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Revision as of 00:49, 7 December 2024 by Uriahheep228 (talk | contribs) (←Created page with '{{short description|1911 novel by Aldo Palazzeschi}} {{Infobox book | name = Man of Smoke | image = | image_size = | border = | alt = | caption = | author = Aldo Palazzeschi | title_orig = Il codice di Perelà | orig_lang_code = it | translator = | illustrator = | cover_artist = | country = Italy | language = Italian | sub...')(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) 1911 novel by Aldo Palazzeschi| 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) 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.
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".
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
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".
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.
- Viglionese, Paschal (1995). "Aldo Palazzeschi. Man of Smoke". Italica. 72 (4): 532–534. doi:10.2307/480183.