> Skip to content
  • Published: 1 December 2020
  • ISBN: 9780241472859
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 112
  • RRP: $16.99

The Narrative of Trajan's Column




When the last fire goes out, time too will be finished

Taken from his Collection of Sand, these marvelous essays are not great ideas in themselves but commentaries on great ideas and the physical remains they have left behind them: astonishing objects and human-made places which have encapsulated different senses of wonder and desire. The essays range from fire-temples to world-changing maps, from automata to ancient cities. And, not least, the great enigma that has sat at the heart of Rome for some 1,900 years: Trajan's Column.

  • Published: 1 December 2020
  • ISBN: 9780241472859
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 112
  • RRP: $16.99

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

See all
penguin pop image
penguin pop image