The Naive Ones

Alfredo PanziniProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.3

Word count: 258K words
Chapters: 26

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Gli ingenui by Alfredo PanziniAuthor: Panzini, Alfredo, 1863-1939,Language: Italian, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Mar 19, 2013

Editor's review

This is a novel by the Italian writer Alfredo Panzini, presented in the original Italian as a public-domain ebook. Panzini was active from the late nineteenth to the first half of the twentieth century, and his writing often carries gentle irony and close observation of human frailties; the title may be understood as a portrait of the “innocent” or “unworldly.” As a free electronic text from Project Gutenberg, its main value lies in language and literature: readers can encounter directly the feel, syntax, and period vocabulary of early twentieth-century Italian narrative prose. It suits advanced Italian reading as an original-language text and also broadens the horizons of readers interested in the lineage of modern Italian literature. Readers should not expect the tightly plotted experience of a modern novel; it is better approached as a literary text steeped in its era, with attention to characterization and narrative tone. Since the available materials provide only bibliographic information, readers should treat it as a primary text for reading rather than an annotated guide; for historical background and dialectal expressions, a dictionary and relevant literary histories may be consulted.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Learners with intermediate or higher Italian reading ability who wish to read the original text
Readers interested in modern Italian literature and the social landscape of the early twentieth century
Library or publishing professionals working with public-domain ebooks and early digitized texts
Self-studiers accustomed to slow reading, willing to look up words and take reading notes

Not a good fit for

General readers with no Italian at all who want a Chinese translation
Fans of fast-paced popular fiction with strong suspense
Beginners who need detailed annotations, introductions, and background analysis

Reading tips

First read a chapter or two straight through to get a feel for the narrative tone, then decide whether to read closely paragraph by paragraph and organize vocabulary.
Keep an Italian dictionary and literary-history materials at hand, and check names, places, and period expressions as they come up.
Read alongside other works by Panzini or by his Italian contemporaries to observe differences in subject matter and style.
If you only want to grasp the content, read the opening and closing paragraphs of chapters first to grasp the structure, then go back for details.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book suitable for Italian beginners?

Not really for readers at zero or elementary level. The book is in original Italian, and its narrative language carries early twentieth-century features, so the syntax and vocabulary present a high threshold for beginners. It is better suited to learners with intermediate or higher reading ability who are willing to look up words and read slowly, or to those who first use a translation to grasp the content and then compare it with the original.

What are the features of the Project Gutenberg edition?

This edition is a free public-domain ebook provided by Project Gutenberg, catalogued by language and class for easy searching and downloading. It generally preserves the original text and includes no modern introduction or detailed annotations, so readers need to supply background materials themselves. The exact layout and file formats are as published on that platform.

What background should I know before reading this book?

It is advisable to learn first about the author Panzini’s life and times and the basic outlines of modern Italian literature, and to watch for period vocabulary and social customs that may appear in the book. Since the materials provide no detailed plot or annotations, readers may consult literary histories, dictionaries, and related scholarship; where an expression is uncertain, the original context should be the guide.

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About the author

Alfredo Panzini Author · Italian · 1863–1939

Alfredo Panzini (1863–1939) was an Italian novelist and lexicographer, born in Senigallia. He studied under the poet Carducci and long taught in secondary schools and at the Milan Polytechnic. His writing is humorous yet tinged with melancholy, drawing on everyday life and observations of the world while combining narrative charm with moral reflection. His representative works include La lanterna di Diogene, Piccole storie del mondo grande, Che cosa è l'amore?, Trionfi di donna, Donne, madonne e bimbi, Gli ingenui, Il 1859 da Plombières a Villafranca and Viaggio di un povero letterato. He also compiled the Modern Dictionary and was elected to the Italian Royal Academy in 1929. His works are often classed as inspirational and coming-of-age literature, and he holds a place in modern Italian literature and language education.