read it at Google Books
Love in Vain: Selected Stories of Federigo Tozzi is the debut short-story collection in English of one of Italy's most distinguished early modern writers. The twenty stories of Love in Vain were selected and translated by Minna Proctor, who received the 1998 PEN/Renato Poggioli Award for her then unpublished renderings of Tozzi's fiction. "The investigation of naturalism, of truth," writes Proctor in her biographical introduction, "defined Tozzi's poetics. Impassioned by literature, yet isolated from the mainstream, Tozzi found nothing so fascinating as the unfettered expression of the inner lives of normal people." His work is at once a mixture of subtlety and melodrama, of psychological perception, primitive emotion, and raw physical need, as his plain subjects, yearning for connection and love, forever grasp at the unattainable.
PEN award-winner Minna Proctor translated the 20 pieces by prolific Italian realist Federigo Tozzi (1883-1920) that make up Love in Vain: Selected Stories, in which the young characters' search for the romantic ideal often leads only to misery. Jealousy, obsession and betrayal are brought to the fore in these stories of smalltown lovers driven by their passions, trying desperately to connect usually without success. "What good does love do me?" one anguished character asks. Through the arranged marriages, secret trysts and unfulfilled desires, disappointment and frustration are never far off. - Publishers Weekly
"Federigo Tozzi, Italy's forgotten master of the short story, is a real discovery. I was delighted by the compassion and insight of Love in Vain, by its unflinching and subtle dissection of humankind's most private moments. How can such a powerful writer have slipped through the net and for so long? Now, thanks to Minna Proctor's elegant and equally subtle translations, it is unlikely that Tozzi will be forgotten again."― Jim Crace
"Federigo Tozzi's beautiful, strange love stories hover at the abyss, where reason meets unreason and loses. Tozzi must be the poet of abjection, a poet of the unconscious. His perplexing tales reflect on self-conscious characters caught in love's, and their own, absurdly needy net. They comment, too, on the moment when ideas were changing, sensibilities shifting, and his characters move, resistant and confused, from the Victorian into the modern. Translator Minna Proctor has done a wonderful job of realizing these startling stories in English and bringing them to us for the first time."― Lynne Tillman
"Ardent, impetuous, crackling with nerve-energies, Federigo Tozzi insists on his uniqueness. Minna Proctor has brought this full-throttle sensibility into English without a flinch or a fidget."― Sven Birkerts
We're living in the Golden Age of the Rediscovered Writer. Never before have so many worked so hard to republish the works of authors known to so few. From Dawn Powell to Paula Fox, from Charles Portis to Richard Yates, there's an inspiring -- or, depending on your point of view, sobering -- list of writers unjustly neglected in their own times and now enjoying a belated heyday.
Add to that number Federigo Tozzi, an Italian writer who died suddenly in 1920 at age 37, leaving behind five novels and 120 short stories. The stories collected here show off Tozzi's irresistible blend of stark realism and wild passion. His lovers love so hard it hurts; they wring every ounce of pleasure they can out of their simple lives, but they're also never far from a reckoning with disappointment, loss and other ugly realities.
These stories were written in the early 20th century, but their sexual frankness, along with a sort of adorable self-conscious neuroticism that afflicts many of the characters, make them seem strangely modern. - Maria Russo
https://www.salon.com/2001/06/11/recs_33/
A first English-language collection of 20 stories by an almost forgotten Italian writer (1883–1920), malcontent, fervent socialist, and effervescent romantic libertine. Translator Proctor’s illuminating introduction recounts the known facts of Tozzi’s checkered literary and sexual adventures, and links his “provincial realism” convincingly with the work of his contemporaries Italo Svevo and Luigi Pirandello and also (an obvious influence) Sicily’s Giovanni Verga. The stories themselves—simultaneously anecdotal, earthy, and psychologically astute—include such gems as two knowing depictions (in “First Love” and “The Lovers,” respectively) of the intricacies and absurdities of both adolescent and adult passion; a compact rustic tragedy precipitated by jealousy (“Assunta”); tales of marital mistrust, violence, and vengeance (“L’Amore,” “Poverty”) that might have come out of Boccaccio’s Decameron; and a masterly study of obsession (“The Clocks”). Best of all perhaps is “The Idiot”: here, the mind and heart of the emotionally helpless man-child Fiocco are portrayed with remarkable ingenuity—and compassion.
A first-class introduction to a wonderful writer. - Kirkus Reviews
Love in Vain is the belated introduction of Federigo Tozzi to the English-speaking world, one of the first translations of any of the works by this prolific and fairly well-known Italian author. The twenty stories collected here, spanning Tozzi's entire active writing life (1908 to 1920), are only a smattering of his output: there are a hundred more stories, as well as several novels, poetry, essays, plays, and a voluminous correspondence. This collection does, however, offer a good introduction to an author whose work has previously been inaccessible.
Tozzi's career was cut short by his early death (at age thirty-seven), but he had already written a great deal. He had had some success, publishing numerous stories, poetry, the collection of prose-miniatures, Bestie, and the novel Con gli occhi chiusi, and was an author clearly coming into his own, finally able to live off of his writing and devote himself completely to it. At the time of his death his novel, Tre croci, had just appeared, and he was correcting the proofs of his next novel, Il podere. Most of Tozzi's work was then published posthumously (though some, like the companion volumes to Bestie, the prose miniature collections Cose and Persone only some six decades after they were written), and the reception of it was probably cooler than had the promising author been alive and active. Still, he achieved some renown and, at least in Italy, is recognized as a leading literary figure of that time.
