The World Machine by Paolo Volponi
A vivid and unforgettable novelistic portrait of rural Italy, exploring the nature of reality and the human condition.A small-time farmer living in central Italy in the 1960s is the keeper of a great truth: that people are machines built by other beings who are machines themselves. Our true destiny is to build ever better machines so that society can become a techno-utopia in which friendship can be established among all people on earth. These ideas bring him into conflict with everyone, especially his wife, against whom he is accused of ill-treatment. His quest takes him to Rome, where he presents his truth, hoping it will bring him worldwide recognition. Behind his poetical reveries and unfathomable scientific notions lies the disturbing fragility of a lone, paranoid, and deluded man in conflict with everyone, including himself.
Paolo Volponi’s unique novel The World Machine examines the relationship between rural life and the modern city, as well as the subversive idealism of a society still firmly anchored in the past, dominated by the Church, and unable to grasp the need for change.
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Holderlins Madness
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Puzzles
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The Kingdom and the Garden
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The Body of Language
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The Human Voice
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Name and Image
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The Unrealizable
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Self-Portrait in the Studio
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As Cruel as Anyone Else
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The Unspeakable Girl
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Studiolo
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Fear Reverence Terror
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Literary Genres and Their Origins
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Orphism and Tragedy
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On Impotence
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Within the Sweet Noise of Life
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The Still Arrow
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Blinding Polyphemus
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The Labour of Spirit
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The Twilight of Politics
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The Immemorial
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A Test of Powers
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Taste
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Nymphs
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The World Saved by Kids
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Secret Germany
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Spartakus
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An Essay on Negation
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The Idea of World
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Primo Levi
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The Church and the Kingdom
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This Body That Inhabits Me
“A portrait of a troubled adolescent boy, Damìn, which is the most memorable of all such portraits since JD. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye.” -- Praise for "The Javelin Thrower" * The Independent *
Paolo Volponi (1924–94) was one of Italy’s leading novelists and poets during the second half of the twentieth century. He is the first author to have twice won Italy’s most prestigious literary award, the Strega Prize, including one for The World Machine. Richard Dixon is a translator, whose works include the final books of Umberto Eco, including his novels The Prague Cemetery and Numero Zero and books by Giacomo Leopardi, Carlo Emilio Gadda, Roberto Calasso, Stefano Massini, and Antonio Moresco.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781803093765 |
| ISBN 10 | 1803093765 |
| Title | The World Machine |
| Author | Paolo Volponi |
| Series | The Italian List |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Seagull Books London Ltd |
| Year published | 2024-10-08 |
| Number of pages | 312 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |