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it-nl-fr The beast has three heads | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Viola Diglot Newbie Australia Joined 5853 days ago 36 posts - 38 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Japanese, Latin, German, French | Message 17 of 52 06 September 2011 at 1:55pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Very true I thoroughly enjoyed reading Inferno but boy were the other two tough. The pandering got a bit much for me. That said, I like poetry, Ancient Greece and Roman culture and Florentine politics. It all depends on your interests really. Umberto Eco is a contemporary writer that can be tricky to read, 'Il nome della rosa' has parts in Latin and in an ancient language he invented for the purposes of the book. Eco is a Professor of Semiotics so his writing is incredibly layered - even the introduction has all these obscure references to this and that. However the text itself is difficult to read which should help. He has written other non-fiction texts which are interesting too. Also, if you're interested in theatre, Pirandello isn't exactly a breeze but it's rewarding if you're prepared to be thrown (mentally) for a loop. Edited by Viola on 06 September 2011 at 1:56pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| numerodix Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6579 days ago 856 posts - 1226 votes  Speaks: EnglishC2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 18 of 52 06 September 2011 at 2:21pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
"Il nome della rosa" is one of my favorite books, I actually read it twice already this year, first in Italian then in French :) I've also read one or two other novels, so I have a good idea of what he's like. Never read his non-fiction though. Of Pirandello I know "Il fu Mattia Pascal" and "Enrico IV", the former decisively better imo. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Viola Diglot Newbie Australia Joined 5853 days ago 36 posts - 38 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Japanese, Latin, German, French | Message 19 of 52 07 September 2011 at 5:35am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Perhaps try Sei personaggi in cerco d'autore which is his most famous work. Enrico IV is indeed better than Il fu Mattia Pascal which iirc was at the beginning of his career and a sort of testing ground for his ideas.
Eco's non-fiction is very interesting if you are at all interested in language, philosophy or Literature (amongst other things). Have you read Foucalt's Pendulum? I enjoyed that more than Il nome della rosa. I'll try to have a bit of a think for you regarding other authors. "I Malavoglia" di Giovanni Verga and "La coscienza di Zeno" di Italo Svevo can be heavy going as well. buona lettura! Edited by Viola on 07 September 2011 at 5:36am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| numerodix Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6579 days ago 856 posts - 1226 votes Speaks: EnglishC2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 20 of 52 07 September 2011 at 9:46am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
I said the other way around, but doesn't matter. Actually, it's quite frequent that the first serious work of an author turns out to be the best one, because he's writing just for himself. No publishing deal, no expectations to meet, no pressure from readers who want more of the same. Sei personaggi is a play too?
He's published a haystack of these "saggi". Any particular ones you are thinking of?
Read it years ago, didn't like it very much.
Read them last year :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Viola Diglot Newbie Australia Joined 5853 days ago 36 posts - 38 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Japanese, Latin, German, French | Message 21 of 52 07 September 2011 at 11:28am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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In that case we appear to have vastly dissimilar tastes and I hesitate before recommending anything else to you. Likely, the best thing for you to do is to browse sites like http://www.sololibri.net/ or http://www.booksblog.it/ or http://www.qlibri.it/ and search according to your interests and tastes. If it is purely a linguistic exercise then perhaps read Italian translations of books you have found difficult in other languages?
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| Haukilahti Triglot Groupie Finland Joined 4760 days ago 94 posts - 126 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Polish | Message 22 of 52 07 September 2011 at 12:06pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Oh, what a dialogue. I pretty much agree with Viola's suggestions and preference, so I guess we too have a bit dissimilar tastes.
What I could suggest - I'd never have thought of suggesting this! - is to get some Italian school antologies. These are thick books full of extracts of different Italian literature (and some foreigner), where you can find for sure something/someone to your taste, to then explore by yourself. Typically a series of antologies for the secondary school's last three years consists (or consisted, before the school reform) of four large volumes: the first two from the origins to Settecento; Ottocento; Novecento. Guicciardini is often mentioned together with Machiavelli, as those two had different views on history and politics. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| numerodix Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6579 days ago 856 posts - 1226 votes Speaks: EnglishC2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 23 of 52 07 September 2011 at 11:24pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Thanks, guys, I'll look into those ideas. Right now I'm good for a while because I just
received a big shipment from amazon.it. :) [ru] I'm puzzled by some of the consonants in Russian. Whenever I hear a ть as in verb infinitives I keep flipping back and forth between C and Ć and it doesn't sound like either of them, but rather as a crazy in-between thing that I can't pronounce or at least not consistently. There's a lot of this though, is it dalEko or dalJEko (далеко) or once again something in between? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Haukilahti Triglot Groupie Finland Joined 4760 days ago 94 posts - 126 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Polish | Message 24 of 52 07 September 2011 at 11:36pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
That puzzled me as well, especially in one of the most popular audio courses out there, where everybody pronounced it differently. That's why I prefer Polish, as it has gone all the way to Ć... The second word is neither: it's simply a soft L, or so I think. Russian soft L falls somewhere between Italian L and Italian GLI to return back to that language. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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