Eleven Short Stories: A Dual-Language Book

I like dual language books as I Learn the language. This one is a good one. the stories are interesting and the trandlation allows for quick help on difficult passages.

Luigi Pirandello, the 1934 Nobel laureate for literature,created some delightful and surprising short stories of the southern regions of Italy. Supported by a careful English translation on the opposite pages it is possible for the intermediate level student of Italian to get a taste of real literature. Because of Pirandello's place in the literary world, this book should be added to every student's library.

Outstanding book for the intermediate Italian student. Put together well.

Yeah, its fun to study this way, and you will not even realize how much italian you have learned until you go back to read the book again or go read another book in italian and you will be like "Holy cow I can understand some of this"...I am reading this book for a second time now...my feelings on the actual stories themselves is really kinda hit or miss...some of them I thought were really cool, like Una Voce, it is a story about a blind man who is engaged to this woman. A doctor thinks he can cure the man's blindness. What happens? You have to read to find out but it was very interesting (Yeah I know it sounds like that movie with Val Kilmer but trust me, it's different). But honestly, for a lot of the other stories I was like please let this end. Maybe something was lost in the translation, and I'm not fluent in Italian, but Pirandello reminds me of a guy who takes 2 hours to set up a joke and then has no punchline. He writes like at the end there is going to be some really big catch like "Woah I can't believe this happened!" but then he just ends it before that catch ever takes place. So I guess what I am trying to say is that this book is a great tool for learning italian, I just didn't find most of the stories very interesting. Still, I am glad I bought it. I thought "Italian Stories" were a lot more interesting. Yeah, I know Pirandello is real famous and people love his stuff, I'm just saying that I didn't particularly like it.

This book is a great version of these classic tales. Being a dual-language text makes it an excellent aid to Italian language study. It is a must-read for lovers of Italian literature.