Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #71848 in Books
• Published on: 1977-03-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 228 pages

Synopsis
A young, eighteenth-century Italian nobleman defies parental authority by adopting an exclusively arboreal life, watching from his perch in the trees the passing of the Enlightenment and participating in its various delights and duties.

Customer Reviews

Calvino's finest and most accessible work
The protagonist in this work is perhaps the best-delineated character in all of Calvino's works. Cosimo is both an ascetic stylite and participant in the Enlightenment, and the strains of his personality are ever stretched by contemplation, solitude, love, adventure, and the grotesque. Among Calvino's many fine works, The Baron in the Trees must be his greatest. More than any other work, it balances the author's penchant for wit, absurdity, and grand imagination with touching, yet never overwrought, sentimentality. The Baron in the Trees confirms Calvino's standing among the best writers in any language in this century.

Have you ever desired not to touch the ground any more?
"The Baron in the Trees" by Italo Calvino tells the astonishing story of Cosme, a boy who decided to climb a tree and never touch the ground again. The book shows his life from the moment he decided to rebel against his family in such a strange way till the day he "passed away". Talks about someone who didn't want to belong to the same world of the "ground-walkers". It's a nice fable, and as many nice fables, talk about big truths about human beings, even the ones which do not climb the trees to scape - or fight against - his problems.

A modern fairytale tinged with the magic of Italy
The beauty and depth of The Baron in the Trees is so very special in a world where everything seems to be so superficial and capitalist. Calvino, yet again, paints a picture so fantastic yet so real. This is the Italy only the Italians know, and behind it the Italian author who is too unknow in Britain. When will the British public learn to enjoy works which are not anglophone?? Calvino is a master, and the Baron in the Trees is a wonderful fairytale tinged with a very subtle and wicked humour.