Canne al vento grazia deledda pdf

User icon An illustration of a person's head and chest. Sign up Log in. Web icon An illustration of a computer application window Wayback Machine Texts icon An illustration of an open book. Books Video icon An illustration of two cells of a film strip. Video Audio icon An illustration of an audio speaker. Audio Software icon An illustration of a 3. Software Images icon An illustration of two photographs. The Pintor family's financial and social situation had changed.

Rather than changing their lives to make the most of their new circumstances, the sisters become shut in spinsters as they cling stubbornly to their previous status. Efix also clings stubbornly to his servant title. I thought he would be portrayed as selfless, but how selfless is one when they are motivated by guilt? When people at the festivals threw coins that hit him in the chest Deledda describes his enjoying "the delight of matyrdom.

The closest thing I have felt to religion has been sitting in the sun, feeling my fingers in the dirt in nature, feeling the thrum of life all around me. My brain tells me it was just probably my heart beat in my ears and perhaps I was overheated, but emotionally I felt that the rhythm was from the earth, a life force that all living creatures must share.

This passage from page 2 seemed to sum up my experience: "The moon rose before him, and evening voices told him the day had ended: a cuckoo's rhythmical cry, the early crickets' chirping, a bird calling; the reeds sighing and the ever more distinct voice of the river; but most of all a breathing, mysterious panting that seemed to come from the earth itself.

I am left with the impression that her characters are rodents scurrying to hoard a harvest in the fall; tiny creatures preocupied with their own dramas while the earth continues to turn, the stars continue to shine, unmoved.

This passage from page supports my theory: "All the freshness of the evening, all the harmony of the serene distance, and the stars smiling at the flowers and the flowers smiling at the stars, and the proud joy of handsome young shepherds, and the repressed passion of women in red bodices, and all the melancholy of the poor who live waiting for leftovers from the tables of the rich, and the distant sorrows and hopes, and the past, the lost country, love, sin, remorse, prayer, the hymn of the pilgrim who travels far not knowing where he'll spend the night, but feels he is guided by God, and the green solitude of the little farm down there, the odor of euphorbia, Grixenda's laughter and tears, Noemi's laughter and tears, Efix's laughter and tears, the whole world's laughter and tears, trembled and vibrated in the notes of the nightingale above in the solitary tree that seemed higher than the mountains, with its top touching the sky and the tip of the highest leaf stuck in a star.

We are small beings all connected to the great big web of life on earth. Reminiscent of how looking down from a mountain top, or out into the expanse of the ocean makes you feel small and insignificant in a comforting way. Dio solo lo sa. Can he resist? It is difficult and if destiny seems to be all powerful what is the role of God? The answer remains with God alone. But having God as the only solace is the only way open to an ordinary man to cope with the everyday sufferings.

At times God alone does not suffice. So the man takes recourse to superstitious beliefs. He creates the other world of fairies, ghosts and gnomes.

This is a story set in a Sardegnian village of the initial stage of the 20th century. It was the time when Nobility was at its decadence and economy was setting the new standards. Everything of this is very graphically captured by Deledda in this novel. She presents the Sardegnian set up and the landscape in an inimitable style. The language is very evocative and makes visible everything of the landscape - be it the rough mountainous terrain, or the simple rising of the moon as the sun goes down, or the natural habitat with its flora and fauna, etc.

Besides giving the landscape Deledda also introduces the readers to the socio-cultural ambiance of the then Sardegnian village.

Everything finds place in the book and they are presented not as to disturb the flow of the story but are very casually and naturally are interspersed in the story. There are also some interesting analysis of characters. A Lovely Book and it is with a heavy heart that I came out of the Sardegnian village as I completed reading the last pages. I recommend you to take this trip to Sardegnian village of the early 20th century.

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This was quite an enjoyable read, although I expected much more. The characters are vague, there's a considerable lack of description when it comes to them. The nature on the other hand is given in details, like a character on its own.

I pitted the Pintor sisters as they were victims of other people's faults just as much as their own or even more. As children they were taught to stay inside like porcelain dolls and hold on to a useless title that gave them nothing but imaginary goodness. The dea This was quite an enjoyable read, although I expected much more. The death of one of ladies was written so simple but yet so real and the marriage of the other gave me a little bit of hope that these women will finally see a better side of life.

From holes in the wooden roof rained oblique rays of silvery powder that fell on kneeling women And up, up, over the wide road the first gray, then white, then rosy; the dawn seemed to rise from the valley like red smoke inundating the fantastic peaks on the horizon Yet beneath this beauty lies a decaying town, a decaying family and a decaying society.

Some of the characters seem a little date, but are believable in the context of when and where the novel is set-from the irascible Giacinto, to the inflexible and indomitable Pintor sisters and the most human and complex character in the novel, the pathetic though kind-hearted servant Efix.

I read this for a group that reads Nobel Prize winners written by women. My first impression was one of awe. The language was so beautiful I wanted to savor every word. As the story progressed that seemed to get lost, whether the style changed or the story took over I'm not certain.

It's a small, quick book told from the perspective of a servant to a family of 3 women in a small Italian village. The women were once influential and rich but after their father died the money dried up. I found myse I read this for a group that reads Nobel Prize winners written by women. I found myself annoyed that Efix, the servant, was self effacing and lived under a veil of guilt. But I was drawn into the lives of the characters and life in the village. I don't know if I think Reeds in the Wind is worthy of a Nobel Prize, but it's a good study of cultural and financial hierarchy, of loyalty and of religious accountability.

Shelves: fradio , families , translation , roman-catholic , classic , filthy-lucre , italy , spring , radio-4 , nobel-laureate. Bettie's Books Bettie's Books View all 3 comments. Reeds in the Wind is a resounding success, for it is a literary work of art that is suffused with Sardinian folk culture, unwavering faith in Catholicism and vivid lore of the "dark beings who populate the Sardinian night The electric liveliness, the pulse, that normally spreads up and out in cosmopolitan cities is quite palpable.

