Giorgio Scerbanenco

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Giorgio Scerbanenco

Giorgio Scerbanenco (born Vladimir Šerbanenko , Russian Владимир Щербаненко, Ukrainian Володимир Щербаненко) (* 28. June 1911 in Kiev ; † 27. October 1969 in Milan ) was an Italian writer and journalist of Ukrainian descent , of an important representative of the Italian detective novel ( Giallo ) applies.

biography

Life and literary work

Giorgio Scerbanenco was born in Kiev in 1911 to a Ukrainian Latin and Greek teacher and an Italian. When the Russian Revolution broke out , his mother fled with him to her hometown Rome . Both returned to Ukraine in 1919, where they learned that their father, who was in the tsarist civil service, had been shot by students during the revolution as an alleged " counter-revolutionary ". After spending several years in a refugee camp in Odessa , they both emigrated to Milan in 1927. After his mother's death two years later, economic hardship forced Scerbanenco to drop out of school without ever having completed elementary school. In the following years he worked as a lathe operator , ambulance driver and accountant . Scerbanenco married in 1930, but his marriage fell into crisis soon after the birth of a second son.

After separation, the beginning of the 1930s secured him work as a proofreader , reporter and editor at the time major women's magazines to livelihood : In 1931 he published the first story in a magazine, since 1934 he worked full time as a journalist. From 1931 to 1943 he wrote for the women's magazines Piccola and Novella serial novels , mostly romance novels .

From 1940 Scerbanenco began to write novels under pseudonyms for the Supergiallo Mondadori series . In his first detective novel Sei giorni di preavviso ("With six days notice") from 1941 he invented the character Arthur Jelling , the archivist for the Boston police . In addition to three other Arthur Jelling novels, Scerbanenco wrote a few articles for the Corriere della Sera during the Second World War . Although he saw Italian as his mother tongue , he suffered from being perceived as a "stranger". After the armistice of Cassibile on September 8, 1943, he found refuge in Switzerland . During this time he wrote novels that were shaped by his gloomy mood. Despite obviously difficult living conditions, he continued his work for the Italian magazine Novelissima before, after his return to Italy in 1945, he founded the weekly women's magazine Bella together with Angelo Rizzoli and, in addition to this, also ran the women's magazine Novella until the 1960s . He also worked for the weekly newspaper Annabella , for which he wrote some short stories and serial novels and was responsible for the letters to the editor La posta di Adrian , which was very popular with the female audience. In addition to the detective novels that were printed in La Stampa and the Sunday edition of Corriere della Sera , Scerbanenco wrote numerous cinema scripts . At the beginning of the sixties he moved to Lignano Sabbiadoro with his new partner, with whom he had two daughters .

Scerbanenco earned literary success and literary recognition with the crime novels written around the same time about the young doctor Duca Lamberti , who was sentenced to three years in prison after his license to practice medicine was withdrawn for actively assisting a terminally ill woman . The released Lamberti becomes a private detective who works with the Milan police headquarters in Via Fatebenefratelli, especially with Commissioner Carrua, who comes from Sardinia . The Duca Lamberti novels, the first title of which was Venere privata ( The girl from Milan , also: Leichte Mädchen die Schwerer ) appeared in 1966, earned their author an international reputation, not least thanks to several film adaptations . For Traditori di tutti ( The betrayed , also: Killed twice is better / Death to the conspirators ), the second Duca Lamberti novel, Scerbanenco received the important French literary prize Grand prix de littérature policière in the category “Best Foreign Novel” in 1968 .

Giorgio Scerbanenco died of a heart attack the following year, at the height of his literary work in Milan.

effect

Giorgio Scerbanenco was an extraordinarily productive and versatile writer who worked in different genres of narrative literature: Western , science fiction , romance, even if the crime novel established its reputation as one of the most important authors in this genre . Until the end of the 1970s he was considered the uncrowned king among Italian crime writers and as padre del noir all'italiana , as the "father of Italian Roman noir ". He was one of the first to use direct language to express and describe criminal jargon and milieu, his style is characterized by dialogues , action and interaction of the protagonists as well as unexpected turns of the plot. Scerbanenco manages to create an atmosphere with naturalness, a certain mood without detailed descriptions: the actions are characterized by a straightforward and merciless process, without complacency or outbursts of emotion. His characters appear authentic when, tormented by their feelings, they tremble, love, hate and die on a few pages.

Scerbanenco's novels and short stories can still be read today like a moving and bitter cross-section of Italy in the sixties, revealing an uncomfortable, depraved image that one is afraid to perceive in a sobering way, far from what is embellished in memory and shining image of Italy, which is often marked by the years of the Italian economic boom at the time: Giorgio Scerbanenco reports on the contradictions of Italy as they still exist today, thirty years later: the Italy of the poor swallowers, the outsiders, the crazy and the indifferent; the Italy of a new and absurdly brutal crime that knows no fear and no shame; the Italy of political cover maneuvers and cover-up. ( Carlo Lucarelli ) In this way, Scerbanenco's best novels can be read like his biography: they are full of unexpected twists, shaped by an incorruptible character, and with a happy ending in which triumph and bitterness are balanced .

