Franz Kafka -America
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Franz Kafka — America | DeRank™: 0,00

Kafka's description of America is similar to that of emigrants in the presence of their relatives who remain in their homeland. On one hand, it highlights an extreme mechanization and a disproportion in scale, while on the other hand, it emphasizes social disparities, difficult working conditions, and inhuman rhythms. (from Mondadori) more
Franz Kafka -Il Castello
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Franz Kafka — Il Castello | DeRank™: 0,00

The Castle is the last of the three novels by the Prague writer. Remaining unfinished, The Castle, often obscure and sometimes surreal, is centered on the themes of bureaucracy, law as a global order, and thus the alienation and continuous frustration of the individual attempting to integrate into a system that, while inviting him in, simultaneously pushes him away by marginalizing him. (quoted from Mondadori) more
Franz Kafka -Il messaggio dell’imperatore
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The Emperor's Message is the first and most famous collection of stories by FK that appeared in Italy and includes: The Verdict; The Metamorphosis; The New Lawyer; A Country Doctor; In the Gallery; An Old Page; Jackals and Arabs; A Visit to the Mine; The Next Village; The Woe of the Family Man; Eleven Children; A Fratricide; A Dream; An Academic Report; In the Penal Colony; First Pain; A Little Woman; A Faster; Josefine the Singer; The Construction of the Great Wall of China; Around the Question of Laws; The Coat of Arms of the City; Allegories; The Truth about Sancho Panza; The Silence of the Sirens; Prometheus; The Hunter Gracchus; The Blow Against the Door; An Intersection; The Bridge; A Little Fable; A Confusion that Happens Every Day; The Knight of the Bucket; A Couple of Spouses; The Neighbor; The Den; The Giant Mole; Investigations of a Dog. more
Franz Kafka -Il Processo
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Franz Kafka — Il Processo | DeRank™: 0,00

Max Brod, his executor, began publishing the posthumous writings of his friend with the work that, verbally, Kafka would call "Der Process" and it first appeared in 1925, a year after Franz Kafka's death, defying the author's wishes, who had entrusted him with the task of destroying all his papers upon his death... more
Søren Kierkegaard -Aut - Aut
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Søren Kierkegaard — Aut - Aut | DeRank™: 0,00

Enten - Eller (in Danish) describes two stages of the life journey, one hedonistic, focused on worldly life, pleasure, and indifference to moral principles and values, the other based on ethical duty and responsibility, resulting in the renunciation of material goods to pursue a religious path (in the sense of the Latin expression "religare"), that is, to reunite the fragments of existence. more
Jack Kerouac -Satori a Parigi
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Jack Kerouac — Satori a Parigi | DeRank™: 0,00

It is a short autobiographical story about a man who visits Paris and then Brittany in search of his roots. more
Jack Kerouac -Big Sur
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Jack Kerouac — Big Sur | DeRank™: 0,00

In the novel, the three brief stays in the cabin owned by his friend, the Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, on Bixby Canyon in Big Sur, a location in Central California, are summarized.

In the novel, all the characters are mentioned by an alias; in Kerouac's case, "Jack Duluoz."

Kerouac's autobiographical character is no longer presented, as in previous novels, as a bohemian traveler, but rather as a popular writer. more
Jack Kerouac -I vagabondi del Dharma
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It represents the ideal continuation of the novel "On the Road." "The Dharma Bums" condenses vast meditations on Buddhism, thus forming the apology of the mysticism of the beat generation. The protagonists are the beats: Jack Kerouac-Raymond (Ray) Smith, Allen Ginsberg-Alvah Goldbook, Neal Cassady-Cody Pomeray, Gary Snyder-Japhy Ryder. more
Jack Kerouac -I sotterranei
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Jack Kerouac — I sotterranei | DeRank™: 0,00

"Once upon a time I was young and up-to-date and clear-headed, and I could talk about everything with nervous intelligence and clarity and without all the rhetorical preambles I now indulge in; in other words, this is the story of a disillusioned person who is no longer in control of himself, and at the same time, the story of an egomaniac, by nature and not for jest — this is just to start off from the beginning in an orderly fashion and to elucidate the truth, because that is precisely what I want to do."

(Jack Kerouac, On the Road, Feltrinelli, Milan 1992) more
Jack Kerouac -Visioni di Cody
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Jack Kerouac — Visioni di Cody | DeRank™: 0,00

There is a significant part of the hallucinatory conversations between Kerouac and Cassady under the influence of marijuana... more
Jack Kerouac -Il dottor Sax
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Jack Kerouac — Il dottor Sax | DeRank™: 0,00

It's a novel from 1959 considered by JK to be his best novel, telling the story of a Franco-Canadian boy from New England. It represents the literary transposition of the author himself as he relives the dreams, nightmares, and fantasies of his childhood. more
Jack Kerouac -Sulla Strada
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Jack Kerouac — Sulla Strada | DeRank™: 0,00

