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Italian Popular Tales
- Language
- EN
- Format
- EPUB
- Size
- 437 KB
Description
This work is a collection of folk tales compiled in prose form, focusing on stories from Italy. It is assembled from oral sources and translated into English, aiming to preserve the storytelling style and cultural context of the original narratives. The tales are characteristic of Italian folklore, often featuring supernatural elements, moral lessons, and local customs, reflecting the traditions of rural communities in Italy during the late 19th century. The organisation of the collection includes an introductory explanation by the author about the oral origins of the stories, emphasizing their spontaneous, unpolished nature, distinct from literary compositions. The collection provides insights into Italian cultural beliefs and practices through stories that have been passed down through generations, highlighting the role of storytelling in maintaining communal identity.
The book was published in 1885 by Houghton, Mifflin, and Company, and represents an academic effort to document and present Italian oral folklore to an Anglophone audience. It situates itself within the broader 19th-century scholarly interest in European popular traditions, contributing to the understanding of regional mythology and legend. The collection serves as a record of oral narrative techniques and the beliefs embedded within Italian rural communities of the period.
The book was published in 1885 by Houghton, Mifflin, and Company, and represents an academic effort to document and present Italian oral folklore to an Anglophone audience. It situates itself within the broader 19th-century scholarly interest in European popular traditions, contributing to the understanding of regional mythology and legend. The collection serves as a record of oral narrative techniques and the beliefs embedded within Italian rural communities of the period.
From the opening pages
This book has two types of notes. Footnotes are in the text and are indicated by a letter. These have been moved to the end of the appropriate paragraph. Endnotes are indicated by a number, and the notes for all the chapters are at the end of the stories. ITALIAN POPULAR TALES BY THOMAS FREDERICK CRANE, A. M. PROFESSOR OF THE ROMANCE LANGUAGES IN CORNELL UNIVERSITY BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY The Riverside Press, Cambridge Copyright, 1885, By THOMAS FREDERICK CRANE. All rights reserved. The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company. To GIUSEPPE PITRÈ. PREFACE. The growing interest in the popular tales of Europe has led me to believe that a selection from those of Italy would be entertaining to the general reader, and valuable to the student of comparative folk-lore. The stories which, with but few exceptions, are here presented for the first time to the English reader, have been translated from recent Italian collections, and are given exactly as they were taken down from the mouths of the people, and it is in this sense, belonging to the people, that the word popular is used in the title of this work. I have occasionally changed the present to the past tense, and slightly condensed by the omission of tiresome repetitions; [A] but otherwise my versions follow the original closely, too closely perhaps in the case of the Sicilian tales, which, when recited, are very dramatic, but seem disjointed and abrupt when read. [A] Other condensations are indicated by brackets. The notes are intended to supplement those of Pitrè and Köhler by citing the stories published since the Fiabe, Novelle e Racconti , and the Sicilianische Märchen , and also to furnish easy reference to the parallel stories of the rest of Europe. As the notes are primarily intended for students I have simply pointed out the most convenient sources of information and those to which I have had access. My space has obliged me to restrict my notes to what seemed to me the most important, and I have as a rule given only references which I have verified myself. My object has been simply to present to the reader and student unacquainted with the Italian dialects a tolerably complete collection of Italian popular tales; with theories as to the origin and diffusion of popular…
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