Editions

Invisible Cities

  • Imprint: Vintage Classics

  • ISBN: 9780099429838

  • Length: 160  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 10mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 117g

  • RRP: £8.99

Invisible Cities

In Invisible Cities Marco Polo conjures up cities of magical times for his host, the Chinese ruler Kublai Khan, but gradually it becomes clear that he is actually describing one city: Venice. As Gore Vidal wrote 'Of all tasks, describing the contents of a book is the most difficult and in the case of a marvellous invention like Invisible Cities, perfectly irrelevant.'

  • Imprint: Vintage Classics

  • ISBN: 9780099429838

  • Length: 160  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 10mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 117g

  • RRP: £8.99

Reviews

  • "so important for thinking about the rich layers of life around us, our frailties, how we question and how we find meaning."

    Red

  • "Invisible Cities changed the way we read and what is possible in the balance between poetry and prose... The book I would choose as pillow and plate, alone on a desert island"

    Jeanette Winterson

  • "Whole chapters of unforced poetic prose in which insight and fantasy are perfectly matched-an exquisite world"

    Observer

  • "'Invisible Cities is perhaps his most beautiful work-the artist seems to have made peace with the tension between man's ideas of the many and the one"

    New York Review of Books

  • "The most beautiful of his books throws up ideas, allusions, and breathtaking imaginative insights on almost every page. Each time he returns from his travels, Marco Polo is invited by Kublai Khan to describe the cities he has visited-Although he makes Marco Polo summon up many cities for the Khan's imagination to feed on, Calvino is describing only one city in this book. Venice, that decaying heap of incomparable splendour, still stands as substantial evidence of man's ability to create something perfect out of chaos"

    Paul Bailey, Times Literary Supplement

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About the Author

Italo Calvino

Italo Calvino was born in Cuba and grew up in Italy. During the war he was a member of the Italian Resistance and joined the Communist Party, although he later left in 1957. One of the most respected writers of our time, his best-known works of fiction include Invisible Cities, If on a winter's night a traveller, Marcovaldo and Mr Palomar. In 1981 he was awarded the prestigious French Légion d'Honneur. He died in Siena in 1985.

Italo Calvino

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