About The Author: Chosen Author + 25 Pieces Of Information

Italo Calvino 1923-1985

- An italian author, with a 'deceptively simple style of writing'.

- If on a winters night a traveler' well known for it's iconic narrative style which engages with the reader in a subtle yet genius way.

- 'Invisible Cities' emphasises Calvino's intensely descriptive nature, and interest in the surreal/dreams. Massively imaginative, and an engaging story. 

- His works are often constructed with great innovation, for example, chapters of a story that can be read in any order. 

Chosen Work

Italo Calvino - Invisible Cities

The story of Marco Polo's voyage from Venice to Cathay, including descriptions of many fictionalised cities.

25 Pieces Of Information

5 Quotes

- "Cities, like dreas, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else."

- "Memories images, once they are fixed in words are erased"

- "It has neither name or place… What is imagined as possible… They decided to build a city like it was in the dream…"

- "the travellers past changes according to the route he has followed."

- “Futures not achieved are only branches of the past: dead branches.” 

5 Motifs

- Models of cities in glass globes

- Hourglass

- Ostrich Plumes

- Stories

- Boats

5 Characters

- Explorer, Marco Polo - Symbolic of wonder, dreams, excitement 

- Emperor, Kublai Khan - Symbolic of Power, wealth 

*It is argued that many of the cities described in the story are characters*

There are 50 cities in total, each falling under one of these categories:

- Cities & Memory
- Cities & Desire
- Cities & Signs
- Thin Cities
- Trading Cities
- Cities & Eyes
- Cities & Names
- Cities & the Dead
- Cities & the Sky
- Continuous Cities
- Hidden Cities

- Octavia, The spiderweb city - "This is the foundation of the city: a net which serves as passage and as support. All the rest, instead of rising up, is hung below: rope ladders, hammocks, houses made like sacks, clothes hangers, terraces like gondolas, skins of water, gas jets, spits, baskets on strings, dumb-waiters, showers, trapezes and rings for children’s games, cable cars, chandeliers, pots with trailing plants. Suspended over the abyss, the life of Octavia’s inhabitants is less uncertain than in other cities. They know the net will last only so long."

- Sophronia, The Thin City - "The city of Sophronia is made up of two half-cities. In one there is a great roller coaster with its steep humps, the carousel with its chain spokes, the Ferris wheel of spinning cages, the death-ride with the crouching motorcyclists, the big top with the clump of trapezes hanging in the middle. The other half-city is of stone and marble and cement, with the bank, the factories, the palaces, the slaughterhouse, the school, and all the rest. One of the half-cities is permanent, the other is temporary, and when the period of its sojourn is over, they uproot it, dismantle it, and take it off, transplanting it to the vacant lots of another half-city."

5 Pieces of Information about the author

- Italo Calvino was born on October 15, 1923 in Cuba.
- His parents were botanists. 
- Raised in Italy. 
- The influences of the lush greenery, vegetation and flora Calvino grew up in are often reflected in his writings. 

- He and his family resided in a country house at Pinetta Rocca Mare near the Riviera.