Invisible Cities (Vintage Classics)
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Review
'The most beautiful of his books throws up ideas, allusions, and breathtaking imaginative insights on almost every page. Each time he returns from his travels, Marco Polo is invited by Kublai Khan to describe the cities he has visited...Although he makes Marco Polo summon up many cities for the Khan's imagination to feed on, Calvino is describing only one city in this book. Venice, that decaying heap of incomparable splendour, still stands as substantial evidence of man's ability to create something perfect out of chaos' Paul Bailey Times Literary Supplement
Observer
‘Whole chapters of unforced poetic prose in which insight and fantasy are perfectly matched…an exquisite world’
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
31 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A book that describes every imaginery city, every city that you have ever visited, every city that you have ever wanted to visit or imagine, or the city you have come from which you wish to be as you imagined it to be...this is a book about the language of the imagination, a book of cities as pychological states, physical states, sensory states...A book about descriptions ? Yes. But descriptions that have a transcendant quality. Not much narrative ? True, but yet they contain fragments of narrative that have an extraordinary quality, about place, and what place means to us all. Calvino was a truely great novelist, one of the great European novelists of this century, on par with Beckett..yet less bleak, no less universal. This is one, if not the best, of his "books". If you like this also try "If on an invisible night" and "Mr Paloma".
If you like to combine "thought-provoking" with sensual - a very unusual and wonderful combination.
If you like to combine "thought-provoking" with sensual - a very unusual and wonderful combination.
40 of 42 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is a masterpiece for me. It accompanied me throughout a long journey that I took in Europe in the past. It is written in a poetic way that makes you think, reflect and enter into the fantastic world of the invisible cities of Kublai Khan's empire, created by Calvino. Marco Polo works for the Khan. He has to visit many towns of the Mongolian empire so that later he can share his impressions with the great Khan. This is mainly because the empire is so big that Kublai Khan would never be able to visit all towns of his empire.
Each chapter has the name of a town, which is described by Marco Polo. In addition, there are many dialogs between Kublai Khan and Marco Polo that are, in my point of view, the most exciting part of the book. The dialogs are so intelligent and stimulating that I read some of them many times. They can trigger our natural curiosity about the way we see things around us, the future, the past, the present, etc. It is a book to be read in a slow pace so we can reflect upon each part. It helped me to slow down my frequently rushed rhythm of life. How conscious are we while we write the pages of our lives?
Each chapter has the name of a town, which is described by Marco Polo. In addition, there are many dialogs between Kublai Khan and Marco Polo that are, in my point of view, the most exciting part of the book. The dialogs are so intelligent and stimulating that I read some of them many times. They can trigger our natural curiosity about the way we see things around us, the future, the past, the present, etc. It is a book to be read in a slow pace so we can reflect upon each part. It helped me to slow down my frequently rushed rhythm of life. How conscious are we while we write the pages of our lives?
27 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Before reading this novel, you must note one thing - there is no plot whatsoever. Despite what the blurb says about Marco Polo and Kublai Khan, that is simply a framework, a structure to hold a series of highly impressionistic descriptions of cities together. The book covers a remarkable range of ideas - death, life, religion and relationships to name but four. However, the lack of plot does not make it any less worthwhile nor any less literary - the prose is lush and poetic, lucid and evocative, and it would be hard not to be captivated by Calvino's remarkable style. Inventive, enlessly imaginative, extremely experimental, Calvino created a beautiful and memorable book - in effect, Calvino wrote the plotless novel.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Fascinating book!
I had to buy this book for a university creative writing course, and I have to say I'm a total convert to Italo Calvino and will be looking out for his other books when I'm done... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Isobel
I think I missed the point on this one
First off, I love Calvino. If on a winters night ... is a masterpiece!
Unfortunately, I just couldn't see the point in this one, which is not to say I got nothing out of... Read more
Unfortunately, I just couldn't see the point in this one, which is not to say I got nothing out of... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mike N
Completely Beautiful
Invisible Cities is an utter masterpiece. Very nearly completely plotless, simply a collection of short passages describing fifty-five Fantastic cities, framed by the dialogue... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Monday!
Poetic and thought-provoking
This book is inspired by Marco Polo's travel in the Orient, and his encounter with the Great Khan.
It is a succession of city portraits, all different and discrete, but... Read more
It is a succession of city portraits, all different and discrete, but... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Artsreadings
Cities of the mind
"Kublai Khan does not necessarily believe everything Marco Polo says when he describes the cities visited on his expeditions, but the emperor of the Tartars does continue... Read more
Published 9 months ago by E. A Solinas
Explorations of unreal places.
A world-weary Kublai Khan seeks news of his sprawling empire from his travelling ambassador Marco Polo. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Jason Mills
cover
Content is the same, but the cover is black with color writtings. so dont expect to get the one is advertised - cream color cover. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Viki
Invisible cities review
i really loved the book, its very easy to read, and very imaginative and fictional. it travels you away to another world. definitely one of my favourites
Published 18 months ago by marimou
For the daydreaming traveller
I am only partway through Invisible Cities but, because I am a bit of an odd ball, I decided to type it into google and see what people had to say about it (you know theories,... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Mother Moon
Innovative, and often beautiful, but somehow didn't work for me
I thought I would have liked this more than I did. I like most of Calvino's books, and in this one the writing is absolutely beautiful, the observations on cities are clever and... Read more
Published on 28 April 2010 by Andrew Blackman
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