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{{Short description|Four-part series of novels by Elena Ferrante}} |
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The '''Neapolitan Novels''' are a 4-part series by the Italian novelist [[Elena Ferrante]], translated by [[Ann Goldstein (translator)|Ann Goldstein]] and published by [[Europa Editions]] (New York). It includes the following novels: ''My Brilliant Friend'' (2012), ''The Story of a New Name'' (2013), ''Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay'' (2014), and ''The Story of the Lost Child'' (2015). The series has been characterized as a [[bildungsroman]], or coming-of-age story.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Ahmed|first1=Fatema|title=Taking off the mask: Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels|url=https://newhumanist.org.uk/articles/4866/taking-off-the-mask-elena-ferrantes-neapolitan-novels|work=The New Humanist|accessdate=July 20, 2015|date=April 28, 2015}}</ref> In an interview for the ''[[Harper's Magazine]]'', Elena Ferrante stated that she considers the four books to be "a single novel", published serially for reasons of length and duration.<ref>Jenny Turner, "[http://harpers.org/archive/2014/10/the-secret-sharer-4/2/ The Secret Sharer. Elena Ferrante's existential fiction]", ''[[Harper's Magazine]]'', October 2014.</ref> The series has sold over 10 million copies in 40 countries.<ref>https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/elena-ferrante-interview-my-brilliant-friend-hbo-show-women-artists-1152626</ref> |
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{{use dmy dates|date=March 2024}} |
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{{Infobox book series |
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| name = Neapolitan Novels |
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| image = |
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| image_caption = |
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| books = {{plainlist| |
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* ''[[My Brilliant Friend]]'' |
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* ''[[The Story of a New Name]]'' |
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* ''[[Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay]]'' |
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* ''[[The Story of the Lost Child]]'' |
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}} |
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| author = [[Elena Ferrante]] |
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| editors = |
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| title_orig = L'Amica Geniale, Storia del Nuovo Cognome, Storia di chi fugge e di chi resta, Storia della bambina perduta |
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| translator = [[Ann Goldstein (translator)|Ann Goldstein]] |
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| illustrator = |
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| cover_artist = |
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| country = Italy |
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| language = Italian |
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| discipline = <!-- or |genre= --> |
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| publisher = {{plainlist| |
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* Edizioni e/o |
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* [[Europa Editions]] (English publisher) |
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}} |
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| pub_date = 2011–2014 |
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| english_pub_date = 2012–2015 |
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| media_type = |
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| number_of_books = Four |
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| list_books = |
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| oclc = |
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| preceded by = |
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| followed by = |
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| website = |
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}} |
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The '''Neapolitan Novels''', also known as the '''Neapolitan Quartet''', are a [[Tetralogy|four-part]] series of fiction by the pseudonymous Italian author [[Elena Ferrante]], published originally by Edizioni e/o, translated into English by [[Ann Goldstein (translator)|Ann Goldstein]] and published by [[Europa Editions]] (New York). The English-language titles of the novels are ''[[My Brilliant Friend]]'' (2012), ''[[The Story of a New Name]]'' (2013), ''[[Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay]]'' (2014), and ''[[The Story of the Lost Child]]'' (2015). In the original Italian edition, the whole series bears the title of the first novel {{lang|it|L'amica geniale}} (literally translated, "the brilliant friend"). The series has been characterized as a ''[[bildungsroman]]'', or coming-of-age story.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Ahmed|first1=Fatema|title=Taking off the mask: Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels|url=https://newhumanist.org.uk/articles/4866/taking-off-the-mask-elena-ferrantes-neapolitan-novels|work=The New Humanist|access-date=July 20, 2015|date=April 28, 2015}}</ref> In an interview in ''[[Harper's Magazine]]'', Elena Ferrante has stated that she considers the four books to be "a single novel" published serially for reasons of length and duration.<ref>Jenny Turner, "[http://harpers.org/archive/2014/10/the-secret-sharer-4/2/ The Secret Sharer. Elena Ferrante's existential fiction]", ''[[Harper's Magazine]]'', October 2014.</ref> The series has sold over 10 million copies in 40 countries.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/elena-ferrante-interview-my-brilliant-friend-hbo-show-women-artists-1152626|title=Reclusive Author Elena Ferrante Talks 'My Brilliant Friend' HBO Adaptation|website=[[The Hollywood Reporter]] |date=16 October 2018}}</ref> |
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The series follows the lives of two perceptive and intelligent girls, Elena (sometimes called |
The series follows the lives of two perceptive and intelligent girls, Elena (sometimes called "Lenù") Greco and Raffaella ("Lila") Cerullo, from childhood to adulthood and old age, as they try to create lives for themselves amidst the violent and stultifying culture of their home – a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of [[Naples]], Italy.<ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Wood|first1=James|title=Women on the Verge: The fiction of Elena Ferrante.|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/01/21/women-on-the-verge?currentPage=1|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]|access-date=July 20, 2015|date=January 21, 2013}}</ref> The novels are narrated by Elena Greco. |
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The series was adapted into a [[Play (theatre)|play]] by [[April De Angelis]] |
The series was adapted into a two-part [[Play (theatre)|play]] by [[April De Angelis]] at the [[Rose Theatre, Kingston]], in March 2017.<ref name=telegraphplay>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-to-see/first-stage-adaptation-of-elena-ferrantes-novels-announced-in-wa/|title=First stage adaptation of Elena Ferrante's novels announced in wake of identity scandal|work=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]]|first=Alice|last=Vincent|date=October 3, 2016}}</ref> The Rose production, starring [[Niamh Cusack]] and [[Catherine McCormack]], transferred to the [[Royal National Theatre]] in November 2019. The series has been adapted into an HBO television series entitled ''[[My Brilliant Friend (TV series)|My Brilliant Friend]]''. |
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==Synopsis== |
==Synopsis== |
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===''My Brilliant Friend''=== |
===''My Brilliant Friend'' (2011)=== |
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{{Main|My Brilliant Friend}} |
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The Neapolitan Novels begin in 2010 when the son of an old friend telephones the main character, a woman in her 60s named Elena (familiarly called “Lenù”). Elena's childhood friend Lila has disappeared, and her son is unable to find her. Elena recognizes this behavior as something Lila, in her later years, has always talked about doing, and believes her disappearance to be a conscious decision. In the spirit of their loving but ambivalent ways towards each other, Elena begins to put on paper everything she can remember about Lila, beginning in 1950s Naples. |
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The novel begins in the 1950s, in a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, where the narrator Elena meets Lila, her best friend, her mirror, and at times her fiercest critic. They become women, wives, mothers, and leaders, all the while maintaining a complex and at times conflicted friendship. This first novel in the series follows Lila and Elena from their meeting as six-year-olds through their school years and adolescence, until Lila's marriage at the age of sixteen. |
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===''The Story of a New Name'' (2012)=== |
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Elena and Lila grow up in a poor neighborhood full of violence and strife, where Lila alone realizes that an innocent man has been framed for murder by local gangsters, the Solara family. No one expects the girls to be educated beyond elementary school. Elena is diligent and captures the attention of Maestra Oliviero, one of her grade-school teachers, a spinster who encourages her to escape the life of the plebeian class—impoverished in more ways than one. To everyone's surprise, the very rebellious Lila is a prodigy who has taught herself to read and write. She quickly earns the highest grades in the class, seemingly without effort. Elena is both fascinated and intimidated by Lila, especially after Lila writes a story which Elena feels shows real genius. She begins to push herself to keep up with Lila and ignores her teacher's warning not to associate with "plebs." Once, when Lila throws Elena's doll into the basement chute of the local loan shark, Elena does the same to Lila's doll, as proof that she can be as bold as her friend. When Lila fearlessly goes the loan shark to ask for the return of the dolls, Elena goes with her, though they are ultimately unable to retrieve them. |
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{{Main|The Story of a New Name}} |
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In ''The Story of a New Name'', Lila quickly becomes disillusioned with her marriage, and sees herself trapped with a violent man. She also starts an affair, risking her life. Elena, meanwhile, continues her studies beyond what she ever thought would be possible, and explores the world outside of the neighborhood. The two young women share a complex and evolving bond that is central to their emotional lives and a source of strength in the face of life's challenges. |
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===''Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay'' (2013)=== |
