Elio Vittorini, a towering figure of twentieth-century Italian literature, started working on what would become his most famous novel,

[Conversation in Sicily], in September of 1937. By this time, he had long left his native Sicily and was on the verge of making a big move from Florence to Milan, the center of Italy’s rapidly developing publishing industry. At the age of thirty, Vittorini was a fully formed intellectual with very clear antifascist views and a deep love for American literature (Hemingway, Faulkner, et al.) that would greatly influence his future writings.

was originally published in installments (from April 1938 until April 1939) in the literary magazine

. The novel then appeared as a book in 1941 in a limited…

3144 words

Citation: Mazzola, Claudio. "Conversazione in Sicilia". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 April 2022 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=40571, accessed 21 November 2024.]