Works

"Duca Lamberti" novels

"Nuovo Messico" novels

  • Il grande incanto (Milan: Rizzoli, 1948)
  • La mia ragazza di Magdalena (Milan: Rizzoli, 1949)
  • Luna messicana (Milan: Rizzoli, 1949)
  • Innamorati (Milan: Rizzoli, 1951; alternative title: Rossa , Palermo: Sellerio )

Other novels

  • Gli uomini in grigio (1935)
  • Il terzo amore (Milan: Rizzoli, 1938)
  • Il paese senza cielo (Rome: Alberti, 1939)
  • Sei giorni di preavviso (Milan: Mondadori , 1940)
  • La bambola cieca (Milan: Mondadori, 1941)
  • Nessuno è colpevole (Milan: Mondadori, 1941)
  • L'amore torna semper (Milan: Sacse, 1941)
  • Oltre la felicità (Milan: Sacse, 1941)
  • Quattro cuori nel buio (Milan: Sacse, 1941)
  • È passata un'illusione (Milan: Sacse, 1942)
  • Il cane che parla (Milan: Mondadori, 1942)
  • Cinema delle ragazze (1942)
  • Fine del mondo (1942)
  • Infedeli innamorati (1942)
  • L'antro dei filosofi (Milan: Mondadori, 1942)
  • Cinque in bicicletta (Milan: Mondadori, 1943)
  • Il bosco dell'inquietudine (1943)
  • Si vive bene in due (Milan: Mondadori, 1943)
  • La notte è buia (1943)
  • L'isola degli idealisti (1942)
  • Viaggio in Persia (1942)
  • Tecla e Rosellina (1944; Palermo: Sellerio, 2007)
  • Il mestiere di uomo (1944; Turin: Aragno 2006)
  • Annalisa e il passaggio a level (1944; Palermo: Sellerio 2007)
  • Il cavallo venduto (Milan: Rizzoli, 1944)
  • Lupa in convento (Theoria, 1944)
  • Johanna della foresta (Milan: Rizzoli, 1945)
  • Le spie non devono amare (Milan: Garzanti, 1945)
  • Luna di miele (Milan: Baldini & Castoldi, 1945)
  • Non rimanere soli (B. Gnocchi, 1947)
  • Ogni donna è ferita (Milan: Rizzoli, 1947)
  • Quando ameremo un angelo (Milan: Rizzoli, 1948)
  • La sposa del falco (Milan: Rizzoli, 1949)
  • Luna messicana (Milan: Rizzoli, 1949)
  • Al mare con la ragazza (Milan: Garzanti, 1950)
  • Anime senza cielo (Milan: Rizzoli, 1950)
  • I giorni contati (Milan: Rizzoli, 1952)
  • Il fiume verde (Milan: Rizzoli, 1952, serial from Annabella , born 1952)
  • Il nostro volo è breve (Milan: Rizzoli, 1952, serial from Annabella , born 1951)
  • Amata fino all'alba (Milan: Rizzoli, 1953)
  • Appuntamento a Trieste (Milan: Rizzoli, 1953)
  • Uomini e colombe (Milan: Rizzoli, 1953, serial from Annabella , born 1953)
  • Desidero soltanto (Milan: Rizzoli, 1954, serial from Annabella , born 1953)
  • La mano nuda (Milan: Rizzoli, 1954)
  • Mio adorato nessuno (Milan: Rizzoli, 1955)
  • I diecimila angeli (Milan: Rizzoli, 1956)
  • La ragazza dell'addio (Milan: Rizzoli, 1956)
  • Via dei poveri amori (Milan: Rizzoli, 1956)
  • Cristina che non visse (Milan: Rizzoli, 1957)
  • Elsa e l'ultimo uomo (Milan: Rizzoli, 1958)
  • Europa molto amore (Milan: Garzanti, 1958, serial from Annabella )
  • Il tramonto è domani (Milan: Rizzoli, 1958)
  • Noi due e nient'altro (Milan: Rizzoli, 1959)
  • Viaggio di nozze in grigio (Milan: Rizzoli, 1961)
  • La sabbia non ricorda (Milan: Rizzoli, 1963)
  • L'anaconda (La Tribuna, 1967)
  • Al servizio di chi mi vuole (Milan: Longanesi, 1970)
  • Le principesse di Acapulco (Milan: Garzanti, 1970)
  • Ladro contro assassino (Milan: Garzanti, 1971)
  • Né semper né mai (Milan: Sonzogno, 1974)
  • Dove il sole non sorrow mai (Milan: Garzanti, 1975)
  • Romanzo rosa (Milan: Rizzoli, 1985)