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The paths of the two girls diverge when Lila's parents refuse to pay for continued schooling after elementary school. Elena's father, however, agrees to pay for Elena to continue after being pressured by the concerned teacher, , to the aggravation of her bitter, jealous mother. To prove her worthiness, Lila secretly takes the middle school exam, which so enrages her father that he throws her through a glass window, crashing onto the pavement below. After recovering from her injuries, Lila encourages Elena to skip school in an attempt to get Elena's parents to withdraw their support for her education. But Elena forgives Lila, knowing how hard it is for Lila to be left behind while she moves forward. Elena attends middle school and eventually high school. Lila insists that Elena, being Lila's brilliant friend, should never stop studying. |
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{{Main|Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay}} |
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Elena and Lila have grown into womanhood. Lila, married at sixteen, now has a young son; she has left her husband and the comforts her marriage brought and now works in awful conditions in a factory in Naples. Elena has left the city, earned her college degree, and published a novel, but now finds herself also trapped in a stifling marriage. Both women are pushing against the walls, afloat on the great sea of opportunities that opened up for women during the 1970s. |
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With Elena studying, Lila occupies herself with her father's shoe shop. Much to his irritation, she dreams of designing new types of shoes to make them rich. She also grows very beautiful, attracting most of the neighborhood's young men including Marcello Solara, the young son of the powerful local [[Camorra]] leader. Despite her family's pressuring her to marry a rich man, Lila considers the Solaras to be fundamentally evil. To escape Marcello, she accepts Stefano, the owner of the local grocery, when he asks her to marry him. After Stefano's family sweeten the deal by agreeing to finance the Cerullo's shoe project, her family agree to the marriage. Lila and Stefano marry when she is sixteen. At the wedding, Elena, who has been dating a car mechanic, is repelled by the boisterous behavior of the "plebs." Stefano breaks two promises to Lila, by inviting the Solara brothers to attend their wedding reception dinner and by selling them the shoes she and her brother handcrafted, and that Stefano told her he would treasure forever. Lila considers the marriage over as soon as it begins. |
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===''The Story of |
===''The Story of the Lost Child'' (2014)=== |
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{{Main|The Story of the Lost Child}} |
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No longer feeling anything for Stefano, Lila is cold to him during their marriage. Stefano rapes her on their honeymoon, causing a further rift. The Solaras gradually take over the increasingly lucrative shoe project and Lila, despite rebelling, is forced to help them with the shop. |
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Both Lila and Elena once fought to escape the neighborhood in which they grew up. Elena married, moved to Florence with her husband, started a family, and published several well-received novels. In this final novel of the quartet, she returns to Naples to be with the man she has always loved. Lila, meanwhile, has become a successful entrepreneur, but she finds that it only draws her into closer proximity with the nepotism, chauvinism, and criminal violence that infect her neighborhood. |
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==Themes== |
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As Lila in different ways continues to rebel, both her family and her in-laws worry about her not having become pregnant yet. Her doctor blames it on stress and prescribes a vacation. Lila, desperate to not be alone with her mother and sister-in-law, talks Elena into coming with her. Elena, who is meanwhile still doing very well in school and has fallen in love with a haughty older boy called Nino Sarratore, agrees on the condition that they go to a particular beach resort, knowing Nino will be there. Elena is naively unaware of Nino's lack of interest in her and jealousy of her writing talent. Soon Elena and Lila are increasingly spending their days with Nino. Surprisingly, it is Lila and Nino who fall in love with each other and begin an affair, even using Elena as their common confidante. Feeling dejected, Elena gives in to the advances of Donato Sarratore, Nino's father, who takes her virginity. |
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=== Female friendship === |
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As the vacation comes to an end, Lila finally becomes pregnant and she and Nino plan to live together. However, their affair is brief, as Nino comes to resent Lila's intellect and abruptly leaves her. Lila eventually returns to her husband Stefano. After giving birth to a son, she becomes obsessed with the idea that early childhood education is the most important and tries her best to teach her son to read and write. After discovering that Stefano is having an affair with Ada Capuccio, Lila finally decides to leave him for good. She escapes to a smaller, more run-down neighbourhood with Enzo, a childhood friend who is in love with her and has vowed to protect her. |
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Central themes in the novels include women's friendship and the shaping of women's lives by their social milieu, sexual and intellectual jealousy and competition within female friendships, and female ambivalence about filial and maternal roles and domestic violence. Isabelle Blank wrote about the complex, mirrored relation between the protagonists Lenu and Lila: "Lenù and Lila are foils for one another. Lenù is blonde, studious, eager to please, self-doubting and ambitious, whereas Lila is dark, naturally brilliant, mercurial, mean and irresistible to those around her. The story is told from Lenù’s point of view, but the two friends understand one another on such a deep and complex level that the reader is often privy to Lila's perceived inner thoughts."<ref>{{Cite web |title="Neapolitan Quartet" is an immersive look at a female friendship |url=https://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2019/01/neapolitan-quartet-is-an-immersive-look-at-a-female-friendship |access-date=2023-02-27 |website=The Dartmouth}}</ref> |
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The tension between Lila and Lenu is often considered the central point of the novels, as Matteo Pericoli wrote for ''The Paris Review:'' "From a structural point of view, tension and compression often meld into each another. In this building, two volumes are interwoven by strong connecting rods, extended columns and daring beams, with one of the two seemingly suspended from the other. With its mass and swirled dynamism, the suspended volume (that we will call Lila) seems to be slipping away from the one that is holding it up (that we will call Elena) making it extend and stretch as if it was Lila that was shaping Elena and providing her with her dynamic energy, so vital to any piece of architecture."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pericoli |first=Matteo |date=2017-04-17 |title=Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend |url=https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/04/17/elena-ferrante-my-brilliant-friend/ |access-date=2023-02-27 |website=The Paris Review |language=en}}</ref> |
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Elena graduates from high school with no concrete plans. After hearing about a free university in [[Pisa]], she passes their exams and is able to get a university education. Elena has a difficult time there, because of her obvious poverty and the fact that she is sexually active. Eventually, she meets Pietro Airota, who is an awkward, dry, but kind and proper intellectual from an important family. The two become friends and upon graduation he proposes to Elena, who accepts. Before graduation, Elena writes a small story based on her life which contains a fictionalized account of the night she lost her virginity to Donato Sarratore, Nino's father. Elena gives it to Pietro as a present. He in turn gives it to his mother, Adele, who passes it along to a publishing house, which immediately accepts it. The book leads to financial success and critical acclaim for Elena. To her disappointment, no one from the neighbourhood mentions the book except to comment on the sexual passages, and not even Lila is interested in it. |
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Suzanne Berne also wrote about the relation between the pair for the LA Review of Books, commenting on how they are perceived by critics: "Some reviewers see them as two halves of female creativity — the actualized versus the potential — or as inverse sides of the feminine psyche. Others view them as sisters in arms, struggling against the hostility and brutality of a male-dominated culture, or use them to ponder the line between fiction and nonfiction in these clearly autobiographical novels. One reviewer insists they are a Faustian pair, with Lila as the “genius demon.” But the real astonishment of this long, digressive, unclassifiable narrative is its portrayal of the dynamic experience of a close female friendship. A friendship, as registered through Elena, that changes page by page, sometimes sentence by sentence. And the question Ferrante finally forced me to ask is how that experience, in fiction, could feel so exalting."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-09-29 |title=Los Angeles Review of Books |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/ferrante-and-her-fourth-and-final-neapolitan-novel/ |access-date=2023-02-27 |website=Los Angeles Review of Books |language=en}}</ref> |
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===''Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay''=== |
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Before her marriage, Elena sees Lila briefly and learns that she has been working in a sausage factory where she is constantly brutalized and sexually harassed. She has also fallen in love with Enzo, with the two of them studying computer programming, but she refuses to let their relationship turn sexual as she does not want to become pregnant again. After Elena helps her obtain the [[Combined oral contraceptive pill|pill]], Lila does consummate her relationship with Enzo. Meanwhile, Elena, who did not want to have children until after writing a second book, becomes pregnant right away. A few years go by, and Elena does manage to write another book before the birth of her second daughter, but after Lila and Adele tell her it is no good, she decides to abandon the project and devote herself to being a wife and mother. |
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According to The Guardian, this tension goes beyond the relation between Lila and Lenu, encompassing all women in the narrative: "Ferrante's subject – it is almost an obsession – is the way women are shaped, distorted and sometimes destroyed by their social milieu (and by the men around them). Voicing what can still seem unvoiceable, she delves into the darker tensions between daughters and mothers, the tug-and-pull of being a wife or a mother and wanting to retain some sense of independent self."<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=O'Rourke |first=Meghan |date=2014-10-31 |title=Elena Ferrante: the global literary sensation nobody knows |language=en-GB |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/31/elena-ferrante-literary-sensation-nobody-knows |access-date=2023-02-27 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> |
