Italian Folktales

Italo Calvino has compiled a truly delightful collection of 200 traditional Italian folktales. Calvino is the perfect choice to put these folktales into writing. His prose is vibrant, as always. This volume was undoubtedly a labor of love for Calvino. These stories are playful and full of joy. You wil......more

There is an endless fascination to fairy and folk tales. As a child, I remember listening to them at my great-aunt’s knee: she was a great storyteller, and often embellished and modified tales, so that cruel and sad parts were left out. The same tales were restored to their original form when told b......more

As a tiny child, I read this an enormous number of times -- I remember bringing it in to my kindergarten class to show to my teacher (who, certainly, had doubts that I'd actually read it. Psh. (Yes. I am hugely pretentious.)) Regardless. I've read bits and pieces of it again and again over the years,......more

My mother gave me this book when I was seven years old. She got it from a salesman who was smart enough to convince her that the book was perfect for a seven years old, even though it was a book of more than a thousand pages, and an expensive one, with an heavy binding that made it difficult for a l......more