The Count’s Wife (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Dino Buzzati Traverso
- First Published: 1971
- Type of Plot: Fantasy
- Time of Work: The 1970's
- Setting: The home and estate of the protagonist
- Principal Characters: Count Giorio Venanzi, Lucina, His mother, Don Francesco, Massimo Lauretta
- Genres: Short fiction, Fantasy
- Subjects: Surrealism, Fear, Farms, farmers, or farming, Flight, Christ figures or saviors, Angels
The Story
Giorgio Venanzi, a thirty-eight-year-old count and squire of a province, is caressing the back of his wife, Lucina, when he feels a small protuberance on her left shoulder blade. Alarmed, Giorgio inspects the lump carefully with two magnifying glasses, which reveal only that the lump is covered with a fine down.
The next morning, Giorgio examines his wife's back again and finds another lump matching the first, at the apex of her right shoulder blade. The lumps are significantly wider now and contain minuscule soft, white feathers. His wife seems to be growing...
[The entire page is 1422 words long]
