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  • The Cloven Viscount by Italo Calvino book cover
  • The Cloven Viscount by Italo Calvino book cover
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The Cloven Viscount

by Italo Calvino

A divided nobleman, divided in character

$17.09 USD
$28.49 USD $17.09 USD
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AlbakiReads Editorial

A divided nobleman, divided in character

A cannonball splits Viscount Medardo of Terralba in two, and the halves return to his estate as independent figures: one given to evil, the other virtuous. Their rivalry over the same woman turns the novella’s fantastical premise into a pointed contrast between opposing moral extremes. The feudal estate and the battle against the Turks frame a story that takes its central conceit into comic, macabre territory.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • For readers interested in fantastical literary fiction and novella-length works.
  • For readers drawn to stories built around moral oppositions and unusual premises.

Themes

Moral dualityRivalryLoveFantastical fiction

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

In this fantastically macabre tale, the separate halves of a nobleman split in two by a cannonball go on to pursue their own independent adventures

In a battle against the Turks, Viscount Medardo of Terralba is bisected lengthwise by a cannonball. One half of him returns to his feudal estate and takes up a lavishly evil life. Soon the other, virtuous half appears. When the two halves become rivals for the love of the same woman, there's no telling the lengths each will go to win.Now available in an independent volume for the first time, this deliciously bizarre novella is Calvino at his most devious and winning.
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