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Elena runs into Nino again, after her husband Pietro brings him home. She discovers she is still attracted to him, despite the fact that he abandoned her friend after their love affair. Inspired by his attention, she writes a feminist text which Adele deems worthy of publication. She and Nino also start an affair, which causes Elena to realize she is unhappy in her marriage and to finally leave Pietro. |
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=== Motherhood and ambivalence === |
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Elena shares her plans with Lila, who is horrified. Although she now realizes that her son, whom she believed was Nino's, is actually biologically Stefano's, she still harbours resentment towards Nino and views him as an empty, wasteful person. Lila's fortunes are on the rise: she and Enzo now work successfully as computer programmers. Lila is tempted to work for Michele Solara, who remains so obsessed with her, that he is willing to pay her an exorbitant amount of money. Elena also learns that her younger sister is currently sleeping with Marcello Solara. |
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The series was praised by its portrayal of an intelligent young woman who finds motherhood stifling, something not often portrayed, as presented by Roxana Robinson for [[The New York Times]]: "She (Elena) has joined the intelligentsia and is about to marry into the middle class, yet her life is still rife with limitations. Her distinguished husband is narrow-minded and restrictive, and she finds motherhood numbing."<ref name=":02"/> |
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=== Class struggle === |
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The novels also portray class struggle, especially in the context of Italian factory strikes of the 1970s.<ref>{{cite news | title=Elena Ferrante: the global literary sensation nobody knows | url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/31/elena-ferrante-literary-sensation-nobody-knows | work=[[The Guardian]] | author=Meghan O'Rourke | date=2014-10-31 | access-date=2015-07-20}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Fischer|first1=Molly|title=Elena Ferrante and the Force of Female Friendships|url=http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/elena-ferrante-liking-like|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]|date=September 4, 2014}}</ref> Writer Valerie Popp has written on the class portrayal in the novels "So I find that reading Elena Ferrante's work affords me a rare pleasure: the pleasure of recognition. Here in the United States, the working-class dimensions of Ferrante's work tend to get elided, ignored, or attenuated into something charming and “primitive” that the literary coterie—who, for the most part, are middle- or upper-class born—can admire from a distance."<ref>{{Cite web |last=VIDA |date=2016-08-16 |title=Report from the Field: A Working-Class Academic on Loving Elena Ferrante • VIDA: Women in Literary Arts |url=https://www.vidaweb.org/14629-2/ |access-date=2023-02-27 |website=VIDA: Women in Literary Arts |language=en-US}}</ref> The novel was also praised for its social themes, showing the neighborhood's changes under the Camorra's influence, and the struggles during the 70s Lead Years in Italy: "During the struggles of the 1970s between the Communists and the Socialists she [Elena] turns to politics, only to find that the Camorra rules here too."<ref name=":02">{{Cite news |last=Robinson |first=Roxana |date=2014-09-05 |title=Between Women |language=en-US |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/books/review/elena-ferrantes-those-who-leave-and-those-who-stay.html |access-date=2023-02-28 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> |
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After several months of strife, Elena finally succeeds in leaving Pietro for good. However, she learns from Lila that despite promises that he had left his wife, Nino has done no such thing. Elena decides to accept Nino the way he is and moves with her daughters to Naples so she can be closer to him. She becomes pregnant with Nino's child at the same time Lila conceives a daughter with Enzo. They give birth to daughters one month apart. Lila names her child Tina, the same name as Elena's long-lost doll, while Elena names her daughter after her mother, who dies of cancer shortly after her granddaughter's birth. Overwhelmed with the responsibilities of raising three daughters, Elena finds herself in financial difficulties despite help from Nino and Pietro. She also discovers Nino having sex with her housekeeper and learns from Lila that he has continued to have multiple affairs with many women, both before and after their time together, even propositioning Lila. Disgusted with Nino, Elena finally finds the strength to break up with him for good. |
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=== ''Künstlerroman'' === |
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In the midst of this turmoil, Elena tries to finish a third book she has been contractually obligated to write, but having no time she simply sends her publisher the book she wrote when she was pregnant with her middle child, a thinly veiled account of her childhood, expecting it to be rejected. The publisher is instead hugely supportive, considering it a great work. |
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{{See also|Künstlerroman}} |
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The novel's protagonist being called Elena invited readers to wonder how much her story has in common with the author's. As Katherine Hill writes in the ''Paris Review'': "Most autofiction trades on the understanding that the author is just playing, or just theorizing, and not really revealing herself, but Ferrante's work invites the opposite reading."<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Hill |first=Katherine |date=2020-01-29 |title=The Elena Ferrante in My Head |url=https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2020/01/29/the-elena-ferrante-in-my-head/ |access-date=2023-02-27 |website=The Paris Review |language=en}}</ref> |
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The question was posed by reader Paolo Di Stefano to Elena Ferrante in the Italian newspaper ''[[Corriere della Sera]]'', "how autobiographical is the story of Elena [Greco]?". Ferrante replied, in "her characteristically direct yet elusive manner, 'If by autobiography you mean drawing on one's own experience to feed an invented story, almost entirely. If instead you're asking whether I'm telling my own personal story, not at all'."<ref name=":1" /> |
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Encouraged by her publisher, Elena and her children move into an apartment just above her old friend Lila. She realizes that the neighbourhood has severely changed from when she grew up. Many people, including Elena's own brothers, are now involved in the selling and using of drugs for the Solaras, while Lila is considered a saviour in the neighbourhood, the only one who can stand up to the Solaras and who employs people in her computer business, helping to take them away from drugs. |
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In addition, the story of becoming an author is entangled for Lenu with the two previous points: with her friendship with Lila, because it's her goal to compete with the friend, to prove herself worthy, that fuels her writing. And with class struggle because writing a successful novel was how the two of them dreamed, as little girls, of making money and escaping the neighborhood, and, in fact, how Lenu finally achieves that. |
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The success of Elena's book causes trouble for the Solaras, when a newspaper article reveals it contains fictionalized accounts of their illegal dealings. The Solaras bring a lawsuit against Elena through Carmen Peluso, her childhood schoolmate, and their stranglehold on the neighbourhood seems more vicious than ever. After Michele hurts Lila, Lila gives all the proof of their illegal dealings to Elena and together they write a piece documenting the crimes of the Solaras. Elena realizes this will do nothing to stop them, but Lila has it published anyway, only to become bitterly disillusioned when all it does is grant Elena more fame. |
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=== The city of Naples === |
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Shortly after, Elena asks Nino to reappear and be part of their daughter's life. During an outing with all the children, Tina mysteriously disappears. Enzo believes that the Solaras kidnapped his daughter, while Lila maintains that their daughter is still alive and might one day be returned to them. |
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According to Sarah Begley, writing for [[Time (magazine)|Time Magazine]], the city of Naples itself is one of the main characters of the book, "portrayed in gritty detail throughout the novels."<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=The Historical Truth Behind Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels |url=https://time.com/4010504/neapolitan-novels-history/ |access-date=2023-02-27 |website=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|language=en}}</ref> The city is portrayed in the novels as a place of violence, poverty and social unrest. Rutgers University Associate Professor Paola Gambarota has linked this portrayal of Naples to the issues the city experienced after being [[Bombing of Naples in World War II|bombed during World War II]]. Ferrante portrays well known issues, such as the black markets (through figures as the Carraci family) and the rising influence of the [[Camorra]] (through the Solara family). Gambarota writes that, “the socioeconomic situation in Naples…was worse than anywhere else" and that education was a luxury.<ref name=":2" /> |
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=== The "Southern Question" === |
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Elena and Lila continue to be increasingly alienated from each other as Lila despairs about her lost daughter. Before Elena, by then an even more famous writer, moves out of their childhood neighborhood for the last time, Lila becomes obsessed with the history of Naples and the cyclical nature of human life. Recognizing the seeming insignificance of it all, it somehow makes sense for her that it should be desirable to disappear without a trace, though this will be difficult in the new computer age. Decades pass, though they stay in touch, and Elena finally writes a small novel about their friendship. Lila shuts Elena out of her life. Later, catching up to the start of the book, Lila is still yet to be found with no new traces of her. One day Elena receives in the mail the two dolls that they lost when they were children. The meaning of this is ambiguous. |
