Tales from the parlour and the trenches

Gregorio Giungi

Publisher: 01 05 5277717 Gregorio Giungi

Summary

“Tales from the parlour and the trenches” tells the true story of Enea Milesi. More than just a biography – tragic and intense - of a character whose life in Italy straddles the 19th and 20th centuries, this is an historical novel in which the protagonist’s emotions and personal struggles become a pretext for depicting, in a politically incorrect manner, the events of the First World War.Fought in the chaos of Italy’s trenches and the country’s military unpreparedness the war is a “Great Fair of Human Flesh”. Enea, a young man on the brink of adulthood, leaves for the front in 1916 armed with spartan determination following his brother’s death in action. He survives the conflict distinguishing himself by his bravery and military skill, but returns from the trenches of Northern Italy a changed man.The Second World War ensues and Enea “suffers through it as a civilian” in constant fear for the life of his wife and children and the safety of his property. In the years that follow he faces the inevitable epilogue of his own existence.“Tales from the parlour and the trenches” opens a window on a man’s private and intimate life, on his relationships and family dramas, against a backdrop of warfare. Enea shares with his fellow soldiers “bread, blood, danger and shit” and his story is both an unforgettable tableau of a lost age and a moving testimonial from a generation that knew how to smile in the face of death.

Available since: 02/26/2015.

Print length: 147 pages.

Poetry & Theatre

Other books that might interest you

Makeshift Nothings "Poetry...

Sweetness Godgiben

This unique book is a collection of fiction slam-like poetry. Showcasing various adult topics, fantasy or realistic-like scenarios.

Show book

As You Like It

William Shakespeare, Edith Nesbit

As You Like It follows its heroine, Rosalind, as she flees persecution in her uncle's court, accompanied by her cousin Celia to find safety and, eventually, love in the Forest of Arden. 
This edition is an adaptation of Shakespeare's eponymous comedy, narrated in plain modern English, capturing the very essence and key elements of the original Shakespeare's drama. Read in English, unabridged.

Show book

Thomas Hardy - Chapter & Verse -...

Thomas Hardy

Literature is a world of words and wonder, able to take us on almost unimaginable journeys from the wild and fantastic to the grind and minutiae of life.

An author’s ideas are his building blocks, his architecture of the mind, building a structure on which all else will rest; the narrative, the characters, the words - those few words that begin the adventure.

In this series we look at some of our leading classic authors across two genres: the short story and the poem. In this modern world there is an insatiable need to categorise and pigeon-hole everyone and everything. But ideas, these grains and saplings of the brain, need to roam, to explore and find their perfect literary use vehicle. Our authors are masters of many literary forms, perhaps known for one but themselves favouring another.

Story. Poems. Story. Within these boundaries come all manner of invention and cast of characters. And, of course, each author has their own way of revealing their own chapter and verse.

1 - Chapter & Verse - Thomas Hardy - An Introduction
2 - An Imaginative Woman by Thomas Hardy
3 - A Broken Appointment by Thomas Hardy
4 - The Mother Mourns by Thomas Hardy
5 - Rain on a Grave by Thomas Hardy
6 - The Dead Man Walking by Thomas Hardy
7 - Rome - Building a New Street in the Ancient Quarter, April 1887 by Thomas Hardy
8 - At the Royal Academy by Thomas Hardy
9 - In the Moonlight by Thomas Hardy
10 - The Seasons of Her Year by Thomas Hardy
11 - Birds at Winter Nightfall (Triolet) by Thomas Hardy
12 - The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy
13 - The Calf by Thomas Hardy
14 - The Oxen by Thomas Hardy
15 - The Fiddler of the Reels by Thomas Hardy

Show book

The Courtship of Miles Standish

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

During the late nineteenth century and until the middle of the twentieth, many elementary classrooms in America featured (along with a Gilbert Stuart portrait of Washington) a black-and-white print of a group of New England pilgrims on their way to church, the men carrying their muskets. Every school child at that time was intimately acquainted with the story of the Mayflower and the Plymouth colony in Massachusetts. Among the historical figures, one of the best known was Captain Miles Standish, the military commander of the little “army,” which consisted of a bare handful of men, who repeatedly defeated many times their number of hostile Indians. The children also knew the friendly Indian Squanto and the young pilgrim gentleman John Alden and the lovely maiden Priscilla Mullins.
In the middle grades practically all students used to read Longfellow’s long narrative poem The Courtship of Miles Standish, telling the story of these real people. The plot is initiated by Standish’s request that his friend, the better educated and more eloquent Alden, plead his case for him and persuade Priscilla to marry this rough middle-aged widower. What the captain did not know was that John Alden was also deeply in love with the same young girl. Presentday readers will be impressed that the delightful Miss Mullins seems to be a quite modern young lady, with a mind of her own. Many hundreds of Americans trace their ancestry to John and Priscilla, whose descendants also include Presidents John and John Quincy Adams and Longfellow himself. Those who are not familiar with their romance will find it a most pleasant tale. (Introduction by Leonard Wilson)

Show book

Lake

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe (born Edgar Poe) was an American author, poet, editor, and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story, and is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.Poe and his works influenced literature in the United States and around the world, as well as in specialized fields, such as cosmology and cryptography. Poe and his work appear throughout popular culture in literature, music, films, and television. - Summary by Wikipedia

Show book

The Poetry of Amy Levy -...

