Giambattista Basile's "The Tale of Tales, or Entertainment for Little Ones"

出版者:Wayne State University Press

作者:Giambattista Basile

页数:463

译者:Canepa, Nancy L.

出版时间:2007-5

价格:$ 39.49

装帧:Paperback

isbn号码:9780814328668

具体描述

he Tale of Tales, made up of forty-nine fairy tales within a fiftieth frame story, contains the earliest versions of celebrated stories like Rapunzel, All-Fur, Hansel and Gretel, The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella. The tales are bawdy and irreverent but also tender and whimsical, acute in psychological characterization and encyclopedic in description. They are also evocative of marvelous worlds of fairy-tale unreality as well as of the everyday rituals of life in seventeenth-century Naples. Yet because the original is written in the nonstandard Neopolitan dialect of Italian—and was last translated fully into English in 1932—this important piece of Baroque literature has long been inaccessible to both the general public and most fairy-tale scholars.

Giambattista Basile’s “The Tale of Tales, or Entertainment for Little Ones” is a modern translation that preserves the distinctive character of Basile’s original. Working directly from the original Neopolitan version, translator Nancy L. Canepa takes pains to maintain the idiosyncratic tone of The Tale of Tales as well as the work’s unpredictable structure. This edition keeps the repetition, experimental syntax, and inventive metaphors of the original version intact, bringing Basile’s words directly to twenty-first-century readers for the first time. This volume is also fully annotated, so as to elucidate any unfamiliar cultural references alongside the text. Giambattista Basile’s “The Tale of Tales, or Entertainment for Little Ones” is also lushly illustrated and includes a foreword, an introduction, an illustrator’s note, and a complete bibliography.

The publication of The Tale of Tales marked not only a culmination of the interest in the popular culture and folk traditions of the Renaissance period but also the beginning of the era of the artful and sophisticated “authored” fairy tale that inspired and influenced later writers like Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm. Giambattista Basile’s “The Tale of Tales, or Entertainment for Little Ones” offers an excellent point of departure for reflection about what constitutes Italian culture, as well as for discussion of the relevance that forms of early modern culture like fairy tales still hold for us today. This volume is vital reading for fairy-tale scholars and anyone interested in cultural history.

作者简介

Born to a Neapolitan middle-class family, Basile was, during his career, a courtier and soldier to various Italian princes, including the doge of Venice. According to Benedetto Croce he was born in 1575, while other sources have February 1566. In Venice he began to write poetry. Later he returned to Naples to serve as a courtier under the patronage of Don Marino II Caracciolo, prince of Avellino, to whom he dedicated his idyll L’Aretusa (1618). By the time of his death he had reached the rank of "count" Conte di Torrone.

Basile's earliest known literary production is from 1604 in the form of a preface to the Vaiasseide of his friend the Neapolitan writer Giulio Cesare Cortese. The following year his villanella Smorza crudel amore was set to music and in 1608 he publish his poem Il Pianto della Vergine.

He is chiefly remembered for writing the collection of Neapolitan fairy tales titled Lo cunto de li cunti overo lo trattenemiento de peccerille (Neapolitan for "The Tale of Tales, or Entertainment for Little Ones"), also known as Il Pentamerone published posthumously in two volumes by his sister Adriana in Naples, Italy in 1634 and 1636 under the pseudonym Gian Alesio Abbatutis. It later became known as the Pentamerone. Although neglected for some time, the work received a great deal of attention after the Brothers Grimm praised it highly as the first national collection of fairy tales. Many of these fairy tales are the oldest known variants in existence. They include the earliest known versions of "Rapunzel" and "Cinderella".

用户评价

当我看到这本书的标题时，我立刻被它所吸引。这不仅仅是因为“故事”这个词本身所蕴含的吸引力，更是因为“为小辈们准备的娱乐”这个附加的说明。这让我觉得，这本书不仅仅是一部文学作品，更是一份珍贵的礼物，一份可以代代相传的智慧和乐趣。我设想着，在某个特别的时刻，比如家庭聚会，或者一个寒冷的冬夜，有人会翻开这本书，开始朗读其中的某个故事。我想象着孩子们瞪大眼睛，充满好奇地聆听，而成年人则在微笑中，或许还会回想起自己小时候也曾被这些故事所打动。这本书就像一座宝藏，里面藏满了各种各样的珍珠，有闪耀着光芒的，有温润内敛的，但每一颗都价值非凡。我期待着其中的角色，他们或许不像现代故事里的英雄那般完美，但却更加真实，更加 relatable。他们的喜怒哀乐，他们的选择与命运，都能在某种程度上引起我们的共鸣。