The lust and vibrancy of municipal life can be oozed out at the ends of a clenched fist, for the urbanity is the life blood that keeps people sane, but that is not the case in this territory, because it is the antipode of urbane.

It is a vacuous hole that takes more than it gives, and tradition is the cudgel that keeps the residents at bay, preventing most of them from ever leaving and striving for growth, love and happiness. It is a land where the dead are not simply dominant, they are the rulers: P. It was the elf that caused the branches and rocks to glitter under the moon. And along with the evil spirits were spirits of unbaptized babies-white spirits that flew through the air changing themselves into silvery clouds behind the moon.

And dwarfs and janas-the little faries who stay in their small rock houses during the day weaving gold cloth on their golden looms-where dancing in the large phillyrea bushes, while giants looked out from the rocks on the moonstruck mountains, holding the bridles of enormous horses that only they can mount, squinting to see if down there within the expanse of evil euphorbia a dragon was lurking.

Or if the legendary cananea, living from the time of Christ, was slithering around on the sandy marshland. But to them, that is anything but pleasing: P. He's not the Messiah! Donna Lia committed the ultimate sin by leaving the Pintor House; thus, her whole being becomes a sin and so too does her offspring, despite Giacinto's later desires to rectify past wrongs; he becomes an omen-bad luck.

In life, in order for there to be a sense of unity and forgivness, somebody has to make the first move: P. If children can love one another, why must we old people hate each other? The remedy is in us. Traditionalism is strongly adhered to, and if faith can not heal the wanton needs and frivolity of those who feel they must escape because of the throttling suffocation that they are enduring, then the battle of good and evil becomes bigger and bigger: P. God was offended and made the king's servants turn so bad they plotted to kill their master.

And so they did. Yes, he made them worship a golden God. That is why there is so much love for money in the world, and even relatives kill relatives for money. His varied tasks in this novel are not easy ones, but he rises to the complexities of human nature and later ascends to the glory of God. The characters in Reeds in the Wind truly embody human frailties and fatalism in, oddly, a lyrical but brusque manner.

Suffering is human nature, and so, aren't we all Reeds in the Wind, pushed down by evil only to rise again? This book randomly came in the right time while I was in the middle of a life turbulent and it really helped me thought through and calmly dealt with the madness.

Sometimes I wonder why things happened in life so unexpectedly and when nothing else can be done, I tend to take refuge in fate before getting ready to decide and take the next actions. This novel represent this angle of life, it capture the nature and roughness of life so beautifully and compassionately.

The story about a Pintor sisters once rich and noble family but then things fell apart when one of the sister ran away to her marriage and later the father found dead. The heart of the story goes on with the remain sisters rooted in their broken house and small farm and their loyal servant. The background of the story drew the atmospheric scene of Sardinia, Italy, the ugliness of family drama and the village gossip.

Aren't we all have to deal with these things everyday? Things happened. Some people see the events of life as tragic destinies so often putting one's down. Sometimes I'm like that but uncertainty is part of life, I learned how to let go and move on or sometimes just deal with the free fall.

But really, it depend on 'me' and fundamentally, it is how I make my mental decision and control the will. There's so much more to discover and learn. Que sera sera. We are reeds in the winds and we are the captain of our own fate. Grazia Deledda is the second female writer who won the nobel prize in literature and the first Italian who received the prize in For the first third or maybe a little more, it seemed as this was a bit of a fairy-tale.

The rhythm and structure of the prose helped to give that impression. Before I got halfway, the old adage "pride goeth before a fall" came to mind. Certainly, the Pintor sisters are proud, and perhaps without reason by the time the book opens. However, they seem immune to the fall that has already occurred and I decided it would be very difficult for them to fall much further.

While their characters are impo For the first third or maybe a little more, it seemed as this was a bit of a fairy-tale. While their characters are important, it is their servant, Efix, who is the focus throughout the novel.

While there is plenty of story in this, there is also much which provides a sense of place, something apparently the author was very skilled at doing. This quote comes late in the book and I have deleted a portion that could be a spoiler. It also vividly explains the title, so that I could not resist including it. Some bend, some break, some hold out today, but will bend tomorrow and break the day after tomorrow.

Efix, remember? I think it got there because of a recommendation from a GR member from Italy when I expressed that I didn't know of Italian authors to read.

I'm very glad to have read this, though I doubt I'll be reading any more of this author. The style just didn't appeal enough for me to look for another. Insight into village life in Sardinia, perhaps years ago. Such intensity! Of poverty, family ties, fickle nature, sickness, the Church, a hidden world of superstitions, ghosts, and creatures of the night, burdens, guilt, and love. Grazia Deledda received the Nobel Prize for Literature in for her depictions of the joys, but mostly troubles, of life.

I recommend it. An intriguing premise and some lovely writing, but the novel soon got bogged down by silly fairy tale and religious overtones that mucked everything up in the dreariest of ways. Bailed halfway through. One of my reading resolutions is to read more widely, and what better way to discover said writers than by perusing said list.

At 13!!! Makes a girl feel a bit unaccomplished… Despite winning the Nobel, not a lot of her work has been translated into English. Regardless, other than that, the two works could not be more different.

Reeds in the Wind is set in rugged, small town Sardinia, and really explores the themes of fate and penance: how much control do we have over our own lives? To browse Academia. Log in with Facebook Log in with Google. Remember me on this computer. Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

Need an account? Click here to sign up. Download Free PDF. Commento a "Canne al vento" di Grazia Deledda. Alice Rossi. A short summary of this paper. Download Download PDF. Translate PDF.