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Another theme always present in the novel is the difference between the South and the North of Italy, and the prejudice suffered by people from the South. This is more often portrayed through the character of Elena, who goes to study and live in the North. As Pasha Malla wrote for [[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]: "She [Elena] never fully identifies with Naples and its brutality, yet she remains an impostor among refined Northerners, 'the daughter of the porter with the dialect cadence of the South,' who is only 'playing the part of the cultured writer'."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Malla |first=Pasha |date=2014-09-08 |title=A Counter-Melody |language=en-US |work=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] |url=https://slate.com/culture/2014/09/elena-ferrantes-those-who-leave-and-those-who-stay-the-third-of-the-neapolitan-novels-reviewed.html |access-date=2023-02-28 |issn=1091-2339}}</ref> |
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==Reception== |
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In 2019, ''[[The Guardian]]'' ranked ''My Brilliant Friend'' the 11th best book since 2000.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/sep/21/best-books-of-the-21st-century|title=The 100 best books of the 21st century|author=Guardian Staff|date=2019-09-21|work=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=2019-11-08|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref> The overall series was also listed in ''[[Vulture (magazine)|Vulture]]'' as one of the 12 "New Classics" since 2000.<ref>{{cite news | title=100 Best Books of the 21st Century (So Far) | url=https://www.vulture.com/article/best-books-21st-century-so-far.html | work=Vulture (New York Magazine) | author= | date=2018-09-17 | access-date=2019-11-08}}</ref> In 2024, the New York Times ranked the series' first installment "My Brilliant Friend" as the best book of the 21st century.<ref>{{cite news | title=The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century | url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/books/best-books-21st-century.html | work= | author= | date= | access-date=}}</ref> |
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Central themes in the novels include women’s friendship and the shaping of women’s lives by their social milieu, sexual and intellectual jealousy and competition within female friendships, female ambivalence about filial and maternal roles, the ascent of intelligent children out of violent domestic and social environments, class conflict, the role of literature and the social responsibility of the writer amidst social upheaval and within protest movements, the changing conditions of women in the 1970s, early computerization, and the Italian factory strikes of the 1970s.<ref>{{cite web|last1=O'Rourke|first1=Meghan|title=Elena Ferrante: the global literary sensation nobody knows|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/31/elena-ferrante-literary-sensation-nobody-knows|work=The Guardian|accessdate=July 20, 2015|date=October 31, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Fischer|first1=Molly|title=Elena Ferrante and the Force of Female Friendships|url=http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/elena-ferrante-liking-like|work=The New Yorker|date=September 4, 2014}}</ref> |
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Elissa Schappel, writing for ''[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'', reviewed the last book of the Quartet as "This is Ferrante at the height of her brilliance."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Schappel|first=Elissa|date=27 August 2015 |title=The Mysterious, Anonymous Author Elena Ferrante on the Conclusion of Her Neapolitan Novels |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/08/elena-ferrante-interview-the-story-of-the-lost-child |access-date=2023-02-27 |website=[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]] |language=en-US}}</ref> Roger Cohen wrote for the [[The New York Review of Books|''New York Review of Books'']]: "The interacting qualities of the two women are central to the quartet, which is at once introspective and sweeping, personal and political, covering the more than six decades of the two women's lives and the way those lives intersect with Italy's upheavals, from the revolutionary violence of the leftist Red Brigades to radical feminism."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Cohen |first=Roger |title=The Violent World of Elena Ferrante {{!}} Roger Cohen |language=en |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/05/26/violent-world-of-elena-ferrante/ |access-date=2023-02-27 |issn=0028-7504}}</ref> |
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In ''The Guardian'', it was noted the growing popularity of Ferrante, especially among writers: "Partly because her work describes domestic experiences – such as vivid sexual jealousy and other forms of shame – that are underexplored in fiction, Ferrante's reputation is soaring, especially among women (Zadie Smith, Mona Simpson and Jhumpa Lahiri are fans)".<ref name=":0" /> |
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Darrin Franich has called the novels the series of the decade, saying: "The Neapolitan Novels are the series of the decade because they are so clearly of this decade: conflicted, revisionist, desperate, hopeful, revolutionary, euphorically feminine even in the face of assaultive male corrosion."<ref>{{Cite web |first=Darren|last=Franich|date = 15 November 2019 |title=Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels are the best book series of the decade |url=https://ew.com/books/2019/11/15/elena-ferrante-neapolitan-novels-best-of-the-decade/ |access-date=2023-02-27 |website=EW.com |language=en}}</ref> |
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Judith Shulevitz in The Atlantic, praised particularly how the books circle back to its start, to Lila and Lenu's childhood games, in the final installment.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Shulevitz |first=Judith |date=2015-09-12 |title=The Hypnotic Genius of Elena Ferrante |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/10/the-hypnotic-genius-of-elena-ferrante/403198/ |access-date=2023-02-27 |website=[[The Atlantic]] |language=en}}</ref> Maureen Corregan has also praised the ending of the novels, calling it "Perfect Devastation".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Corregan |first=Maureen |date=September 10, 2015 |title='Lost Child' Wraps Up Ferrante's Neapolitan Series With 'Perfect Devastation' |url=https://www.npr.org/2015/09/10/438941219/lost-child-wraps-up-ferrantes-neapolitan-series-with-perfect-devastation |access-date=February 27, 2023 |website=[[NPR]]}}</ref> |
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==Awards== |
==Awards== |
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* ''My Brilliant Friend'': Longlist of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.<ref>{{cite web|title=My Brilliant Friend|url=http://www.impacdublinaward.ie/nominees/my-brilliant-friend/|publisher=International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award| |
* ''My Brilliant Friend'': Longlist of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.<ref>{{cite web|title=My Brilliant Friend|url=http://www.impacdublinaward.ie/nominees/my-brilliant-friend/|publisher=International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150722171422/http://www.impacdublinaward.ie/nominees/my-brilliant-friend/|archive-date=2015-07-22}}</ref> |
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* ''The Story of the Lost Child'': nominated for the [[Strega Prize]], |
* ''The Story of the Lost Child'': nominated for the [[Strega Prize]], the most prestigious Italian literary award. |
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* ''The Story of the Lost Child''; nominated for the [[International Booker Prize]], raising the question if the award could be given to an anonymous author.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2016-03-10 |title='Anonymous' author on international Man Booker longlist |language=en-GB |work=[[BBC News]] |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-35771674 |access-date=2023-02-27}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=BBC World Service - Weekend, Man Booker Shortlist: Translating Elena Ferrante |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03tmkq3 |access-date=2023-02-27 |website=[[BBC News]] |language=en-GB}}</ref> |
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* ''The Story of the Lost Child''; won the 2016 ALTA Translation Prizes, in the category translations form Italian.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bernofsky |first=Susan |date=2016-10-10 |title=2016 ALTA Translation Prizes Announced |url=https://translationista.com/2016/10/2016-alta-translation-prizes-announced.html |access-date=2023-02-27 |website=TRANSLATIONiSTA |language=en}}</ref> |
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== Book covers == |
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The book covers of the ''Neapolitan Quartet'' have long been criticized for their kitschness. Emily Harnett wrote for [[The Atlantic]]: "On Twitter and beyond, readers have described Ferrante's covers as “horrible,” “atrocious,” “utterly hideous,” and as a “disservice” to her novels."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Harnett |first=Emily |date=2016-07-03 |title=The Subtle Genius of Elena Ferrante's Bad Book Covers |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/07/elena-ferrante-covers-bad-no-good/488732/ |access-date=2023-02-27 |website=[[The Atlantic]] |language=en}}</ref> The publishers have however defended the choice in an interview to Slate, claiming that "We also had the feeling that many people didn't understand the game we were playing, that of, let's say, dressing an extremely refined story with a touch of vulgarity."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Krule |first=Miriam |date=2015-08-28 |title="Dressing a Refined Story With a Touch of Vulgarity": An Interview With Elena Ferrante's Art Director |language=en-US |work=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] |url=https://slate.com/culture/2015/08/elena-ferrante-neapolian-novels-cover-design-an-interview-with-the-publisher-or-europa-editions-on-the-books-dreamy-illustrations.html |access-date=2023-02-27 |issn=1091-2339}}</ref> |
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==Characters== |
== Characters == |
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===Greco family=== |
===Greco family=== |
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* Elena ( |
* Elena (nicknamed "Lenù" or "Lenuccia") Greco (as an adult becomes a successful author) |
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** two daughters by husband Pietro Airota |
** two daughters, Adele ("Dede") and Elsa Airota, by husband Pietro Airota |
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** one daughter by later affair with Nino Sarratore |
** one illegitimate daughter, Immacolata "Imma" Sarratore, by a later affair with Nino Sarratore |
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* Vittorio Greco (Elena's father, doorman at the city hall) |
* Vittorio Greco (Elena's father, doorman at the city hall) |
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* Immacolata Greco (Elena's mother, housewife) |
* Immacolata Greco (Elena's mother, housewife) |
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===Cerullo family=== |