Minna Proctor's introduction offers a useful overview of Tozzi's life and career, as well as describing his unusual relationship with his wife, Emma (they "were more perfect epistolary lovers than they ever were married lovers"). Proctor notes "there is so much to explain about his artistic itinerary", but fortunately doesn't try to explain overmuch. She suggests the points of importance, and then lets the work speak for itself.
The stories are short (in this collection only the title story is longer than ten pages) and deceptively simple in appearance -- many short paragraphs (often only a single line) and a good deal of conversation. Exclamation and question marks are found all over. Lives are quickly sketched, their essence revealed in a few episodes.
The notion of "love in vain" is a central one: there are few happy loves or lives here. "But what is love ?" characters wonder, in these or other words. They look for it, and yet when they seem to have found it find less than the hoped for satisfaction in it. It isn't what they had imagined, and some want to be rid of it almost as soon as they find it. "But he wasn't in love with his wife anymore, and he wanted to leave" is a typical scenario in these stories.
The characters are often afraid of happiness, warily approaching it when it seems within grasp, handling it uneasily. "I love you. But we must never see each other again", seems a typical solution. Many of his characters have a great deal of difficulty in living at all (and death ends a number of these stories). Loneliness is pervasive -- "Franco Appesi was feeling more and more alone", begins The Miracle. Even where the opportunity to share one's loneliness is given, the characters are unable to take the necessary steps: the two women live in adjoining apartments in The Boardinghouse, for example, remain frustratingly unable to truly reach out to one another.
There are other miseries as well. A weak man, telling his own story in House for Sale allows himself to be taken advantage of and bullied, forsaking his past and everything that he has and wanting to be grateful for it: "I was sad", he says, as if unable to explain to himself why that should be. "I wanted to be happy." But Tozzi's characters rarely find happiness.
Despite the titles of some of the other stories -- Dead Man in the Oven, To Dream of Death, Vile Creatures, Poverty -- it is not simply a dark collection. There is poignancy here, throughout, with Tozzi baring these souls in simple, well-sketched, revealing scenes.
The incidents in these stories are often truly incidental -- and yet shattering in their consequences. A simple action, a few words -- but then nothing is the way it was before. A typical example is Tozzi's story Marito e moglie (not included in this collection), in which Enrica Landi goes shopping -- when she returns her husband, Vittorino, doesn't recognize her. It is a brief episode, a momentary lapse or feeling of madness that shook him to the quick; he regains his senses -- but can no longer love his wife. "It seems that only a few minutes were enough to alter their years of married life". It only seems that way -- here and in most of his stories Tozzi makes clear how much there is behind such seemingly sudden reversals and changes. He is particularly good at capturing and expressing that moment when these small and large worlds are turned upside down -- and the character's flailing recognition, trying to make sense of their own feelings and the worlds around them.
Tozzi presents his stories well, offering a variety of approaches and different tales. There are tales from the Italian countryside as well as more mystically inclined stories (including the quite remarkable story The Crucifix). They read well -- quick, moving, quite powerful. Stylistically they are accomplished (though he is too fond of the exclamation mark !). The unexpected twists and observations are very effective; only occasionally does he go too far.
One hopes that this is only the first of sliver of Tozzi to be presented in English, and that much more will follow. He is an author worth knowing and reading, and Love in Vain is a good introduction to his work.
https://www.complete-review.com/reviews/italia/tozzif.htm
Excerpt from Three Crosses:
The latter gave a grunt, swore, pulled down the brim of his hat and closed his eyes again. He was squatting in a chair, with his hands in his trouser-pockets and his head leaning against one of the shelves of the bookcase; near by was an antique wooden chest, covered with vases, china plates and paintings, kept there on view for strangers.
Federigo Tozzi (1883-1920) was a unique and isolated writer in turn of the century Italy. Born in Siena, he was the oldest of eight children, of whom only he and his sister lived to adulthood. The mother was afflicted with epilepsy, and the illness was passed on to most of the children. The dominant figure in the family was the father, also Federigo, who owned farm property but put all his efforts into running a trattoria, or restaurant. Young Federigo felt oppressed by his bossy father, and as a result played Bad Boy in school--aside from suffering periods of ill health. His turn to literature was almost an act of defiance, for the father wanted his son to take over the management of the trattoria not write books.
Seeking to escape from this trap he managed to get work with the railroad as a clerk--which resulted in one of his most famous novels, "Diary of a Clerk," 1910. But his first publications were of poetry, and made little impression. It was his novels that were considered more important. His late novel, "Three Crosses,' (in Italian, "Tre Croce") is somewhat of a melodrama about three brothers who try to run an antique shop, but are hopelessly incompetent at handling money. The portraits of the brothers are unforgettable, as well as the descriptions of Siena itself., It is a most unusual novel when compared to other works written at the same time, such as those of Pirandello and Palazzeschi. It is a great achievement for a writer whose life was so short, and who had such promise. - Philip Brantingham
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