The Baron in the Trees

📅 آخر تحديث: ٤ أغسطس ٢٠٢٦
✍️ نُشر في: ٤ أغسطس ٢٠٢٦
الموسوعة الحرة

The Baron in the Trees (Italian: Il barone rampantelit.'The Rampant Baron') is a 1957 novel by Italian writer Italo Calvino. Described as a conte philosophique[1] and a metaphor for independence, it tells the adventures of a boy who climbs up a tree to spend the rest of his life inhabiting an arboreal kingdom. Calvino published a new version of the novel in 1959.

Plot

Set in an imaginary village on the Ligurian Riviera, Ombrosa represents the author's vision as a central theme, little inclined to judgments and dull opinions.

The novel is narrated by Biagio, the younger brother of the protagonist, and is the story of a young baron, Cosimo Piovasco di Rondò, firstborn of a noble family sadly behind the times. The main story begins with a dispute on June 15, 1767 in the villa of Ombrosa, between an adolescent Cosimo and his father, after which Cosimo, who had quarreled with his father because he had refused to eat a snail soup, climbs the trees of the home garden and promises never to come down again in his entire life.

After the quarrel, Cosimo's life takes place in the trees; first in the family garden and then in the surrounding woods. Cosimo's life is full of adventures, from friendships with fruit thieves and bandits to days spent hunting or reading. In the life of the baron there is no lack of amorous encounters either. Cosimo's fame spreads quickly. At first, he becomes famous as a freak show and his family is almost ashamed of him, but later he also finds a way to win the respect of the Ombrosa community. The return of Viola, his first love, triggers a mutual feeling, always existent, which sadly ends due to a series of misunderstandings. The love between the two is strong, even if the relationship is filled with furious quarrels. Its end comes about in an unusual way: aged and sick, feeling the onset of death, Cosimo climbs to the top of a large walnut tree and hangs himself on a passing balloon. Thus, without betraying his promise to never set foot on the earth again, he disappears into the sky, without even giving the earth his remains.

Reception

The Baron in the Trees is the second volume in the fantasy trilogy Our Ancestors, together with The Cloven Viscount (1952) and The Nonexistent Knight (1959). The novel received the Viareggio Prize in 1957.

عند نشر الرواية، اشتكى العديد من النقاد الإيطاليين من "رتابة الحبكة في النصف الثاني منها" [ 1 ] ، بينما اعتبر الروائي والناقد إليو فيتوريني أن "التناقض الأسلوبي بين الفصول الأولى والأخيرة" يُمثل مشكلة. [ 1 ] ورغم هذه العيوب الملحوظة، يرى الناقد مارتن ماكلولين أن الرواية "لا تزال تُعتبر إنجازًا بارزًا في أعمال كالفينو. إنها محاولة ناجحة للغاية لإعادة إنتاج سرد فلسفي طوباوي لعصر الخمسينيات، مع مجموعة واسعة من التلميحات النصية ومحاكاة ساخرة متطورة لشعرية الرواية الأخلاقية الإنجليزية المبكرة كما مارسها ريتشاردسون وسخر منها فيلدينغ ". [ 1 ]

إلى جانب رواية "لو في ليلة شتوية مسافر " (1979)، تُعد رواية "البارون في الأشجار" العمل الروائي الأكثر مبيعًا لكالفينو. [ 1 ]

مراجع

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 ماكلوغلين، مارتن (1998). إيتالو كالفينو . إدنبرة: مطبعة جامعة إدنبرة . ص 42-43. ISBN  978-0748607358. OCLC 906859213 . 

للمزيد من القراءة