3.0
Lies and Sorcery
By Elsa Morante & Jenny McPheePublisher Description
An Italian master's magnum opus about three generations of women, now in the first-ever unabridged English translation.
Elsa Morante is one of the titans of twentieth-century literature—Natalia Ginzburg said she was the writer of her own generation that she most admired—and yet her work remains little known in the United States. Written during World War II, Morante’s celebrated first novel, Lies and Sorcery, is in the grand tradition of Stendhal, Tolstoy, and Proust, spanning the lives of three generations of wildly eccentric women.
The story is set in Sicily and told by Elisa, orphaned young and raised by a “fallen woman.” For years Elisa has lived in an imaginary world of her own; now, however, her guardian has died, and the young woman feels that she must abandon her fantasy life to confront the truth of her family’s tortured and dramatic history. Elisa is a seductive, if less than reliable, spinner of stories, and the reader is drawn into a tale of secrets, intrigue, and treachery, which, as it proceeds, is increasingly revealed to be an exploration of a legacy of political and social injustice. Throughout, Morante’s elegant writing—and her drive to get at the heart of her characters’ complex relationships and all-too self-destructive behavior—holds us spellbound.
Elsa Morante is one of the titans of twentieth-century literature—Natalia Ginzburg said she was the writer of her own generation that she most admired—and yet her work remains little known in the United States. Written during World War II, Morante’s celebrated first novel, Lies and Sorcery, is in the grand tradition of Stendhal, Tolstoy, and Proust, spanning the lives of three generations of wildly eccentric women.
The story is set in Sicily and told by Elisa, orphaned young and raised by a “fallen woman.” For years Elisa has lived in an imaginary world of her own; now, however, her guardian has died, and the young woman feels that she must abandon her fantasy life to confront the truth of her family’s tortured and dramatic history. Elisa is a seductive, if less than reliable, spinner of stories, and the reader is drawn into a tale of secrets, intrigue, and treachery, which, as it proceeds, is increasingly revealed to be an exploration of a legacy of political and social injustice. Throughout, Morante’s elegant writing—and her drive to get at the heart of her characters’ complex relationships and all-too self-destructive behavior—holds us spellbound.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities2 Reviews
3.0
natalie 🐝
Created 3 months agoShare
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“sometimes i want to give MYSELF five stars for finishing a book. alas, this is a 3.5
This is everything you'd expect it to be. A masterclass in Italian melodrama. Someone gnaws a pillow until it splits open. Lots of pounding on chests and biting of fists. Love affair gone wrong and self-flagellation over not-sins-but-they-feel-guilty-anyway. Edoardo's character is one of the most cruel villains I've read in a long time. Although this is positioned as a female-driven novel, I'm not sure I was sold on that. There is a clear bias towards how the male characters are forgiven and the female characters are demonized. Then again, this is supposed to be somewhat satirical? And I could see that in a lot of passages that flourished with ridiculous prose. The lines were a bit blurred though in what I think Morante was intentionally trying to do and what missed the mark.
The first half of this book was definitely stronger than the second half. The only place it picks up in the second half is when Anna starts to like, hallucinate and it's this strange sequence of dreams and almost-confrontations between characters. I think the main problem I found in this book was the character of Francesco and his relationships with any other character. I didn't find that his character was developed in a way that made me care about what happened to him, nor did I really care about Rosaria. I found both of them took up too much space. And I didn't understand why we threw Alessandra to the side, nor did I understand why Francesco abandoned her in the way he did.
All this to say: at the end of the day, I enjoyed most of the prose and the symbolism in this book, though I still thought it fell short in narrative and character development.”
Clare D.
Created 5 months agoShare
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“This was honestly kind of a slog for me. I loved the unreliable narrator at the beginning but every character seemed so stuck (I am sure that is the point but it was hard to stay engaged for over 700 pages).”Believable charactersDescriptive writingImmersive settingComing of ageHeartbreakingMisogynyUnengaging charactersUnsatisfying plot
About Elsa Morante
Elsa Morante (1912–1985) was an Italian novelist, poet, and translator. She was born in Rome and lived there nearly all her life. In 1941, she published her first collection of stories and married the novelist Alberto Moravia. Morante is best known for her novels Arturo’s Island and La Storia. For her work, she was awarded both the Viareggio Prize and the Strega Prize.
Jenny McPhee is a translator and the author of the novels The Center of Things, No Ordinary Matter, and A Man of No Moon. For NYRB Classics she translted Curzio Malaparte’s The Kremlin Ball and Natalia Ginzburg’s Family Lexicon. She is the director for the Center of Applied Liberal Arts at New York University.
Jenny McPhee is a translator and the author of the novels The Center of Things, No Ordinary Matter, and A Man of No Moon. For NYRB Classics she translted Curzio Malaparte’s The Kremlin Ball and Natalia Ginzburg’s Family Lexicon. She is the director for the Center of Applied Liberal Arts at New York University.
Other books by Elsa Morante
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