The Baron in the Trees
'I can think of no finer writer to have beside me while Italy explodes, Britain burns, while the world ends' Salman Rushdie From the age of twelve, the Baron Cosimo Piovasco di Rondo makes his home among ash, elm, magnolia, plum and almond, living up in the trees. He walks through paths made from the twisted branches of olive, makes his bed in a holly oak, bathes in a fountain constructed from poplar bark. An aerial library holds the books with which he educates himself in philosophy and mathematics. Suspended among the leaves, the Baron adventures with bandits and pirates, conducts a passionate love affair, and watches the Age of Enlightenment pass by beneath him. 'The most magically ingenious of the contemporary Italian novelists' The Times
Stats for nerds
10recommend
13mentions
12people
2015–2026years
85% recommend15% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Marcovaldo, Cosmicomics, Difficult Loves are my favorite. Baron in the Trees too.
I'd definitely suggest starting with these. His short story work is beautiful.
- The Baron in the Trees is mentioned so rarely always, but it was one of the most influential books of my youth. A fantastic read.
- recommendations:
* Our Ancestors (The Cloven Viscount, The Baron in the Trees, The Nonexistent Knight)
* The Complete Cosmicomics (Cosmicomics, t zero, + others)
* Invisible Cities
* If on a winter's night a traveler
- "The Baron in the Trees" by Italo Calvino.
- I’ve been getting into Italo Calvino after reading Invisible Cities, which was great. Right now I’m reading The Baron in the Trees.
- I adore Italo Calvino. Even his less popular works, like The Baron In The Trees, move me. Invisibile Cities, If on a winter’s night a traveler, are even better. That being said, I almost feel like this author is taking him too seriously. Like Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph Heller, and many other authors, I think Calvino is mostly... having a laugh? If that makes sense. The overwhelming feeling across all the works is absurdity. For example, take the author's view of Invisible Cities.
> What explains the mutability of Marco Polo’s cities? A quarter of the way through the tales we learn that Marco Polo has no knowledge of Asian languages.
That's not it, I think. It's the fact that Marco Polo is bullshitting, and Kublai Khan knows it, and does not care. The whole point is that this guy is a borderline fraud, weaving tall tales, but no one cares because the stories are good. Its a comedic absurdist view, a mirror held up to fiction, basically asking, "who cares?"
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