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| Author | Aldo Palazzeschi |
|---|---|
| Original title | Il codice di Perelà |
| Language | Italian |
| Publisher | Edizioni futuriste di Poesia |
| Publication date | 1911 |
| Publication place | Italy |
| Published in English | 1936 |
| Pages | 277 |
Man of Smoke (Italian: Il codice di Perelà, lit. 'The Code of Perelà') is a 1911 novel by the Italian writer Aldo Palazzeschi. It is a futurist social satire about a man who is made of light smoke and tasked with creating a legal code for others to follow.
Plot
The novel is about the man Perela, who is made of light smoke and appears through a chimney in an unnamed city at the age of 33. He is discovered by the king's soldiers and interrogated, after which he is received as a revelation through his message of "lightness". As he quickly gains a strong following among people and rulers, he is regarded as a bringer of a new golden age, sent by divine providence, and is asked to create a new legal code. With time, through his encounters with various citizens, the excitement dies and people become sceptical of Perela. He is eventually put on trial, where he only responds to accusations by saying "I am light".
Major themes
Anthony Julian Tamburri describes the novel as anti-realist and as an allegory about how strict norms and conventions make it impossible for a man like Perela to participate in society. Tamburri writes that the novel tasks the reader with piecing together the fragments of Perela's code, which is enciphered throughout the story.
Publication
Man of Smoke was first published in Italy in 1911 by Edizioni futuriste di Poesia. Palazzeschi made revised versions published in 1920, 1943 and 1954. A version in English by Peter M. Riccio, titled Perela: The Man of Smoke and described as an adaptation, was published in 1936. Italica Press published an English translation by Nicolas J. Perella and Ruggero Stefanini in 1992.
Reception
Along with Mafarka the Futurist [it] by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Man of Smoke is the futurist novel that has received the most attention over the years. In 1992, Publishers Weekly called it a "rewarding and critically important modernist tale" with "deft social commentary and irony". In Italica, Paschal Viglionese highlighted allusions to Inferno and The Decameron and how the book combines serious social themes with "the comic, the irreverent, the bizarre, and the grotesque". Tamburri writes that it contrasts greatly to the conventional Italian literature of its time and functions as a companion piece to the poetry Palazzeschi otherwise was known for.
The book was the basis for the opera Perelà, uomo di fumo composed by Pascal Dusapin, which premiered in 2003.
References
- Tamburri, Anthony Julian (1990). "Il codice di Perelà, romanzo (futurista)". Of Saltimbanchi and Incendiari: Aldo Palazzeschi and avant-gardism in Italy. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. pp. 127–172. ISBN 0-8386-3375-7.
- ^ "Man of Smoke". Publishers Weekly. 4 May 1992. Retrieved 7 December 2024.
- ^ Tamburri, Anthony Julian (2006). "Il codice di Perelà, 1911". Encyclopedia of Italian Literary Studies. Routledge. pp. 1136–1137. ISBN 9781135455309.
- Kazin, Alfred (31 May 1993). "An Italian Parable Of Human Folly; PERELA: THE MAN OF SMOKE. Adapted from the Italian of Aldo Palazzeschi by Peter M. Riccio. 278 pp. New York: S.F. Vani. $2.50. An Italian Parable". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 December 2024.
- Healey, Robin (1998). Twentieth-century Italian Literature in English Translation: An Annotated Bibliography 1929-1997. University of Toronto Press. p. 401. ISBN 9780802008008.
- Donnarumma, Raffaele (2004). "Palazzeschi e 'Il codice di Perelà'. Narrare nell'avanguardia". Belfagor [it] (in Italian). 59 (4): 446. JSTOR 26150174.
- Viglionese, Paschal (1995). "Aldo Palazzeschi. Man of Smoke". Italica. 72 (4): 532–534. doi:10.2307/480183.
- Cadenhead, Frank (February 2003). "Perelà, uomo di fumo". Andante (review of the Paris premiere). Archived from the original on 7 March 2005.
External links
- Project Gutenberg (1920 version, Italian)
- Italica Press