Eleven Short Stories/Undici Novelle (A Dual-Language Book)

In my opinion, if you can read this book in Italian, you are an advanced student. If you can read the English side, you are probably reading at a college level.Here is a sentence from the first page: "La bimba andava sbadatamente, ed ecco ... diradandosi a poco a poco una piccola collina che a destra s'innalzava le si sciorina davanti allo sguardo l'immensità delle acque del mare."If you can't read that, don't buy the book.This book has a lot of long sentences, 20 word sentences are common. It also has a large vocabulary. Words repeat infrequently so reading didn't get easier as the story continued. Also, some of the words weren't in my 15,000-word dictionary.If you're already comfortable reading Italian, you might find this book useful, otherwise look somewhere else.

There is a little bit of a chicken-or-egg paradox in reviewing a book such as this, in that I would probably have to be at a more advanced level of Italian study than the level of the book, in order to really appraise it properly. As it is, with the book representing a learning tool, I have to assume that the translator is accurate in his efforts. Indeed, where I know the proper Italian and English, it appears to be correct, thus I am giving 4 stars. The stories are slightly uninteresting to me, but the primary focus of the book is for learning the language, not reading stories, and on that count, it seems to be quite good.

I bought this book and another just like it to continue to learn Italian more fluently. I am very pleased. The books do tell you which stories are "easiest" on up to "hardest" so you can read them in that order, if you choose (they are not printed in that order). And these stories are not easy to get through, but the process has helped me a learn a great deal, both with verb conjugation and sentence structure. You really do need more than a "basic" or "beginner" knowledge of Italian, and you also need quiet time that you can concentrate on your reading. I love having the translation on the opposite page for when I get stuck on the really hard or -- in some cases -- really LONG sentences!

I rated it thee stars because I didn't like the stories much. Unsatisfactory endings for me, some dumb stories. But it is ok, especially as a review or if you want to improve your Italian further after reading better dual language books. I'm usually please (and I am with this one) with almost any dual language book, even if I don't like the stories or translations, because for me the books are to improve my knowledge of the foreign language. But some books are boring, dumb, and otherwise less desireable than those better written and interesting.

MUY ENTRETENIDOS LOS CUENTOS Y TAMBIÉN DISFRUTÉ ESCUCHARLOS.

Works great, but only if you know the basics. The stories are not interesting and not easy to understand (in English!)

I have been studying Italian for years and return to this book again and again. The stories in this book are engaging. Having the translations side-by-side with the Italian version make studying the language so much easier than having to rely on the dictionary. I rarely read a book more than once but these stories draw me back and back.

I bought this Dual English-Italian book for my husband who was looking for a translation book of short stories of English-Italian, and he absolutely loves it!

I wanted a book to help me to learn to read Italian. Pirandello uses some words which don't appear in standard Italian dictionaries, which is a bit hard. Also, his world is rustic, far from my experience or interest. Of course it's also about people and their quirks and weaknesses, which are universal.So I found it too hard both from the language and the situations to be easy to grasp. Perhaps next year I will have a better idea of it.

The short stories are somewhat deep and melancholy and not easy to translate. But there is the advantage of the english on the facing page.

My better half is learning Italian so she loved this book.

Pirandello is one of the greatest writers Europe has produced. His writing is subtle, touching and funny (The Jar was made into a film staring one of Italy's most famous comic actors). I have read a lot of his work in the original language. This is a very good translation indeed. The colloquialisms and particular turns of phrase that are peculiar to Italian and lend certain nuances of meaning that are difficult to achieve in English. This translator has managed it though. Pirandello writes about everyday human experiences but always with a twist, a touch of madness. Pirandello is not easy to find in English, take this opportunity to read him, you won't be disappointed.

Great