{"product_id":"the-bewitched-bourgeois-dino-buzzati-9781681378671","title":"The Bewitched Bourgeois: Fifty Stories","description":"\u003cb\u003ePoe and Kafka meet \u003ci\u003eThe Twilight Zone\u003c\/i\u003e in this anthology of fifty fantastical tales, many of them reflecting the political and social energies of the time, by an Italian master of the short story.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe modern Italian writer Dino Buzzati wrote a huge body of short fiction, several hundred pieces, spanning a forty-year period. They offer a remarkable inventory of fantastic premises and tropes, international in the reach of their geographical settings, at times commenting on Italian issues but usually reflecting the worldwide horrors, catastrophes, and fanaticisms that characterized the twentieth century. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA journalist for much of his life, Buzzati was adept at turning current events into fantasies that depicted social and political nightmares. He challenged the ideological complacencies of his era in accessible stories that solicit the reader's vicarious response, mixing sentiment, humor, and tragedy. Here Poe and Kafka meet Rod Serling's \u003ci\u003eThe Twilight Zone\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eLawrence Venuti presents a retrospective anthology that ranges from Buzzati's first publications to texts written as he was dying of cancer. Buzzati's own book-length selections are sampled, so that previously untranslated stories join new versions of classics like \"Seven Floors,\" an absurdist tale of a patient fatally caught in hospital bureaucracy; \"Panic at La Scala,\" where, fearful of a left-wing revolution, the Milanese bourgeoisie are imprisoned at the opera house; and \"Appointment with Einstein,\" in which the scientist encounters a gas station attendant who is the Angel of Death. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eVenuti's crisp translations re-create Buzzati's technique of making the fantastic seem frighteningly plausible, establishing unreal worlds that disrupt dominant notions of what is real. \u003ci\u003eThe Bewitched Bourgeois\u003c\/i\u003e is a definitive gathering of Buzzati's work in short fiction.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Dino Buzzati\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1681378671\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781681378671\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e New York Review of Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/07\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 368\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.81lbs","brand":"Dino Buzzati","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46199236919551,"sku":"9781681378671","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_e1aa442f-dbad-4329-a256-d5958c62183e.jpg?v=1727925459","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-bewitched-bourgeois-dino-buzzati-9781681378671","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}