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marcio's review against another edition
4.0
As the reading of The Gold-Rimmed Spectacles (1958) progressed, it seemed to me that it was a preparatory work, a pre-announcement for what would come in 1962 with The garden of Finzi Contini, although the second book of The Novel of Ferrara series does not have the dramatic impact of the third one.
This is the story of Dr. Athos Fadigati who arrived in Ferrara from Venice around 1915. Over the years, the doctor comes to be considered the best in the city, and his clinic becomes a mandatory place for visits by those who belong to "good society", and as "good citizens", they look for a wife for him, because a good man should not stay single. However, rumors start to spread that he is an "invert", but it doesn't take long for that situation to stop worrying the "good citizens" of Ferrara.
If the first part of the story is with a sense of an account, the second one is narrated by Giorgio, Bassani's semi-autobiographical character. Here are the usual themes we'll see closely in The garden of Finzi Contini, how the evolution of fascism in Italy and its ideology change people's attitudes for the worse towards those who are not well-regarded by the regime. Not to mention those who want to take advantage of the opportunities of such a regime to profit. All "good citizens", all above suspicion (sarcastically speaking).
This is where we also notice that what is known is quite different from what is seen. People may know about someone else's sexuality and not give it much importance. But when they see things happening in front of their eyes, the story might be altogether different, mainly in the eyes of such a society of "good citizens". Dr. Fadigati is unable to resist the charms of bad-tempered Eraldo Deliliers, one of Giorgio's colleagues from Bologna University, who mercilessly exploits him. And here is the downfall.
This is the story of Dr. Athos Fadigati who arrived in Ferrara from Venice around 1915. Over the years, the doctor comes to be considered the best in the city, and his clinic becomes a mandatory place for visits by those who belong to "good society", and as "good citizens", they look for a wife for him, because a good man should not stay single. However, rumors start to spread that he is an "invert", but it doesn't take long for that situation to stop worrying the "good citizens" of Ferrara.
If the first part of the story is with a sense of an account, the second one is narrated by Giorgio, Bassani's semi-autobiographical character. Here are the usual themes we'll see closely in The garden of Finzi Contini, how the evolution of fascism in Italy and its ideology change people's attitudes for the worse towards those who are not well-regarded by the regime. Not to mention those who want to take advantage of the opportunities of such a regime to profit. All "good citizens", all above suspicion (sarcastically speaking).
This is where we also notice that what is known is quite different from what is seen. People may know about someone else's sexuality and not give it much importance. But when they see things happening in front of their eyes, the story might be altogether different, mainly in the eyes of such a society of "good citizens". Dr. Fadigati is unable to resist the charms of bad-tempered Eraldo Deliliers, one of Giorgio's colleagues from Bologna University, who mercilessly exploits him. And here is the downfall.
rafaella's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
sarahbc93_'s review against another edition
4.0
Within this short story, Bassani brings together two characters who know how it feels to be an outsider in Italy at the start of the Second World War, and manages to also show the differences between the two characters and their interactions with the other residents of Ferrera, where they have lived and worked side by side.
For such a short piece of writing, Bassani manages to pack in an awful lot of content and emotion. Showing the slow decline and ostracism of Dr Fadigati to his eventual suicide by drowning, Bassani manages to pull on the heartstrings whilst still managing to keep him at a distance.
A quite powerful and impactful piece of work.
For such a short piece of writing, Bassani manages to pack in an awful lot of content and emotion. Showing the slow decline and ostracism of Dr Fadigati to his eventual suicide by drowning, Bassani manages to pull on the heartstrings whilst still managing to keep him at a distance.
A quite powerful and impactful piece of work.
_matthewdon_'s review against another edition
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
teresatumminello's review against another edition
4.0
Sunlight glints off the gold-rimmed spectacles of Dr. Fadigati, though he’s the last person who’d make a spectacle of himself—unlike the young man he vacations with, whose whims are catered to by the doctor in his quest for companionship. Other beachgoers shun Dr. Fadigati, but the reader’s sympathy is with the kindly doctor, as is the narrator’s and the narrator’s father’s, who utters the words: “Poor thing.”