- The novel, constructed in 5 parts and written in the form of episodes, is set in the late 1940s and describes the youth of the cultural movement of the Beat Generation, traveling across the vast territory of the USA.
- JK wrote the book at the age of 29, from April 2 to April 22, 1951, in three weeks, fueled solely by coffee, based on a series of notes collected during his travels.
- It was typed on a 36-meter long roll of paper, which was given to him.
- The "scroll" was auctioned off in 2001 for a price exceeding two million dollars.
- Rejected by several publishing houses, always under McCarthyite censorship, it was read by Malcolm Cowley, who obtained from the author revisions of several passages and the replacement of real names with fictional names, and recommended its publication in 1957. (I wasn't even born yet, and they call me old...) more
Wassily Kandinsky -Punto, linea, superficie
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“It is like a piece of ice within which a flame burns,” Kandinsky wrote in a letter in 1925, alluding to his painting.

But the same could be said of the book that he would publish a few months later, Point, Line, Surface, a capital and renewing text for the theory of art and not only for it. (from Adelphi) more
James Joyce -Ulisse
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James Joyce — Ulisse | DeRank™: 0,00

Ulysses is the story of a day, June 16, 1904, of a group of Dublin inhabitants. Joyce chose this date because it was the day when Nora Barnacle, his future wife, realized she was in love with him. The characters, by seemingly randomly crossing each other's lives, determine the unfolding of events, and describe it through a continuous stream of inner monologue.

Joyce, having anticipated this, said he had "inserted so many enigmas and puzzles into the plot that they would keep scholars busy for centuries discussing what I meant" - which would make the story "immortal." (from wiki)

I have never finished this book, but I have started it several times over the past 30/35 years; however, I won’t give up, and soon I will dive back into it because it is sooo important... more
James Joyce -Gente di Dublino
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James Joyce — Gente di Dublino | DeRank™: 0,00

The protagonists of the book are people from Dublin, whose stories of everyday life are narrated. Despite the banality of the subject, the book aims to focus attention on two aspects common to all the stories: paralysis and escape. The first is primarily a moral paralysis, caused by the politics and religion of the time. The escape is a consequence of the paralysis, at the moment when the protagonists understand their condition. (from wiki) more
Hermann Hesse -Dall'India
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Hermann Hesse — Dall'India | DeRank™: 0,00

In addition to the notes regarding the journey undertaken on the Indian subcontinent between September and December 1911, these writings testify to a lively and widespread interest in the European intellectual world at the turn of the last century. Thus, it represents an attempt to escape the anxieties of the present, from an oppressive family bond, but also and above all, a return to one's roots, to the distant cradle of a civilization that offers vivifying regeneration. In this way, India will increasingly lose its geographical connotation to transform into the hagiography of legend, understood as a universal quest for spiritual identity... (from mondadoristore.it)

"The East was not just a country or a geographical dimension, but it was the home and youth of the soul, it was everywhere and in every place, it was the union of all time." HH more
Hermann Hesse -Il giuoco delle perle di vetro
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In this lengthy and complex novel, various themes dear to the author return, starting with the opposition between Spirit and Life, between theory and practice, between reflection and emotion. Hesse offers countless reflections and brings to light his strong aversion to war, and in some of his words, one can read an open critique of the Nazi regime. But above all, it is an important work on the beauty and delicacy of the soul, in its various forms and in the creations that it is capable of producing. Every page of this book is enriched by profound considerations on various subjects: from history to politics, to philosophy, to psychology, to aesthetics. (cit. wiki) more
Hermann Hesse -Il pellegrinaggio in Oriente
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Plot, the beginning:
The story of the Pilgrimage to the East is told in the first person, many years after the events narrated, by "H.H.", a German musician who, some time after the Great War, had joined the "League", an ancient and mysterious sect that had included some famous figures, both fictional and real, such as Plato, Mozart, Pythagoras, Paul Klee, Don Quixote, Tristram Shandy, Baudelaire, and the boatman Vasudeva, a character from Siddhartha.
The group that H.H. had joined decided to travel on foot to the "East" for a very elevated purpose, although destined to remain a secret; the narrator also had a private aim: to meet the beautiful princess Fatma (from the Thousand and One Nights) and possibly win her love...
- excerpt from Wikipedia - more
Hermann Hesse -Narciso e Boccadoro
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Hermann Hesse — Narciso e Boccadoro | DeRank™: 0,00

It is not our task to draw closer, just as the sun and the moon do not approach each other, nor do the sea and the land.

You and I, dear friend, are the sun and the moon, we are the sea and the land.

Our goal is not to transform into one another, but to know each other and to learn to see and respect in the other what he is: our opposite and our complement.

(Narciso the monk to Boccadoro the wandering artist) more
Hermann Hesse -Il lupo della steppa
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The book tells the story of a deep psychological suffering that strikes the protagonist at the threshold of middle age (the same age as the author during the period he writes the novel). Harry struggles with a strong conflict regarding his own personality; the path to healing is the reconciliation of the two antithetical and opposing parts within him through humor, laughter, that is, even in relation to oneself and in the face of the inadequacy of society and the entire human culture. (from wiki) more