The Path to the Nest of Spiders
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File:PathToTheNestOfSpiders.jpg
First English translation
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Author | Italo Calvino |
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Original title | Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno |
Translator | Archibald Colquhoun |
Country | Italy |
Language | Italian |
Publication date
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1947 |
Published in English
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1957 |
The Path to the Nest of Spiders (Italian: Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno ) is a 1947 novel by the Italian writer Italo Calvino. The narrative is a coming-of-age story, set against the backdrop of World War II. It was Calvino's first novel.
Plot
Pin, an orphaned cobbler's apprentice in a town on the Ligurian coast, lives with his sister, a prostitute. After stealing a pistol from a Nazi sailor, Pin searches for an identity with a partisan group. All the while, the people he meets mock him without his knowing. The title refers to Pin's secret hiding place, directions to which he touts as a prize to any adults who win his trust.
Reception
Some critics[who?] view the work as unexceptional, on the grounds that it fails to address the issues other than from a very naive perspective; others[who?] credit it with being skillfully written and make a virtue of its portrayal of the complex emotions and politics of adults, as seen through the eyes of a child. However one passage about prisoners-of-war being made to dig their own grave before being shot is universally regarded as impressive.[citation needed]
See also
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- Pages with broken file links
- Articles containing Italian-language text
- Lang and lang-xx using deprecated ISO 639 codes
- All articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases
- Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from February 2012
- Articles with unsourced statements from February 2012
- 1947 novels
- Debut novels
- Novels by Italo Calvino
- Novels about orphans
- Novels set in Liguria
- 1940s novel stubs
- World War II novel stubs