Sometimes the Soul: Two Novellas of Sicily
by Gioia Timpanelli
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Description
Winner of an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation "No one in the world . . . can tell a story better than Gioia Timpanelli."--Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes "Gioia Timpanelli's novellas . . . offer simple lessons about the nature of beauty and the beauty of nature . . . in rich, incantatory language." --The New York Times Book Review A renowned storyteller who has beguiled audiences around the world offers these mesmerizing novella-length fables about two young show more women and the transformative power of art. In "A Knot of Tears," a baroness locks herself up in the Green Palace, only to have her seclusion interrupted by a parrot that flies through the window. When a sailor arrives to retrieve his companion, the young man and his pet delight her with three inspiring stories, while an unscrupulous suitor schemes to lure her out of her house and into his arms. In "Rusina, Not Quite in Love," Timpanelli recasts "Beauty and the Beast" as the tale of a loving young heroine who escapes her poor family to live at the estate of Signor Sebastiano. A devastatingly ugly man who prefers plants to people, Sebastiano leads Rusina to the true meaning of beauty. Lyrical, enchanting, wise, these timeless stories are, in the words of the baroness, "simple, but not so simple," as they enlighten readers about the virtues of love, solitude, and art. "Gioia Timpanelli's stories . . . are dreams . . . and these dreams, in the skill of their telling, lead us back to ourselves." --The Boston Globe "This is brilliant writing . . . [that] changes tales into fresh literature . . . by the passion of an educated person for the great things in life: plants, works of art, talk at dinner, and devotion." --Robert Bly show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Two fairy tales set in Sicily. While they don’t give a true sense of time and place, they do transport you to another place outside of modern urban experience. I found the two novellas entertaining and immersive. I’m curious to know more about the author, an internationally known scholar of storytelling a story gatherer, and a story telling writer. Though I’m not clear on such immensely glowing reviews on the book cover, especially Frank McCourt’s.
I had to force myself to finish this, even when I was only 15 pages from the end. There's nothing particularly bad about the writing of these two novellas, they're just painfully dull and uninteresting. A disappointment.
Highly recommended if interested in fables, folk / fairy tales.
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Beauty and the Beast Tales
80 works; 7 members
Author Information
6+ Works 125 Members
Gioia Timpanelli is an award-winning storyteller. (Bowker Author Biography)
Awards and Honors
Awards
Common Knowledge
- First words
- Sometimes the soul is tested.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"As always, mine, Sebastian, is now when you will say for the first time and again: 'This has happened not because we have loved beauty but because it has loved us.'"
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 81
- Popularity
- 391,188
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (3.40)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook
- ISBNs
- 4
- ASINs
- 1
