The baron in the trees
The Baron on the Trees (Italian original title Il barone rampante ) is a novel by the Italian writer Italo Calvino from 1957. In German, the novel was first published in 1960 in translation by Oswalt von Nostitz at S. Fischer Verlag in Frankfurt am Main. Together with The Divided Visconte (1952) and The Knight Who Did n't Exist (1959), The Baron on the Trees forms the trilogy "Our Ancestors" by Calvino.
action
The life story of the baron in the trees, namely Cosimo Piovasco di Rondò, is told by his brother Biagio, who is four years his junior. The brothers come from a lower aristocratic family in Liguria who rule over the small, densely forested village of Ombrosa near the Mediterranean coast. On June 15, 1767, twelve-year-old Cosimo refuses to accept lunch - a disgusting snail dish - prepared by his older sister Battista, which causes his father's annoyance. Then Cosimo gets up from the family table and climbs the trees. Until his death more than 50 years later, he will not leave the trees, although his stay there is initially considered by his relatives to be short-lived. A few days later, his father tried to force him down from the trees, but the family finally tolerated his life there.
In the course of time Cosimo worked with various philosophers and corresponded with them, entered into several love affairs and fought with Jesuits , pirates and the Austrian army. He also enters into relationships with the Freemasons and befriends a well-known robber. Napoleon Bonaparte , who had heard of the baron in the trees, also pays him a visit. Cosimo's love life is also turbulent, and it is mainly characterized by a changeable and repeatedly interrupted relationship with the beautiful aristocratic Viola . She, who is adored by numerous men, feels strongly drawn to Cosimo, but does not want to share his life in the trees in the long term.
When Cosimo finally becomes weaker in the years after the Napolean Wars and finally lies dying, he grabs the rope of a balloon that accidentally slips past. His body is not found, apparently he fell into the nearby sea without having set foot on the ground again. In the end, the narrator sums up that the old ombrosa is no longer and the area, which was once characterized by dense tree growth, has now been severely cleared.
reception
Next to When a Traveler on a Winter's Night (1979), The Baron in the Trees is Calvino's most commercially successful work. The novel is seen as an example of the Conte philosophique , a fictional work that deals strongly with philosophy. So served Candide by Voltaire , whose name also repeatedly falls in the novel as inspiration for Calvino.
The Italian motorsport team Il Barone Rampante named itself after the title of the novel.
Adaptations
Children's book version
As early as 1961, Calvino published a version of his novel designed for children, in which, among other things, he left out the more erotic passages and the aging of Cosimo. In German, Calvino's version for children was published by Ravensburger Verlag in 1993 with illustrations by Rotraut Susanne Berner .
Further adaptations
Based on a book by Thomas Fritz , a radio play version was created in 1998 at SWR under the direction of Stefan Dutt.
Individual evidence
- ^ McLaughlin, Martin L .: Italo Calvino , Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 1998. ISBN 0-7486-0917-2
- ↑ Calvino's "Baron on the Trees" as a children's book: Astreiner classic . In: ZEIT ONLINE . ( zeit.de [accessed on September 24, 2018]).
- ↑ ARD audio game database. Retrieved September 27, 2018 .