 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description |
16. L'Esclusa by Luigi Pirandello | |
Hardcover:
Pages
(1953)
Asin: B003WZ844O Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
17. Naked (Nick Hern Books) by Luigi Pirandello | |
Paperback: 96
Pages
(1998-09-01)
list price: US$18.95 -- used & new: US$7.00 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 1854593390 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
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18. Signora Speranza by Luigi Pirandello | |
Paperback: 104
Pages
(2008-09-12)
list price: US$13.25 -- used & new: US$7.60 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 1595691081 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
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19. Luigi Pirandello: Contemporary Perspectives (Toronto Italian Studies) | |
Hardcover: 256
Pages
(1999-02-20)
list price: US$56.00 -- used & new: US$29.75 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 0802043879 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description The texts of Luigi Pirandello, one of the literary giants of this century, have been subject to widely different readings by successive generations of critics. These essays present an up-to-date re-evaluation of Pirandello's works, which include poetry, novels, short stories, plays, essays, letters, and memoirs. Arranged in four sections - Introduction, Structures, Meanings, and Innovations - the volume presents a variety of provocative viewpoints and offers an accurate picture of the network of issues inhabiting the author's oeuvre. In the introductory section the editors provide an informative overview of the status of Pirandellian studies today. The book examines the recent upsurge of interest in Pirandello and offers outstanding material for courses in Italian studies, comparative studies, theatre, and the humanities. |
20. The naked truth and eleven other stories, by Luigi Pirandello | |
Hardcover: 308
Pages
(1934)
Asin: B000859E1I Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
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