===Cerullo family=== |
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* Raffaella ( |
* Raffaella ("Lila" or "Lina") Cerullo (as an adult runs a successful computer business) |
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** one son |
** one son, Gennaro ("Rino"), by husband Stefano Carracci (not by Nino Sarratore, as she first thought) |
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** one daughter |
** one illegitimate daughter, Nunzia "Tina" Scanno, by Enzo Scanno |
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* Fernando Cerullo (Lila's father, works in a shoe shop) |
* Fernando Cerullo (Lila's father, works in a shoe shop) |
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* Nunzia Cerullo (Lila's mother, housewife) |
* Nunzia Cerullo (Lila's mother, housewife) |
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===Sarratore family=== |
===Sarratore family=== |
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* Donato Sarratore (ticket inspector |
* Donato Sarratore (train ticket inspector and poet) |
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* Lidia Sarratore (Donato's wife, housewife) |
* Lidia Sarratore (Donato's wife, housewife) |
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* Nino Sarratore (their eldest son, two years older than Lila and Elena) |
* Nino Sarratore (their eldest son, two years older than Lila and Elena, as an adult is a professor and politically active) |
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** unborn child with wife Eleonora (the daughter of a prominent Neapolitan businessman) |
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* Marisa Sarratore (Nino's sister, of an age with Lila and Elena) |
* Marisa Sarratore (Nino's sister, of an age with Lila and Elena) |
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* Pino, Clelia, and Ciro Sarratore (younger children) |
* Pino, Clelia, and Ciro Sarratore (younger children) |
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=== |
===Carracci family=== |
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* Don Achille |
* Don Achille Carracci (owns and works in a grocery shop, former loan shark and black market agent) |
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* Maria |
* Maria Carracci (his wife, works at the family's grocery shop) |
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* Stefano |
* Stefano Carracci (their eldest son, five to seven years older than Lila and Elena, works at the family's grocery shop) |
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** one daughter, Maria Carracci, by a later affair with Ada Cappuccio |
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* Pinuccia Caracci (Stefano's younger sister) |
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* |
* Pinuccia Carracci (Stefano's younger sister) |
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* Alfonso Carracci (Stefano and Pinuccia's younger brother, of an age with Lila and Elena) |
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===Solara family=== |
===Solara family=== |
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(the neighborhood's mafia, they own a bar as well as several other businesses, legal or not) |
(the neighborhood's mafia, they own a bar as well as several other businesses, legal or not) |
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* Silvio Solara |
* Silvio Solara (owner of the bar-pastry shop) |
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* Manuela Solara (his wife, known as a loan shark) |
* Manuela Solara (his wife, known as a moneylender / loan shark) |
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* Marcello Solara |
* Marcello Solara (oldest brother) |
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** son, Silvio Solara, by a relationship with (eventual wife) Elisa Greco |
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* Michele Solara |
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* Michele Solara (younger brother) |
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** unnamed sons with wife Gigliola Spagnuolo |
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** two children, by a later affair with Marisa Sarratore |
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===Spagnuolo family=== |
===Spagnuolo family=== |
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* Gigliola Spagnuolo (of an age with Lila and Elena) |
* Gigliola Spagnuolo (of an age with Lila and Elena) |
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* |
* Signor Spagnuolo (her father; pastry chef) |
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* Rosa Spagnuolo (his wife, homemaker) |
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* Her mother (housewife) |
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* Gigliola's younger brother |
* Gigliola's younger brother |
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===Peluso family=== |
===Peluso family=== |
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* Pasquale Peluso (construction worker) |
* Pasquale Peluso (construction worker) |
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* Carmela ( |
* Carmela ("Carmen") Peluso (his younger sister, of an age with Lila and Elena) |
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* |
* Alfredo Peluso, their father (carpenter) |
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* Giuseppina Peluso (his wife, homemaker) |
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* Their mother (housewife) |
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===Scanno family=== |
===Scanno family=== |
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* Nicola Scanno (fruit and vegetables seller) |
* Nicola Scanno (fruit and vegetables seller) |
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* Assunta Scanno (his wife, fruit and |
* Assunta Scanno (his wife, fruit and vegetables seller) |
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* Enzo Scanno (their eldest son) |
* Enzo Scanno (their eldest son, as an adult runs a successful computer business with Lila) |
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* |
* other children |
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===Cappuccio family=== |
===Cappuccio family=== |
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* The late father Cappuccio |
* The late father Cappuccio |
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* Melina Cappuccio (the mad woman, cleans the neighborhood's buildings' staircases) |
* Melina Cappuccio (the mad woman, in love with Donato Sarratore, cleans the neighborhood's buildings' staircases) |
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* Antonio Cappuccio (their son, works in a garage) |
* Antonio Cappuccio (their son, works in a garage) |
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* Ada Cappuccio (Antonio's sister, helps her mother |
* Ada Cappuccio (Antonio's sister, helps her mother clean staircases, later works at the Carracci grocery shop) |
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* |
* other children |
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===Airota family=== |
===Airota family=== |
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* Adele Airota (his wife, literary critic) |
* Adele Airota (his wife, literary critic) |
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* Mariarosa Airota (their daughter, history of art professor in Milan) |
* Mariarosa Airota (their daughter, history of art professor in Milan) |
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* Pietro Airota (their son, |
* Pietro Airota (their son, also a professor, and Elena's husband and the father of Elena's two older daughters) |
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=== The teachers === |
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* Maestro Ferraro (elementary school teacher and librarian) |
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* Maestra Oliviero, (elementary school teacher) |
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** Nella Incardo, (owns a bed and breakfast in Ischia, is the cousin of Maestra Oliviero) |
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* Professor Gerace (high-school teacher) |
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* Professor Galiani, high-school teacher. |
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** Nadia Galiani (student, and daughter of Professor Galiani, was Nino's girlfriend) |
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** Armando Galiani (doctor and son of Professor Galiani) |
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*** Has a son named Marco with wife Isabella |
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=== Other characters === |
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* Gino |
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* Bruno Soccavo |
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* Franco Mari |
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* Silvia |
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** Mirko, her son by Nino Sarratore |
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==Adaptations== |
==Adaptations== |
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{{ |
{{See also|My Brilliant Friend (TV series)}} |
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''My Brilliant Friend'', a two-part, five-and-a-half-hour [[Stage (theatre)|stage]] adaptation of the Neapolitan Novels, opened at the [[Rose Theatre, Kingston]] in March 2017.<ref name=telegraphplay/> The play was adapted by [[April De Angelis]], directed by [[Melly Still]], and starred [[Niamh Cusack]] as Lenu and [[Catherine McCormack]] as Lila.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/mar/14/my-brilliant-friend-review-elena-ferrante-quartet-rose-theatre|title=My Brilliant Friend review – triumphant staging of Elena Ferrante's quartet|work=The Guardian|date=March 14, 2017|first=Michael|last=Billington}}</ref> |
''My Brilliant Friend'', a two-part, five-and-a-half-hour [[Stage (theatre)|stage]] adaptation of the Neapolitan Novels, opened at the [[Rose Theatre, Kingston]] in March 2017.<ref name=telegraphplay/> The play was adapted by [[April De Angelis]], directed by [[Melly Still]], and starred [[Niamh Cusack]] as Lenu and [[Catherine McCormack]] as Lila.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/mar/14/my-brilliant-friend-review-elena-ferrante-quartet-rose-theatre|title=My Brilliant Friend review – triumphant staging of Elena Ferrante's quartet|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=March 14, 2017|first=Michael|last=Billington}}</ref> |
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A 32-part television series ''The Neapolitan Novels'' is also in the works and will be co-produced by the Italian producer Wildside for Fandango Productions, with screenwriting led by the writer Francesco Piccolo.<ref name=tvseries>{{cite news|last1=Moylan|first1=Brian|title=Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels set for TV adaptation|url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2016/feb/09/neopolitan-novels-elena-ferrante-tv-adaptation|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=February 9, 2016}}</ref> On 30 March 2017, it was announced that [[HBO]] and [[RAI]] would broadcast the first eight episodes which are an adaptation of ''[[My Brilliant Friend (TV series)|My Brilliant Friend]]'', the first of the four Neapolitan Novels,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2017/tv/global/hbo-elena-ferrante-my-brilliant-friend-drama-series-rai-1202019376/|title=HBO, Rai to Adapt Elena Ferrante's 'My Brilliant Friend' as Drama Series|work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=March 30, 2017|first=Nick|last=Vivarelli}}</ref> and they premiered on HBO on 18 November 2018.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/amp/features/hbos-first-move-foreign-language-series-my-brilliant-friend-1139303|title=HBO's Big Italian Bet With 'My Brilliant Friend'|website=The Hollywood Reporter|first=Scott|last=Roxborough|date=September 3, 2018|access-date=September 7, 2018}}</ref> |