Stories and collections

  • Voce di Adrian (Milan: Rizzoli, 1956)
  • Milano Calibro 9 (Milan: Garzanti, 1969)
  • Il centodelitti (Milan: Garzanti, 1970)
  • I sette peccati capitali e le sette virtù capitali (Milan: Rizzoli, 1974)
  • La notte della tigre (Milan: Rizzoli, 1975)
  • I sette peccati capitali e le sette virtù capitali la notte della tigre (Milan: Rizzoli, 1977)
  • L'ala ferita dell'angelo (Milan: Rizzoli, 1976)
  • La vita in una pagina (Milan: Mondadori, 1989)
  • Il falcone e altri racconti inediti (Milan: Frassinelli, 1993)
  • Il Cinquecentodelitti (Milan: Frassinelli, 1994)
  • Cinque casi per l'investigatore Jelling (Milan: Frassinelli, 1995)
  • Millestorie (Milan: Frassinelli, 1996)
  • Storie dal futuro e dal passato (Milan: Frassinelli, 1997)
  • Basta col cianuro (Cartacanta, 2000)
  • Uccidere per amore (Palermo: Sellerio, 2002)
  • Racconti neri (Milan: Garzanti, 2005)
  • Uomini Ragno (Palermo: Sellerio, 2006)
  • Annalisa e il passaggio a level (Palermo: Sellerio, 2007)

Autobiographical narrative

  • Io, Vladimir Scerbanenko (Milan: Garzanti, 1966)

German translations

"Duca Lamberti" novels

  • The girl from Milan . Original title: Venere privata. Translated from the Italian by Christiane Rhein. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 2001.
earlier translation: easy girls die hard. Translated from the Italian by Eva Schönfeld. Scherz, Bern / Munich / Vienna 1969.
  • The betrayed . Original title: Traditori di tutti. Translated from the Italian by Christiane Rhein. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 2002.
earlier translation: Killed twice is better. From the Italian by Eugen Haas. Scherz, Bern / Munich / Vienna 1969 (also as Death to the Conspirators. Piper, Munich 1990).
  • The Lombard courier. Original title: I ragazzi del massacro. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 2002; NA Folio, Vienna / Bozen 2019
Earlier translation: Murder was not on the schedule. From the Italian by Eugen Haas. Scherz, Bern / Munich / Vienna 1971.
  • A dutiful murderer. Original title: I milanesi ammazzano al sabato. btb, Munich 2004.
Earlier translation: In Milan one murders on Saturdays. Translated from the Italian by Heinz Kausträter. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1977.

More translations

  • Too rich to live ( Luciana has disappeared , original title L'antro dei filosofi )
  • See Venice and die (original title La sabbia non ricorda )
  • Milan is being rebuilt (science fiction) (original title Il cavallo venduto )
  • Die with frozen fish / The Signorina without a revolver (Kriminalstories) (Original title Milano calibro 9 )
  • Amore without mercy / Beautiful gigolo, dead gigolo / The best of evil / A fine lady / By profession: criminal / Rififi in Italian (all translated partial editions from Il centodelitti )
  • On a cool day at five (original title Ladro contro assassino )
  • Funeral in Italian ( With the eyes of a dead , original title Al mare con la ragazza )
  • Deadly sins: abysmal stories of virtue and vice (original title I sette peccati e le sette virtú capitali )
  • The night of the tiger (original title La notte della tigre )

Film adaptations

documentary

The director Stefano Giulidori shot the documentary game Scerbanenco by Numbers in 2006 about Scerbanenco's life with interviews and contemporary witnesses , which was shown in a 30-minute version at the Noir in Festival in Courmayeur .

Radio play adaptations

  • The girl from Milan (MDR 2005, director: Leonhard Koppelmann )
  • The betrayed (MDR 2006, director: Leonhard Koppelmann)
  • The Lombard Courier " (MDR 2006, Director: Leonhard Koppelmann)
  • A conscientious murderer (MDR 2006, director: Leonhard Koppelmann)

Others

In 2007 the Garzanti publishing house published an anthology of short stories by some of the most famous Italian crime noir authors entitled Il ritorno del Duca (Duca's Return) , dedicated to Duca Lamberti, Scerbanenco's most famous character.

In 2018 an asteroid was named after Giorgio Scerbanenco: (49441) Scerbanenco .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Io, Vladimir Scerbanenko , racconto autobiografico, Milano, 1966
  2. ↑ See entry Giorgio Scerbanenco, http://mangialibri.com/?q=node/48 (accessed on November 3, 2008).
  3. ↑ See Luca Vitali: Giorgio Scerbanenco (L'autore del mese) , in: ADESSO 03/2006, p. 63.
  4. ↑ Carlo Lucarelli: Giorgio Scerbanenco - the father of the Italian crime novel. A literary rediscovery , archive link ( Memento from November 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (German translation by Carlo Lucarelli: Giorgio Scerbanenco - il padre del noir all'italiana , in: Pulp , September-October 1999).
  5. ^ Albrecht Buschmann: Euthanasia made easy . In: Die Welt February 16, 2002
  6. ↑ http://www.cinemaitaliano.info/scerbanencobynumbers
  7. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from June 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ MPC 109632 of March 31, 2018 (English)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Scerbanenco, Giorgio
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Šerbanenko, Vladimir (maiden name); Щербаненко, Владимир (maiden name, Russian); Щербаненко, Володимир (maiden name, Ukrainian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian writer and journalist of Ukrainian descent
DATE OF BIRTH June 28, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Kiev
DATE OF DEATH October 27, 1969
Place of death Milan