Edited Book

The Conservatory of Santa Teresa

  • Romano Bilenchi,
  • Edited by:
  • Charles Klopp,
  • Melinda Nelson,

This volume is the first translation of Romano Bilenchi’s 1940 masterpiece to appear in English. This is surprising since The Conservatory of Santa Teresa is much more than an invaluable historical document of life in provincial Tuscany around the time of the First World War. It is truly one of the most important works of fiction published in Italy under Fascism. In telling of the pre-adolescent Sergio’s encounter with the larger world of sex, politics, and the violence and cruelty of adult life, Bilenchi succeeds in representing a universal paradigm, that of the clash of innocence with experience. But what makes Sergio’s trajectory unique is that he goes through it in the company of three extraordinary women who are at once femmes fatales and benevolent guides: his mother, his aunt, and his tutor, all almost unbearably beautiful, as least in Sergio’s eyes. These women, plus the dazzling landscape of the Sienese countryside as captured by Bilenchi, make Sergio’s journey an enviable even if sometimes painful and bewildering experience.

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Charles Klopp

The Ohio State University, United States - ORCID: 0000-0001-8216-7426

Romano Bilenchi (1909-1989) was a journalist, writer, and political militant in Florence and elsewhere in Tuscany. A ‘left-wing Fascist’ in his youth, he became an active participant in the anti-Fascist Resistance in the late 1930s, shortly after completing the first edition of this novel.
Charles Klopp is Professor Emeritus of Italian at The Ohio State University and the author of many books and essays on Italian literature and culture. Melinda Nelson is an Assistant Provost at the same institution.
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  • Publication Year: 2015
  • Pages: 230
  • eISBN: 978-88-6655-824-8
  • Content License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
  • © 2015 Author(s)

EPUB
  • Publication Year: 2015
  • eISBN: 978-88-6655-825-5
  • Content License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
  • © 2015 Author(s)

PRINT
  • Publication Year: 2015
  • Pages: 230
  • ISBN: 978-88-6655-823-1
  • Content License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
  • © 2015 Author(s)

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  • Publication Year: 2015
  • eISBN: 978-88-9273-372-5
  • Content License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
  • © 2015 Author(s)

Bibliographic Information

Book Title

The Conservatory of Santa Teresa

Editors

Charles Klopp, Melinda Nelson

Authors

Romano Bilenchi

Peer Reviewed

Number of Pages

230

Publication Year

2015

Copyright Information

© 2015 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Publisher Name

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/978-88-6655-824-8

ISBN Print

978-88-6655-823-1

eISBN (pdf)

978-88-6655-824-8

eISBN (epub)

978-88-6655-825-5

eISBN (xml)

978-88-9273-372-5

Series Title

Studi e saggi

Series ISSN

2704-6478

Series E-ISSN

2704-5919

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