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The series was also adapted for radio, produced by Pier for BBC Radio 4 and first broadcast in July 2016. |
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A 32-part television series ''The Neapolitan Novels'' is also in the works and will be co-produced by the Italian producer Wildside for Fandango Productions, with screenwriting led by the writer Francesco Piccolo.<ref name=tvseries>{{cite news|last1=Moylan|first1=Brian|title=Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels set for TV adaptation|url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2016/feb/09/neopolitan-novels-elena-ferrante-tv-adaptation|work=The Guardian|date=February 9, 2016}}</ref> On March 30, 2017, it was announced that [[HBO]] and [[RAI]] would broadcast the first eight episodes which are an adaptation of ''[[My Brilliant Friend (miniseries)|My Brilliant Friend]]'', the first of the four Neapolitan Novels,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2017/tv/global/hbo-elena-ferrante-my-brilliant-friend-drama-series-rai-1202019376/|title=HBO, Rai to Adapt Elena Ferrante's 'My Brilliant Friend' as Drama Series|work=Variety|date=March 30, 2017|first=Nick|last=Vivarelli}}</ref> and they premiered on HBO on November 18, 2018.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/amp/features/hbos-first-move-foreign-language-series-my-brilliant-friend-1139303|title=HBO's Big Italian Bet With 'My Brilliant Friend'|website=The Hollywood Reporter|first=Scott|last=Roxborough|date=September 3, 2018|accessdate=September 7, 2018}}</ref> |
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<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000mj9c|title=BBC Radio 4 Extra Elena Ferrante The Neapolitan Novels|website=[[BBC News]]|access-date=September 18, 2020}}</ref> |
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==Bibliography== |
==Bibliography== |
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* L'amica geniale (2011; English translation: My Brilliant Friend, 2012). {{OCLC|778419313}}. |
* L'amica geniale (2011; English translation: My Brilliant Friend, 2012). {{OCLC|778419313}}. |
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* Storia del nuovo cognome, L'amica geniale volume 2 (2012; English translation: The Story of a New Name, 2013). {{OCLC|829451619}}.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Luzzi|first1=Joseph|title=It Started in Naples: Elena |
* Storia del nuovo cognome, L'amica geniale volume 2 (2012; English translation: The Story of a New Name, 2013). {{OCLC|829451619}}.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Luzzi|first1=Joseph|title=It Started in Naples: Elena Ferrante's 'Story of a New Name'|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/books/review/elena-ferrantes-story-of-a-new-name.html|access-date=July 20, 2015|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=September 27, 2013}}</ref> |
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* Storia di chi fugge e di chi resta, L'amica geniale volume 3 (2013; English translation: Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, 2014). {{OCLC|870919836}}. |
* Storia di chi fugge e di chi resta, L'amica geniale volume 3 (2013; English translation: Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, 2014). {{OCLC|870919836}}. |
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* Storia della bambina perduta, L'amica geniale volume 4 (2014; English translation: The Story of the Lost Child, 2015). {{OCLC|910239891}}. |
* Storia della bambina perduta, L'amica geniale volume 4 (2014; English translation: The Story of the Lost Child, 2015). {{OCLC|910239891}}. |
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==External links== |
==External links== |
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* [http://elenaferrante.com/works/my-brilliant-friend/ Elena Ferrante website page on ''My Brilliant Friend''] |
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* [http://elenaferrante.com/works/the-story-of-a-new-name/ Elena Ferrante website page on ''The Story of a New Name''] |
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* [http://elenaferrante.com/works/leave-stay/ Elena Ferrante website page on ''Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay''] |
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* [https://neapolitannovels.com/ English-language website dedicated to the Neapolitan Novels] |
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* "[http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6370/art-of-fiction-no-228-elena-ferrante Elena Ferrante, Art of Fiction No. 228.]" Interviewed by Sandro and Sandra Ferri. ''[[Paris Review]]''. Spring 2015. No. 212. |
* "[http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6370/art-of-fiction-no-228-elena-ferrante Elena Ferrante, Art of Fiction No. 228.]" Interviewed by Sandro and Sandra Ferri. ''[[Paris Review]]''. Spring 2015. No. 212. |
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* "[http://www.nouvelobs.com/culture/20161020.OBS0110/elena-ferrante-s-naples-a-visual-promenade.html Elena Ferrante's Naples: A Visual Promenade]." ''[[Le Nouvel Observateur]]'', October 28, 2016. A tour of the novels' Neapolitan settings. |
* "[http://www.nouvelobs.com/culture/20161020.OBS0110/elena-ferrante-s-naples-a-visual-promenade.html Elena Ferrante's Naples: A Visual Promenade]." ''[[Le Nouvel Observateur]]'', October 28, 2016. A tour of the novels' Neapolitan settings. |
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** "[https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2017/nov/07/elena-ferrante-naples-footsteps-my-brilliant-friend-photo-essay?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Tweet Elena Ferrante's Naples: a photo essay]" ''The Guardian,'' November 7, 2017. |
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{{Elena Ferrante}} |
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[[Category:Book series introduced in 2011]] |
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[[Category:Novel series]] |
[[Category:Novel series]] |
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[[Category:Novel sequences]] |
[[Category:Novel sequences]] |
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[[Category:Novels set in Naples]] |
[[Category:Novels set in Naples]] |
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[[Category:Italian bildungsromans]] |
[[Category:Italian bildungsromans]] |
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[[Category:Italian novels adapted into plays]] |
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[[Category:Italian novels adapted into television shows]] |
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[[Category:Literary tetralogies]] |
Latest revision as of 05:23, 25 November 2024
Author | Elena Ferrante |
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Original title | L'Amica Geniale, Storia del Nuovo Cognome, Storia di chi fugge e di chi resta, Storia della bambina perduta |
Translator | Ann Goldstein |
Country | Italy |
Language | Italian |
Publisher |
|
Published | 2011–2014 |
Published in English | 2012–2015 |
No. of books | Four |
The Neapolitan Novels, also known as the Neapolitan Quartet, are a four-part series of fiction by the pseudonymous Italian author Elena Ferrante, published originally by Edizioni e/o, translated into English by Ann Goldstein and published by Europa Editions (New York). The English-language titles of the novels are My Brilliant Friend (2012), The Story of a New Name (2013), Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (2014), and The Story of the Lost Child (2015). In the original Italian edition, the whole series bears the title of the first novel L'amica geniale (literally translated, "the brilliant friend"). The series has been characterized as a bildungsroman, or coming-of-age story.[1] In an interview in Harper's Magazine, Elena Ferrante has stated that she considers the four books to be "a single novel" published serially for reasons of length and duration.[2] The series has sold over 10 million copies in 40 countries.[3]
The series follows the lives of two perceptive and intelligent girls, Elena (sometimes called "Lenù") Greco and Raffaella ("Lila") Cerullo, from childhood to adulthood and old age, as they try to create lives for themselves amidst the violent and stultifying culture of their home – a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, Italy.[4] The novels are narrated by Elena Greco.
The series was adapted into a two-part play by April De Angelis at the Rose Theatre, Kingston, in March 2017.[5] The Rose production, starring Niamh Cusack and Catherine McCormack, transferred to the Royal National Theatre in November 2019. The series has been adapted into an HBO television series entitled My Brilliant Friend.
Synopsis
[edit]My Brilliant Friend (2011)
[edit]The novel begins in the 1950s, in a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, where the narrator Elena meets Lila, her best friend, her mirror, and at times her fiercest critic. They become women, wives, mothers, and leaders, all the while maintaining a complex and at times conflicted friendship. This first novel in the series follows Lila and Elena from their meeting as six-year-olds through their school years and adolescence, until Lila's marriage at the age of sixteen.
The Story of a New Name (2012)
[edit]In The Story of a New Name, Lila quickly becomes disillusioned with her marriage, and sees herself trapped with a violent man. She also starts an affair, risking her life. Elena, meanwhile, continues her studies beyond what she ever thought would be possible, and explores the world outside of the neighborhood. The two young women share a complex and evolving bond that is central to their emotional lives and a source of strength in the face of life's challenges.
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (2013)
[edit]Elena and Lila have grown into womanhood. Lila, married at sixteen, now has a young son; she has left her husband and the comforts her marriage brought and now works in awful conditions in a factory in Naples. Elena has left the city, earned her college degree, and published a novel, but now finds herself also trapped in a stifling marriage. Both women are pushing against the walls, afloat on the great sea of opportunities that opened up for women during the 1970s.
The Story of the Lost Child (2014)
[edit]Both Lila and Elena once fought to escape the neighborhood in which they grew up. Elena married, moved to Florence with her husband, started a family, and published several well-received novels. In this final novel of the quartet, she returns to Naples to be with the man she has always loved. Lila, meanwhile, has become a successful entrepreneur, but she finds that it only draws her into closer proximity with the nepotism, chauvinism, and criminal violence that infect her neighborhood.
