Collection of Sand
  • Published: 21 August 2013
  • ISBN: 9780141193748
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 240
  • RRP: $22.99

Collection of Sand

Essays

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Calvino's fascinating and cerebral collection of essays celebrating all aspects of the visual, translated for the first time and new to Penguin Modern Classics

Italo Calvino claimed that 'the brain begins in the eye'. The essays collected here display his fascination with the visual universe, in which the things we see tell a truth about the world. With encyclopedic knowledge and engaging curiosity, Calvino writes about such diverse subjects as the imaginative pleasures of maps, bizarre exhibitions and the earliest forms of written language. Books and paintings provoke discussions of artistic motivation, while descriptions of a meticulous Japanese garden, Trajan's column crumbling to dust or a Mexican temple smothered by the jungle lead to contemplations on space, time and civilization. Surprising and profound, Collection of Sand provides a glimpse into the mind of a master of the magination.
  • Published: 21 August 2013
  • ISBN: 9780141193748
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 240
  • RRP: $22.99
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About the author

Italo Calvino

Italo Calvino was born in Cuba in 1923 and grew up in Italy. He was an essayist and journalist and a member of the editorial staff of Einaudi in Turin. One of the most respected writers of the twentieth century, his best-known works of fiction include Invisible Cities, If on a Winter's Night a Traveller, Marcovaldo and Mr Palomar. In 1973 he won the prestigious Premio Feltrinelli. He died in 1985. A collection of Calvino's posthumous personal writings, The Hermit in Paris, was published in 2003.

Also by Italo Calvino

Last Comes the Raven
Cosmicomics
The Narrative of Trajan's Column
The Baron in the Trees
The Distance of the Moon
The Written World and the Unwritten World
Letters 1941-1985
See all

Praise for Collection of Sand

A brilliant collection that may change the way you see the world around you

Guardian

A pleasure . . . offers new glimpses into the mind of the great writer while also reminding us of Calvino's insatiable curiosity

Independent

A delight, these essays are distinguished by a sly philosophic humour and whimsy

Spectator