The Cloven Viscount E-Book

Marion Munier

• Herausgeber: BrightSummaries.com
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Seitenzahl: 28

Beschreibung

What should we learn from The Cloven Viscount, the original philosophical tale of Italian literature? Find everything you need to know about this work in a complete and detailed analysis.

You will find in this sheet:
- A complete summary
- A presentation of the main characters such as the Viscount Medard of Terralba, the narrator and Pamela
- An analysis of the specificities of the work: "A fantastic or marvelous tale", "A philosophical tale", "An initiatory tale" and "A work full of humor"

A reference analysis to quickly understand the meaning of the work.

Leseprobe

ITALO CALVINO

ITALIAN WRITER, PHILOSOPHER AND JOURNALIST

•Born in 1923 in Santiago de Las Vegas (Cuba)

•Died in 1985 in Siena (Italy)

•Some of his works:

°The Spider's Nest Trail (1947), novel

°Marcovaldo or Seasons in the City (1958 and 1963), novel

°The Castle of Crossed Destinies (1973), short stories

Italo Calvino was two years old when his family left Cuba for Italy, his parents' country of origin. There he received an anti-fascist education. During the Second World War (1939-1945), he fought in the Italian resistance, an experience that nourished his first novel, The Path of the Spiders' Nests. While pursuing a career as a journalist, he continued to write.

He gained public recognition in the 1950s with the publication of his trilogy of stories, Nos ancêtres. In 1960, he moved to Paris and, at the request of Raymond Queneau (French writer, 1903-1976), joined OuLiPo (OUvroir de LIttérature POtentielle) in 1974, which brought together experimental authors. He continued to publish numerous works, including Les Villes invisibles in 1972. His imagination, lucidity and humour make him an author for young and old alike, and one of the freest writers of his time.

THE CLOVEN VISCOUNT

AN ALLEGORICAL VISION OF THE HUMAN CONDITION

•Genre: Storytelling

•Reference edition:Le Vicomte pourfendu, translated from Italian by Juliette Bertrand, Paris, Albin Michel, “Le Livre de Poche” series, 1955, 123 p.

•1st edition: 1952

•Themes : duality, goodness, cruelty, humour, fantasy, wonder, war

Le Vicomte pourfendu is the first book in the trilogy Nos ancêtres, which also includes Le Baron perché (1957) and Le Chevalier inexistant (1959). These three fables offer an allegorical vision of the human condition.

Le Vicomte pourfendu (The Cloven Viscount) tells the story of the life of Viscount Médard, who was cut in two vertically by a cannonball. Since then, each part of his body has lived independently; the right one is evil and brings misfortune to his village, while the left one is good and only does good. In so doing, Italo Calvino illustrates the complexity of the human being, and shows that goodness and cruelty, when taken to extremes, are equally inhuman.

SUMMARY

THE WRONG HALF

Viscount Médard of Terralba goes to war against the Turks with his squire, Kurt. Although Kurt explains the disasters of the battlefield to him, Lieutenant Médard is eager to fight. But in a violent battle, Kurt is wounded, while the Viscount is hit by a cannonball that cuts him in half vertically.

When he returns, the villagers discover that he has lost the left side of his body. Something has changed in him, and the Viscount refuses to visit his father, the old Aiulphe, who sends him his favourite bird to make contact: Médard tortures the animal and cuts it in two. The next day, the patriarch is found dead in his aviary.

The villagers soon discover that the Viscount cuts everything in half: fruit, plants and animals. He even gives his nephew (his sister's son born out of wedlock) halves of poisonous mushrooms to fricassee, which makes his old nurse, Sébastienne, say that “it's Médard's bad half that's come back” (p. 29). Subsequently, this part of the Viscount does not stop trying to kill his nephew.