L'Immorale: Racconto

Butti, Enrico Annibale, 1868-1912Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0

Word count: 114K words
Chapters: 12

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.L'Immorale: Racconto by Enrico Annibale ButtiAuthor: Butti, Enrico Annibale, 1868-1912,Language: Italian, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: May 29, 2009

Editor's review

L'Immorale is a short story by the Italian writer Enrico Annibale Butti, written in Italian and belonging to late nineteenth-century Italian literature exploring the conflict between morality and desire. Butti stood at the intersection of Verismo and Decadentism; the book's narration is restrained and tinged with psychological analysis, reflecting through a character labeled "immoral" the tension between social norms and individual choice. The work is short and its plot concentrated, making it a suitable sample for understanding late nineteenth-century Italian narrative literature. As a public-domain e-book, the text has no modern introduction or annotations, so readers need to grasp the historical background on their own. The book's treatment of moral issues does not offer simple answers but leaves room for judgment, which is precisely its reading value. For lovers of Italian literature, this book can serve as a small window into Butti's creative world; for general readers, it is a short reading experience about moral labels and the complexity of human nature.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in late nineteenth-century Italian literature
Literary enthusiasts who enjoy short narrative and psychological description
Learners of Italian who wish to engage with original literary texts
Readers concerned with discussions of moral issues and the complexity of human nature

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer genre fiction with strong plots and fast pacing
Beginning readers who need modern introductions and detailed annotations
Beginners who have difficulty reading Italian originals

Reading tips

Before reading, learn about the late nineteenth-century Italian literary background of Verismo and Decadentism to better grasp the narrative tone.
Pay attention to the process by which the protagonist is labeled "immoral," and consider the distance between the narrator and the character.
Italian learners can first read through to grasp the plot, then read closely paragraph by paragraph to build literary vocabulary.
After finishing, compare with other Italian short stories of the same period to observe similarities and differences in handling moral themes.

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 there a Chinese translation of this book?

At present, this e-book is the original Italian edition from a public-domain project, with no Chinese translation attached. Chinese readers can read with a dictionary or a parallel translation, or first learn the plot summary before attempting the original, to lower the language barrier.

What does "the immoral one" in the title refer to?

The title points to a character regarded as "immoral" by society or the narrator. The work does not simply judge whether his actions are right or wrong, but through narration presents the tension between moral labels and individual motives. Readers should understand this designation in the context of late nineteenth-century Italian social morality.

What level of Italian is needed to read this book?

This is a literary narrative text with a certain difficulty in sentence structure and vocabulary; it is recommended for readers with intermediate or higher Italian reading ability. Beginners can first read a plot summary or a bilingual edition, then gradually move into the original, avoiding interruption due to too many unfamiliar words.

Why does the e-book edition have no annotations or introduction?

This book comes from a public-domain e-book project whose main goal is to provide free original texts, and it usually does not include modern editor's introductions, annotations, or references. Readers need to supplement the historical background themselves or consult relevant literary histories to better understand the text's historical context.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Butti, Enrico Annibale, 1868-1912 Author · Italian · 1868–1912

Enrico Annibale Butti (1868–1912) was an Italian writer and playwright. Public information about his life is limited, and existing records focus mainly on his literary work. His writings address the moral crisis of modern society, often tracing the conflict between individual conscience and social norms and revealing the spiritual predicaments of a period of transition. His representative work, L’Immorale: Racconto, explores in narrative form the complex psychology of moral transgression and self-justification, showing his sustained engagement with ethical questions. Butti’s style emphasizes psychological portrayal and the clash of ideas; his characters struggle among desire, duty, and social judgment, giving his work a distinctly fin-de-siècle intellectual atmosphere. His plays and novels echo one another in theme, all centered on moral crisis. Although his output was modest and his work remains insufficiently translated in the Chinese-speaking world, Butti is still regarded as a notable voice in Italian literature on modern moral themes, and his representative work offers a concrete text for understanding the ethical anxieties of Italian society in his time.