Unlike the doctor’s companion, the narrator is fairly unobtrusive, especially in the beginning of this novella, though we learn more of him, and his family, near the end. Perhaps because he is younger, he sees what is coming, unlike his parents, who view shards of the Racial Laws concerning “Israelites” through rose-colored glasses.
*
I read ‘The Gold-Rimmed Spectacles’ in this “collection:” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38730620-the-novel-of-ferrara
Unlike the doctor’s companion, the narrator is fairly unobtrusive, especially in the beginning of this novella, though we learn more of him, and his family, near the end. Perhaps because he is younger, he sees what is coming, unlike his parents, who view shards of the Racial Laws concerning “Israelites” through rose-colored glasses.
*
I read ‘The Gold-Rimmed Spectacles’ in this “collection:” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38730620-the-novel-of-ferrara
audgepodgeroma's review
challenging
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
fionnualalirsdottir's review against another edition
This is the second of Giorgio Bassani's novels about his home town of Ferrara, all written after he had left the town and settled in Rome. There are six in total, and as I make my way through them (I'm currently on the fifth), I'm realising that together they amount to quite a Proustian search for a lost time and a lost place: Ferrara between the wars.
In the first book of his Ferrara cycle, 'Within the Walls', Bassani's narrators were a little mysterious. They revealed nothing of themselves not even their names. The narrator of this book is a lot more forthcoming. We still don't know his name but we know that he's about twenty, that he lives with his parents and two younger siblings, that he takes the train from Ferrara to Bologna each day to study literature at the university there. We know that he and his family live on via Scandiana, that a family friend, Doctor Fadigati (who resembles Proust's Baron Charlus quite a bit) lives nearby on via Gargadello, and that both the narrator's family and the doctor spend the summer months during the mid 1930s at the seaside resort of, not Balbec, but Riccione. We also know, if we've picked up anything at all about Giorgio Bassani's own life, that the unnamed narrator's profile matches the author's in the way Marcel Proust's narrator's profile matches his own.
But having understood the author/narrator correspondence, the reader quickly sets it aside and focuses on the episode in the narrator's life that's being recounted here, and what it means in the context of the larger story that's being constructed over the course of the six volumes. For me, this episode is about awakening. As the sunlight sparkles on the sea, and on Fadigati's gold-rimmed spectacles, a dark cloud seems to have gathered over the narrator's head. In spite of his father's unwavering support for everything fascist, in spite of Fadigati's seeming insouciance for the opinion of others, the narrator is increasingly aware of the threat posed to minorities under fascist rule. What will the racial laws mean for the Jewish community of Ferrara? And what does the increasingly intolerant atmosphere bode for his friend, Doctor Fadigati.
In the first book of his Ferrara cycle, 'Within the Walls', Bassani's narrators were a little mysterious. They revealed nothing of themselves not even their names. The narrator of this book is a lot more forthcoming. We still don't know his name but we know that he's about twenty, that he lives with his parents and two younger siblings, that he takes the train from Ferrara to Bologna each day to study literature at the university there. We know that he and his family live on via Scandiana, that a family friend, Doctor Fadigati (who resembles Proust's Baron Charlus quite a bit) lives nearby on via Gargadello, and that both the narrator's family and the doctor spend the summer months during the mid 1930s at the seaside resort of, not Balbec, but Riccione. We also know, if we've picked up anything at all about Giorgio Bassani's own life, that the unnamed narrator's profile matches the author's in the way Marcel Proust's narrator's profile matches his own.
But having understood the author/narrator correspondence, the reader quickly sets it aside and focuses on the episode in the narrator's life that's being recounted here, and what it means in the context of the larger story that's being constructed over the course of the six volumes. For me, this episode is about awakening. As the sunlight sparkles on the sea, and on Fadigati's gold-rimmed spectacles, a dark cloud seems to have gathered over the narrator's head. In spite of his father's unwavering support for everything fascist, in spite of Fadigati's seeming insouciance for the opinion of others, the narrator is increasingly aware of the threat posed to minorities under fascist rule. What will the racial laws mean for the Jewish community of Ferrara? And what does the increasingly intolerant atmosphere bode for his friend, Doctor Fadigati.
minocria's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
4.0
schiarafaggio's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.5