Themes
[edit]Female friendship
[edit]Central themes in the novels include women's friendship and the shaping of women's lives by their social milieu, sexual and intellectual jealousy and competition within female friendships, and female ambivalence about filial and maternal roles and domestic violence. Isabelle Blank wrote about the complex, mirrored relation between the protagonists Lenu and Lila: "Lenù and Lila are foils for one another. Lenù is blonde, studious, eager to please, self-doubting and ambitious, whereas Lila is dark, naturally brilliant, mercurial, mean and irresistible to those around her. The story is told from Lenù’s point of view, but the two friends understand one another on such a deep and complex level that the reader is often privy to Lila's perceived inner thoughts."[6]
The tension between Lila and Lenu is often considered the central point of the novels, as Matteo Pericoli wrote for The Paris Review: "From a structural point of view, tension and compression often meld into each another. In this building, two volumes are interwoven by strong connecting rods, extended columns and daring beams, with one of the two seemingly suspended from the other. With its mass and swirled dynamism, the suspended volume (that we will call Lila) seems to be slipping away from the one that is holding it up (that we will call Elena) making it extend and stretch as if it was Lila that was shaping Elena and providing her with her dynamic energy, so vital to any piece of architecture."[7]
Suzanne Berne also wrote about the relation between the pair for the LA Review of Books, commenting on how they are perceived by critics: "Some reviewers see them as two halves of female creativity — the actualized versus the potential — or as inverse sides of the feminine psyche. Others view them as sisters in arms, struggling against the hostility and brutality of a male-dominated culture, or use them to ponder the line between fiction and nonfiction in these clearly autobiographical novels. One reviewer insists they are a Faustian pair, with Lila as the “genius demon.” But the real astonishment of this long, digressive, unclassifiable narrative is its portrayal of the dynamic experience of a close female friendship. A friendship, as registered through Elena, that changes page by page, sometimes sentence by sentence. And the question Ferrante finally forced me to ask is how that experience, in fiction, could feel so exalting."[8]
According to The Guardian, this tension goes beyond the relation between Lila and Lenu, encompassing all women in the narrative: "Ferrante's subject – it is almost an obsession – is the way women are shaped, distorted and sometimes destroyed by their social milieu (and by the men around them). Voicing what can still seem unvoiceable, she delves into the darker tensions between daughters and mothers, the tug-and-pull of being a wife or a mother and wanting to retain some sense of independent self."[9]
Motherhood and ambivalence
[edit]The series was praised by its portrayal of an intelligent young woman who finds motherhood stifling, something not often portrayed, as presented by Roxana Robinson for The New York Times: "She (Elena) has joined the intelligentsia and is about to marry into the middle class, yet her life is still rife with limitations. Her distinguished husband is narrow-minded and restrictive, and she finds motherhood numbing."[10]
Class struggle
[edit]The novels also portray class struggle, especially in the context of Italian factory strikes of the 1970s.[11][12] Writer Valerie Popp has written on the class portrayal in the novels "So I find that reading Elena Ferrante's work affords me a rare pleasure: the pleasure of recognition. Here in the United States, the working-class dimensions of Ferrante's work tend to get elided, ignored, or attenuated into something charming and “primitive” that the literary coterie—who, for the most part, are middle- or upper-class born—can admire from a distance."[13] The novel was also praised for its social themes, showing the neighborhood's changes under the Camorra's influence, and the struggles during the 70s Lead Years in Italy: "During the struggles of the 1970s between the Communists and the Socialists she [Elena] turns to politics, only to find that the Camorra rules here too."[10]
Künstlerroman
[edit]The novel's protagonist being called Elena invited readers to wonder how much her story has in common with the author's. As Katherine Hill writes in the Paris Review: "Most autofiction trades on the understanding that the author is just playing, or just theorizing, and not really revealing herself, but Ferrante's work invites the opposite reading."[14]
The question was posed by reader Paolo Di Stefano to Elena Ferrante in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, "how autobiographical is the story of Elena [Greco]?". Ferrante replied, in "her characteristically direct yet elusive manner, 'If by autobiography you mean drawing on one's own experience to feed an invented story, almost entirely. If instead you're asking whether I'm telling my own personal story, not at all'."[14]
In addition, the story of becoming an author is entangled for Lenu with the two previous points: with her friendship with Lila, because it's her goal to compete with the friend, to prove herself worthy, that fuels her writing. And with class struggle because writing a successful novel was how the two of them dreamed, as little girls, of making money and escaping the neighborhood, and, in fact, how Lenu finally achieves that.
The city of Naples
[edit]According to Sarah Begley, writing for Time Magazine, the city of Naples itself is one of the main characters of the book, "portrayed in gritty detail throughout the novels."[15] The city is portrayed in the novels as a place of violence, poverty and social unrest. Rutgers University Associate Professor Paola Gambarota has linked this portrayal of Naples to the issues the city experienced after being bombed during World War II. Ferrante portrays well known issues, such as the black markets (through figures as the Carraci family) and the rising influence of the Camorra (through the Solara family). Gambarota writes that, “the socioeconomic situation in Naples…was worse than anywhere else" and that education was a luxury.[15]
The "Southern Question"
[edit]Another theme always present in the novel is the difference between the South and the North of Italy, and the prejudice suffered by people from the South. This is more often portrayed through the character of Elena, who goes to study and live in the North. As Pasha Malla wrote for Slate: "She [Elena] never fully identifies with Naples and its brutality, yet she remains an impostor among refined Northerners, 'the daughter of the porter with the dialect cadence of the South,' who is only 'playing the part of the cultured writer'."[16]
Reception
[edit]In 2019, The Guardian ranked My Brilliant Friend the 11th best book since 2000.[17] The overall series was also listed in Vulture as one of the 12 "New Classics" since 2000.[18] In 2024, the New York Times ranked the series' first installment "My Brilliant Friend" as the best book of the 21st century.[19]
Elissa Schappel, writing for Vanity Fair, reviewed the last book of the Quartet as "This is Ferrante at the height of her brilliance."[20] Roger Cohen wrote for the New York Review of Books: "The interacting qualities of the two women are central to the quartet, which is at once introspective and sweeping, personal and political, covering the more than six decades of the two women's lives and the way those lives intersect with Italy's upheavals, from the revolutionary violence of the leftist Red Brigades to radical feminism."[21]
In The Guardian, it was noted the growing popularity of Ferrante, especially among writers: "Partly because her work describes domestic experiences – such as vivid sexual jealousy and other forms of shame – that are underexplored in fiction, Ferrante's reputation is soaring, especially among women (Zadie Smith, Mona Simpson and Jhumpa Lahiri are fans)".[9]
Darrin Franich has called the novels the series of the decade, saying: "The Neapolitan Novels are the series of the decade because they are so clearly of this decade: conflicted, revisionist, desperate, hopeful, revolutionary, euphorically feminine even in the face of assaultive male corrosion."[22]
Judith Shulevitz in The Atlantic, praised particularly how the books circle back to its start, to Lila and Lenu's childhood games, in the final installment.[23] Maureen Corregan has also praised the ending of the novels, calling it "Perfect Devastation".[24]
Awards
[edit]- My Brilliant Friend: Longlist of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.[25]
- The Story of the Lost Child: nominated for the Strega Prize, the most prestigious Italian literary award.
- The Story of the Lost Child; nominated for the International Booker Prize, raising the question if the award could be given to an anonymous author.[26][27]
- The Story of the Lost Child; won the 2016 ALTA Translation Prizes, in the category translations form Italian.[28]
Book covers
[edit]The book covers of the Neapolitan Quartet have long been criticized for their kitschness. Emily Harnett wrote for The Atlantic: "On Twitter and beyond, readers have described Ferrante's covers as “horrible,” “atrocious,” “utterly hideous,” and as a “disservice” to her novels."[29] The publishers have however defended the choice in an interview to Slate, claiming that "We also had the feeling that many people didn't understand the game we were playing, that of, let's say, dressing an extremely refined story with a touch of vulgarity."[30]
Characters
[edit]Greco family
[edit]- Elena (nicknamed "Lenù" or "Lenuccia") Greco (as an adult becomes a successful author)
- two daughters, Adele ("Dede") and Elsa Airota, by husband Pietro Airota
- one illegitimate daughter, Immacolata "Imma" Sarratore, by a later affair with Nino Sarratore
- Vittorio Greco (Elena's father, doorman at the city hall)
- Immacolata Greco (Elena's mother, housewife)
- Peppe, Gianni, and Elisa Greco (Elena's younger siblings)
Cerullo family
[edit]- Raffaella ("Lila" or "Lina") Cerullo (as an adult runs a successful computer business)
- one son, Gennaro ("Rino"), by husband Stefano Carracci (not by Nino Sarratore, as she first thought)
- one illegitimate daughter, Nunzia "Tina" Scanno, by Enzo Scanno
- Fernando Cerullo (Lila's father, works in a shoe shop)
- Nunzia Cerullo (Lila's mother, housewife)
- Rino Cerullo (Lila's older brother, five to seven years older than Lila, works at the family's shoe shop)
- several unnamed younger siblings of Rino and Lila
Sarratore family
[edit]- Donato Sarratore (train ticket inspector and poet)
- Lidia Sarratore (Donato's wife, housewife)
- Nino Sarratore (their eldest son, two years older than Lila and Elena, as an adult is a professor and politically active)
- unborn child with wife Eleonora (the daughter of a prominent Neapolitan businessman)
- Marisa Sarratore (Nino's sister, of an age with Lila and Elena)
- Pino, Clelia, and Ciro Sarratore (younger children)
Carracci family
[edit]- Don Achille Carracci (owns and works in a grocery shop, former loan shark and black market agent)
- Maria Carracci (his wife, works at the family's grocery shop)
- Stefano Carracci (their eldest son, five to seven years older than Lila and Elena, works at the family's grocery shop)
- one daughter, Maria Carracci, by a later affair with Ada Cappuccio
- Pinuccia Carracci (Stefano's younger sister)
- Alfonso Carracci (Stefano and Pinuccia's younger brother, of an age with Lila and Elena)
Solara family
[edit](the neighborhood's mafia, they own a bar as well as several other businesses, legal or not)
- Silvio Solara (owner of the bar-pastry shop)
- Manuela Solara (his wife, known as a moneylender / loan shark)
- Marcello Solara (oldest brother)
- son, Silvio Solara, by a relationship with (eventual wife) Elisa Greco
- Michele Solara (younger brother)
- unnamed sons with wife Gigliola Spagnuolo
- two children, by a later affair with Marisa Sarratore
Spagnuolo family
[edit]- Gigliola Spagnuolo (of an age with Lila and Elena)
- Signor Spagnuolo (her father; pastry chef)
- Rosa Spagnuolo (his wife, homemaker)
- Gigliola's younger brother
Peluso family
[edit]- Pasquale Peluso (construction worker)
- Carmela ("Carmen") Peluso (his younger sister, of an age with Lila and Elena)
- Alfredo Peluso, their father (carpenter)
- Giuseppina Peluso (his wife, homemaker)
Scanno family
[edit]- Nicola Scanno (fruit and vegetables seller)
- Assunta Scanno (his wife, fruit and vegetables seller)
- Enzo Scanno (their eldest son, as an adult runs a successful computer business with Lila)
- other children
Cappuccio family
[edit]- The late father Cappuccio
- Melina Cappuccio (the mad woman, in love with Donato Sarratore, cleans the neighborhood's buildings' staircases)
- Antonio Cappuccio (their son, works in a garage)
- Ada Cappuccio (Antonio's sister, helps her mother clean staircases, later works at the Carracci grocery shop)
- other children
Airota family
[edit]- Guido Airota (Greek literature professor)
- Adele Airota (his wife, literary critic)
- Mariarosa Airota (their daughter, history of art professor in Milan)
- Pietro Airota (their son, also a professor, and Elena's husband and the father of Elena's two older daughters)
The teachers
[edit]- Maestro Ferraro (elementary school teacher and librarian)
- Maestra Oliviero, (elementary school teacher)
- Nella Incardo, (owns a bed and breakfast in Ischia, is the cousin of Maestra Oliviero)
- Professor Gerace (high-school teacher)
- Professor Galiani, high-school teacher.
