life. He produced a modern rendering of the Orpheus myth inPoema a fumetti (1969; comicstrip poem), in which the classic Greek poet Orpheus is transformed into Orfi, a rock-and-roll singer. It was awarded the Paese Sera Prize for best comic strip in 1969. Buzzati’s interest in combining word and image is evident not only in this work but also in many of the numerous drawings and paintings he produced.

Buzzati’s prose collection In quel preciso momento (1950; at that very moment) is difficult to define; it contains only a few stories, while the rest are notes or poignant reflections on his own actions and feelings as well as those of others, in which he captures all the themes found in his writings.

Buzzati’s journalistic essays, written for the Milanese newspaper Corriere della Sera, subsequently were published in book form. They are original in style, with a marked tendency for the fantastic and bizarre.

Dino Buzzati’s works, often taking a surrealistic and metaphysical turn, can be compared to the fantasies of Franz Kafka; in fact, he has frequently been referred to by literary critics as “the Italian Kafka.” His closest affinity, however, is with the Romantic tradition of E. T. A. Hoffmann and Edgar Allan Poe. Through the themes and style of his short stories and novels—philosophical and symbolic tales of life’s relentless passing, full of metaphysical allegories and strange events—his work can be related to that of other Italian authors such as Tommaso Landolfi and Italo Calvino; the extremism and pessimism of his narratives, however, are uniquely his own. Buzzati’s characters, overwhelmed by cosmic fear, find themselves in a state of isolation and perpetual waiting. Buzzati’s pessimism, however, is somewhat tempered by a vague Christian element, the hope of ultimate redemption from evil through the exercise of free will. Since death is viewed as the only possible conclusion to life, humans’ ability to die with dignity constitutes the greatest heroic deed.

Some critics saw Buzzati’s existentialism as a snobbish and egotistic attitude. Indeed, Buzzati’s works are not easily appreciated by the unprepared reader, who will remain perplexed before the strange, often hidden and allegoric meaning of his prose. At the same time, however, the stories are captivating. He manages to maintain a sense of continuous suspense, capturing the reader’s attention yet leaving him perplexed.

Translated into several languages, Buzzati’s works became extremely popular in France, where a Buzzati society, Association Internationale des Amis de Dino Buzzati, was established in 1976. His masterpiece The Tartar Steppe influenced Julien Gracq’s novel Le Rivage des Syrtes (1951; the shore of the Syrtes) and resulted in a French-Italian coproduction of a film directed by Valerio Zurlini in 1976. The Tartar Steppe won the Italian Academy Award.

Buzzati received the Gargano Prize in 1951 for In quel preciso momento, the Naples Prize in 1957 for Il crollo della Baliverna, the Strega Prize in 1958 for Sessanta racconti, and the All’Amalia Prize in 1970 for his narrative works in general. He is considered to be one of the most important writers of modern Italy.

Dino Buzzati (bewd-DZAH-tee) is best known for his short stories, published in many collections. In both his short fiction and his novels, he uses similarnarrative techniques. He captures the reader’s attention by ably depicting a strange and mysterious situation in which a catastrophe is inevitable, yet at the end of the story he offers no explanation of what actually happened, if anything did happen. He fuses concrete, everyday reality with surrealistic and absurd events to form a magical world full of fear, one that goes beyond all sense of reason or time concept and approaches the metaphysical or science fiction. The English translators of a selection of his short stories chose a title that is very much to the point: Catastrophe: The Strange Stories of Dino Buzzati (1966). A similar mood is evoked by the original titles of several of Buzzati’s story collections: Paura alla Scala (1949; fear at the Scala Theater), Esperimento di magia (1958; experiment with magic), and Le notti difficili (1971; restless nights). The selection of Buzzati’s stories in English translation published under the title Restless Nights (1983) is drawn from several of these collections, including Le notti difficili.

Buzzati’s plays, most of which derive from his stories, are also characterized by a dreamlike, often nightmarish, atmosphere. Perhaps the best of these is Un caso clinico (1953), based on his short story “Sette piani” (seven floors). After its Italian success in 1953, it was staged in Berlin in 1954, and in Paris in 1955 by Albert Camus. All of Buzzati’s plays were performed for the first time in Milan, with the exception of L’uomo che andrà in America (the man who went to America), which premiered in Naples in 1962. The complete dramatic works are available together in the volume Teatro (1980). Of Buzzati’s five libretti, Battono alla porta (pr. 1963) was set to music by Riccardo Malipiero; the other four were set to music by Luciano Chailly.