Amy Levy

Amy Levy was born in London, England in 1861, the second of seven in a fairly wealthy Anglo-Jewish family. The children read and participated in secular literary activities and became firmly integrated into Victorian life. 
 
Her education was at Brighton High School, Brighton, before studies at Newnham College, Cambridge; she was the first Jewish student when she arrived in 1879, but left after four terms. 
 
Amy’s writing career began early; her poem ‘Ida Grey’ appeared when she was only fourteen. Her acclaimed short stories ‘Cohen of Trinity’ and ‘Wise in Their Generation,’ were published by Oscar Wilde in his magazine ‘Women's World’. 
 
Her poetic writings reveal feminist concerns; ‘Xantippe and Other Verses’, from 1881 includes a poem in the voice of Socrates's wife. ‘A Minor Poet and Other Verse’ from 1884 comprises of dramatic monologues and lyric poems. 
 
In 1886, Amy began a series of essays on Jewish culture and literature for the Jewish Chronicle, including ‘The Ghetto at Florence’, ‘The Jew in Fiction’, ‘Jewish Humour’ and ‘Jewish Children’. 
 
That same year while travelling in Florence she met the writer Vernon Lee. It is generally assumed they fell in love and this inspired the poem ‘To Vernon Lee’. 
 
Her first novel ‘Romance of a Shop’, written in 1888 is based on four sisters who experience the pleasures and hardships of running a London business during the 1880s. This was followed by Reuben Sachs (also 1888) and concerned with Jewish identity and mores in the England of her time and was somewhat controversial. 
Her final book of poems, ‘A London Plane-Tree’ from 1889, shows the beginnings of the influence of French symbolism. 
 
Despite many friendships and an active life, Amy suffered for many years with serious depressions and this, together with her growing deafness, led her to commit suicide by inhaling carbon monoxide on September 10th, 1889. She was 27. 
 
01 - The Poetry of Amy Levy - An Introduction 
02 - Xantippe (A Fragment) by Amy Levy 
03 - At Dawn by Amy Levy 
04 - In the Night by Amy Levy 
05 - Sonnet by Amy Levy 
06 - A March Day in London by Amy Levy 
07 - The First Extra - A Waltz Song by Amy Levy 
08 - A Game of Lawn Tennis by Amy Levy 
09 - On the Wye in May by Amy Levy 
10 - A June Tide Echo by Amy Levy 
11 - A London Plane Tree by Amy Levy 
12 - London In July by Amy Levy 
13 - In the Black Forest by Amy Levy 
14 - On the Threhold by Amy Levy 
15 - The Dream by Amy Levy 
16 - In September by Amy Levy 
17 - A Dirge by Amy Levy 
18 - In a Minor Key (An Echo From a Larger Lyre) by Amy Levy 
19 - The Old House by Amy Levy 
20 - Out of Town by Amy Levy 
21 - In the Mile End Road by Amy Levy 
22 - Ballade of a Special Edition by Amy Levy 
23 - Ballade of An Omnibus by Amy Levy 
24 - A Reminisence by Amy Levy 
25 - To Lallie (Outside the British Museum) by Amy Levy 
26 - Oh, Is it Love by Amy Levy 
27 - Philosophy by Amy Levy 
28 - Contradictions by Amy Levy 
29 - To Sylvia by Amy Levy 
30 - A Prayer by Amy Levy 
31 - The Lost Friend by Amy Levy 
32 - To A Dead Poet by Amy Levy 
33 - London Poets by Amy Levy 
34 - The Old Poet by Amy Levy 
35 - The Sick Man and the Nightingale by Amy Levy 
36 - Epitaph (On a Commonplace Person Who Died in Bed) by Amy Levy 
37 - Run to Death by Amy Levy 
38 - A Cross Road Epitaph by Amy Levy 
39 - Twilight by Amy Levy 
40 - The Two Terrors by Amy Levy 
41 - Last Words by Amy Levy 
42 - The Promise of Sleep by Amy Levy 
43 - A Farewell by Amy Levy 
44 - A Minor Poet by Amy Levy

Show book