The Beautiful Girl The innkeeper’s daughter, a “beautiful girl,” is first encountered by the protagonist as the wife of the ogre, who has been his captive for years. She comes up with a scheme to take four feathers from the ogre, answer each of the four questions, and escape with the man, without either of…
Tag: Italo Calvino
The Feathered Ogre – Summary
A king falls ill and is told by his doctors that the only way he can be cured is by obtaining a feather from the ogre that eats every human being it sees. No one of his subjects is willing to go on a quest for one of the ogre’s feathers, until one attendant bravely…
How is ‘genre’ questioned in ‘If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler’ by Italo Calvino?
One of the hallmarks of good literature is its incompatibility with any of the recognized genres. In pulp fiction, commonly identified genres are horror, romance, mystery, adventure, etc. But these genres do not qualify for serious literary discourse. Being one of the pre-eminent writers of the twentieth century, Italo Calvino’s works generally defy being classified…