Buzzati’s children’s book La famosa invasione degli orsi in Sicilia (1945; The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily, 1947) was quite successful. Buzzati originally sketched the story’s drawings for his sister’s children and subsequently published them together with a text, first in the children’s magazine Il corriere dei piccoli and later in book form. True to the author’s spirit, the fable depicts a clan of bears forced by extremely cold weather to leave their mountains and descend to the valley, where they adapt to human ways and vices. To check their moral decline, their dying king orders them to return to the mountains.

Buzzati also wrote poetry, but with less impressive results. His poems deal predominantly with the absurdity of modern city life. A curious work is the comic-strip poem Poema a fumetti (1969; comic-strip poem). It is a modern rendering of the Orpheus myth, in which the classic Greek poet Orpheus is transformed into Orfi, a rock-and-roll singer. It received the Premio Paese sera for best comic strip in 1969.

Buzzati’s prose collection In quel preciso momento (1950) is hard to define; it contains storylike observations as well as reflections on his own actions and feelings. In these notes and fragments, he captures all the themes that appear in various forms in his other writings. As such, this book helps one understand Buzzati’s way of thinking and creating. Buzzati’s essays on Italy, I misteri dell’Italia (1978), written while he was special correspondent for Corriere della sera, tend toward the fantastic and bizarre, bringing them in line with his literary production rather than with the true journalism of his earlier years.

Dino Buzzati is one of the few representatives in Italy of the surrealistic and metaphysical fiction made famous by Franz Kafka. Perhaps Buzzati’s closest affinities are with the Romantic tradition of E. T. A. Hoffmann and Edgar Allan Poe, authors to whom he was attracted as a child, but his version of the fantastic is sui generis. Buzzati’s originality lies both in his narrative technique and in his choice of themes, which range from philosophical and symbolic tales to metaphysical allegories and sheer fantasies. His pessimistic outlook, full of existential anguish, contains a vaguely Christian element, reflecting both the doctrine of original sin, the Christian insistence on the reality of evil, and the promise of ultimate redemption. Thus, Buzzati’s pessimism is tempered by a hope of salvation from life’s illusions. Destiny, a recurring theme in Buzzati, is viewed not as capricious or absurd but rather as a logical consequence of free will and personal choice. Buzzati’s characters find themselves embroiled in isolating solitude, overwhelmed by cosmic fear, in perpetual waiting, faced with the relentless passing of time that leads them to renunciation.

Unlike most Italian writers of the postwar period, Buzzati managed to remain aloof from political involvement, not only in his writings but also in his private life—no small achievement in modern Italy. Although this fact earned for him the reputation of being a snobbish and egotistic intellectual, it took him beyond Italian regional and social problems and raised him to the stature of a European writer. His works, translated into several languages, have been particularly well received in France, where a Buzzati society, Association Internationale des Amis de Dino Buzzati, was established in 1976. His masterpiece, The Tartar Steppe, influenced Julien Gracq’s novel Le Rivage des Syrtes, published in 1951.

Although this reputation, and the French-Italian coproduction of a film version of The Tartar Steppe (titled Il deserto dei Tartari in Italy and Le Désert des Tartares in France), directed by Valerio Zurlini in 1976, helped make Buzzati more popular, he still is considered an elitist writer, not easily appreciated by the average reader, who remains perplexed before the hidden meanings of his prose. Buzzati’s works can be appreciated on several levels, however; he is a master at capturing the mysterious elements of human existence that are inseparable from the monotonous daily routine.

During his lifetime, Buzzati received many prizes for his short stories: the Gargano Prize in 1951, for In quel preciso momento; the Naples Prize in 1957, for Il crollo della Baliverna (1954); the Strega Prize in 1958, for Sessanta racconti (1958); and the All’Amalia Prize in 1970, for his narrative works in general. Long after his death in 1972, Buzzati remains one of the most important writers of modern Italy.