- Nadia Galiani (student, and daughter of Professor Galiani, was Nino's girlfriend)
- Armando Galiani (doctor and son of Professor Galiani)
- Has a son named Marco with wife Isabella
Other characters
[edit]- Gino
- Bruno Soccavo
- Franco Mari
- Silvia
- Mirko, her son by Nino Sarratore
Adaptations
[edit]My Brilliant Friend, a two-part, five-and-a-half-hour stage adaptation of the Neapolitan Novels, opened at the Rose Theatre, Kingston in March 2017.[5] The play was adapted by April De Angelis, directed by Melly Still, and starred Niamh Cusack as Lenu and Catherine McCormack as Lila.[31]
A 32-part television series The Neapolitan Novels is also in the works and will be co-produced by the Italian producer Wildside for Fandango Productions, with screenwriting led by the writer Francesco Piccolo.[32] On 30 March 2017, it was announced that HBO and RAI would broadcast the first eight episodes which are an adaptation of My Brilliant Friend, the first of the four Neapolitan Novels,[33] and they premiered on HBO on 18 November 2018.[34]
The series was also adapted for radio, produced by Pier for BBC Radio 4 and first broadcast in July 2016. [35]
Bibliography
[edit]- L'amica geniale (2011; English translation: My Brilliant Friend, 2012). OCLC 778419313.
- Storia del nuovo cognome, L'amica geniale volume 2 (2012; English translation: The Story of a New Name, 2013). OCLC 829451619.[36]
- Storia di chi fugge e di chi resta, L'amica geniale volume 3 (2013; English translation: Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, 2014). OCLC 870919836.
- Storia della bambina perduta, L'amica geniale volume 4 (2014; English translation: The Story of the Lost Child, 2015). OCLC 910239891.
References
[edit]- ^ Ahmed, Fatema (28 April 2015). "Taking off the mask: Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels". The New Humanist. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
- ^ Jenny Turner, "The Secret Sharer. Elena Ferrante's existential fiction", Harper's Magazine, October 2014.
- ^ "Reclusive Author Elena Ferrante Talks 'My Brilliant Friend' HBO Adaptation". The Hollywood Reporter. 16 October 2018.
- ^ Wood, James (21 January 2013). "Women on the Verge: The fiction of Elena Ferrante". The New Yorker. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
- ^ a b Vincent, Alice (3 October 2016). "First stage adaptation of Elena Ferrante's novels announced in wake of identity scandal". The Telegraph.
- ^ ""Neapolitan Quartet" is an immersive look at a female friendship". The Dartmouth. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
- ^ Pericoli, Matteo (17 April 2017). "Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend". The Paris Review. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
- ^ "Los Angeles Review of Books". Los Angeles Review of Books. 29 September 2015. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
- ^ a b O'Rourke, Meghan (31 October 2014). "Elena Ferrante: the global literary sensation nobody knows". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
- ^ a b Robinson, Roxana (5 September 2014). "Between Women". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
- ^ Meghan O'Rourke (31 October 2014). "Elena Ferrante: the global literary sensation nobody knows". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
- ^ Fischer, Molly (4 September 2014). "Elena Ferrante and the Force of Female Friendships". The New Yorker.
- ^ VIDA (16 August 2016). "Report from the Field: A Working-Class Academic on Loving Elena Ferrante • VIDA: Women in Literary Arts". VIDA: Women in Literary Arts. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
- ^ a b Hill, Katherine (29 January 2020). "The Elena Ferrante in My Head". The Paris Review. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
- ^ a b "The Historical Truth Behind Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels". Time. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
- ^ Malla, Pasha (8 September 2014). "A Counter-Melody". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
- ^ Guardian Staff (21 September 2019). "The 100 best books of the 21st century". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
- ^ "100 Best Books of the 21st Century (So Far)". Vulture (New York Magazine). 17 September 2018. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
- ^ "The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century".
- ^ Schappel, Elissa (27 August 2015). "The Mysterious, Anonymous Author Elena Ferrante on the Conclusion of Her Neapolitan Novels". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
- ^ Cohen, Roger. "The Violent World of Elena Ferrante | Roger Cohen". ISSN 0028-7504. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
- ^ Franich, Darren (15 November 2019). "Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels are the best book series of the decade". EW.com. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
- ^ Shulevitz, Judith (12 September 2015). "The Hypnotic Genius of Elena Ferrante". The Atlantic. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
- ^ Corregan, Maureen (10 September 2015). "'Lost Child' Wraps Up Ferrante's Neapolitan Series With 'Perfect Devastation'". NPR. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
- ^ "My Brilliant Friend". International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Archived from the original on 22 July 2015.
- ^ "'Anonymous' author on international Man Booker longlist". BBC News. 10 March 2016. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
- ^ "BBC World Service - Weekend, Man Booker Shortlist: Translating Elena Ferrante". BBC News. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
- ^ Bernofsky, Susan (10 October 2016). "2016 ALTA Translation Prizes Announced". TRANSLATIONiSTA. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
- ^ Harnett, Emily (3 July 2016). "The Subtle Genius of Elena Ferrante's Bad Book Covers". The Atlantic. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
- ^ Krule, Miriam (28 August 2015). ""Dressing a Refined Story With a Touch of Vulgarity": An Interview With Elena Ferrante's Art Director". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
- ^ Billington, Michael (14 March 2017). "My Brilliant Friend review – triumphant staging of Elena Ferrante's quartet". The Guardian.
- ^ Moylan, Brian (9 February 2016). "Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels set for TV adaptation". The Guardian.
- ^ Vivarelli, Nick (30 March 2017). "HBO, Rai to Adapt Elena Ferrante's 'My Brilliant Friend' as Drama Series". Variety.
- ^ Roxborough, Scott (3 September 2018). "HBO's Big Italian Bet With 'My Brilliant Friend'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
- ^ "BBC Radio 4 Extra Elena Ferrante The Neapolitan Novels". BBC News. Retrieved 18 September 2020.
- ^ Luzzi, Joseph (27 September 2013). "It Started in Naples: Elena Ferrante's 'Story of a New Name'". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
External links
[edit]- Elena Ferrante website page on My Brilliant Friend
- Elena Ferrante website page on The Story of a New Name
- Elena Ferrante website page on Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
- English-language website dedicated to the Neapolitan Novels
- "Elena Ferrante, Art of Fiction No. 228." Interviewed by Sandro and Sandra Ferri. Paris Review. Spring 2015. No. 212.
- "Elena Ferrante's Naples: A Visual Promenade." Le Nouvel Observateur, October 28, 2016. A tour of the novels' Neapolitan settings.
- "Elena Ferrante's Naples: a photo essay" The Guardian, November 7, 2017.