Pavese, Cesare
Pavese, Cesare ( 1908 – 50 ),Italian novelist and poet, whose last novel, La luna e i falò (The Moon and the Bonfire, 1950 ), is his finest. Realism and myth, lyrical memoir and contemporary reality, combine in the highly individual texture of his prose, which expresses the heart-searchings of a solitary man with a restless social conscience. Other main novels are: Il compagno (The Comrade, 1947 ), Prima che il gallo canti (Before Cock-Crow, 1949 ), La bella estate (The Beautiful Summer, 1949 ). His best poems are in Lavorare stanca (Work Wearies, 1936 ). He made many translations from English and American authors ( Joyce , Faulkner , etc.) who influenced him; his translation of Melville's Moby-Dick is definitive. His suicide was seen as representative of intellectuals broken by the tensions of post-war Europe.
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