这本《故事中的故事》在我手中，感觉就像一本被时间精心打磨过的古董，散发着一种独特的、不落俗套的艺术气息。它不像现在市面上那些为了迎合市场而批量生产的故事集，更像是一位独具匠心的老匠人，用他的毕生才华，一点一滴雕琢出来的艺术品。我特别欣赏它所传达的那种“寓教于乐”的精神，它似乎在告诉我们，即使是最简单、最纯粹的娱乐，也能蕴含着深刻的人生哲理。我脑海中浮现的，是那些并非总是光鲜亮丽，甚至可能带着些许黑暗和残酷的角色，他们在故事中挣扎、成长，最终找到自己的归宿。这让我觉得，这本书并非只是为孩童准备的，它同样能给成年人带来深刻的思考。我期待着书中那些巧妙的构思，那些意想不到的转折，以及那些在细枝末节处展现出来的作者的智慧。或许，它能帮助我们重新审视那些被我们视为理所当然的童话，发现其中隐藏的更深层的含义，以及那些在时代变迁中依然不变的人性本质。

这本书名《故事中的故事，给孩子们的娱乐》实在是太吸引人了，它勾起了我内心深处对纯粹叙事艺术的向往。我喜欢那些结构精巧、层层递进的故事，就像俄罗斯套娃一样，打开一个，里面还有一个更小的，直到触及最核心的惊喜。而“给孩子们的娱乐”这句话，则点明了它亲切而又充满童趣的定位。我立刻联想到了一些我童年时期读过的，充满想象力，又带着一点点奇诡色彩的故事。我期待着书中那些充满智慧的对话，那些令人捧腹的幽默，以及那些偶尔出现，却又充满警示意义的寓言。这不应该是一本简单的睡前故事集，而应该是一部能够激发孩子们无限想象力，同时也能让他们在潜移默化中学习到生活道理的作品。我希望这本书能够引领读者进入一个充满奇思妙想的世界，在那里，一切皆有可能，只有你想不到，没有它做不到。

初次接触到这本书的名字，《故事中的故事，给孩子们的娱乐》，就让我感到一种久违的亲切感。它不像那些过于现代、程式化的童话，反而带着一股浓郁的古典气息，仿佛是来自遥远的过去，经过时间的沉淀，散发着更加迷人的光泽。我期待着其中能够找到那些已经被遗忘的，却同样精彩绝伦的故事。也许有些故事会有些许惊悚，有些则会充满温情，但无论如何，它们都应该能牢牢抓住读者的心，让他们沉浸其中，无法自拔。我希望这本书的语言风格能够独特而富有韵味，即使在翻译过来后，也能保留其原有的魅力。那些古老的谚语，那些生动的比喻，那些富有节奏感的叙述，都应该让阅读本身成为一种享受。它应该是一本能够陪伴读者成长的书，在他们不同的年龄段，都能从中读出不同的意味，获得不同的启发。

读到这本书的封面，内心就涌起一股怀旧的情绪，仿佛回到了童年某个午后，阳光透过老旧的窗户洒在地板上，我蜷缩在软垫上，身边堆满了各式各样的故事书。这本书的书名本身就散发着一种古老而迷人的魅力，“故事中的故事，给孩子们的娱乐”，这几个字在我脑海中勾勒出一幅画面：一个炉火旁的夜晚，一位慈祥的长者，声音低沉而富有磁性，开始讲述一个个流传已久、奇幻瑰丽的传说。我期待着里面能有那些耳熟能详的童话雏形，或者一些我从未听闻却同样引人入胜的冒险。那些古老的语言，也许带着些许生涩，但正因为这份不完美，反而更显真实，仿佛可以直接触摸到数百年前人们的想象力。我希望这本书能带我进入一个纯粹的世界，在那里，善恶的界限或许不那么分明，但总是充满着人性的光辉与挣扎，而最终，不论是公主的命运还是王子的冒险，都将以某种方式得到圆满的结局，哪怕这个结局并非是我们如今所习惯的“从此幸福快乐地生活在一起”。它应该是一个充满惊喜的宝箱，每一次翻开都能从中发掘出新的乐趣和感悟。