2021-12-14
Essays on fiction, reality, and identity from an elusive novelist.
In 2020, Ferrante had written three lectures to present, but the pandemic lockdown led to the cancellation of public events. As Europa president Sandra Ozzola writes in the introduction, “in November 2021 the actress Manuela Mandracchia, in the guise of Elena Ferrante, presented the lectures.” Separately, another Ferrante essay “was read by the scholar and critic Tiziana de Rogatis.” All four offer candid reflections on Ferrante’s development as a writer. Growing up in what she calls a “literary patrimony,” she at first tried to imitate men’s works. Gradually, she realized that, as a woman, her challenge was “to learn to use with freedom the cage we’re shut up in.” Among the many writers who have shaped her work, Ferrante cites Virginia Woolf, who inspired her to think about her authorial self as a plurality, and Gertrude Stein, whose book The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas deftly subverted the autobiographical genre. Ferrante discloses the “passion for real things” that informed her early efforts: “I modeled characters on people I’d known or knew. I noted gestures, ways of speaking, as I saw and heard them. I described landscapes, and the way the light passed over them. I reproduced social dynamics, settings that were economically and culturally far apart. Despite my uneasiness, I let dialect have its space.” But she came to recognize that creating a sense of reality “was a game of illusion,” and fiction is indelibly etched with an author’s identity. “I can recount ‘out there’ only if I also recount the me who is ‘out there’ along with all the rest,” she writes. Ferrante offers insights about her complex protagonists, including Lila and Lenu, in her Neapolitan novels, and the first-person narrator of her most recent novel, The Lying Life of Adults, which she conceived as a story “in which you don’t know who the woman-character writing is.”
Enticing glimpses into a writer’s life. Let’s hope for a full-length memoir one day.
Incandescent... In the Margins is a philosophical monograph on the nature of writing.”—Molly Young, The New York Times
“In these four pitch-perfect essays, the doyenne of Italian literature pores over her toolbox, discovering that reinvention is the name of her game... An essential read for all aspiring writers.”—Oprah Daily, A Most Anticipated Book of 2022
“Razor-sharp... A candid look into Ferrante’s development of not only her craft, but also her life-long passion for literature.”—TIME Magazine, A Most Anticipated Book of 2022
★ “Four essays illuminate the mind of Ferrante in this dazzling collection... The author’s legions of fans are in for a treat.”—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
★ “These brilliant essays not only provide insights into other great writers and their work but into Ferrante’s own work as well, and will be appreciated by her many followers as well as scholars and general readers.”—Library Journal (Starred Review)
“The essays of In the Margins are illuminating and beguiling as they peek into the literary craft of a writer at the height of her powers.”—ForeWord Reviews
“Ferrante offers insights about her complex protagonists and enticing glimpses into a writer’s life.”—Kirkus Reviews
“A vivid and concise introduction to effective writing for students and professionals alike... This book is a true treasure and could provide an important guide for other marginalized writers looking for their own voices.”—New York Journal of Books
“Invoking the digressive literature of humours by Diderot and Sterne, the writer identifies the models of that impetuous style struggling against the margins of the written page.”—World Literature Today
“An intimate self-portrait and an essential read.”—A.V. Club, A Most Anticipated Book of 2022
“Lucid, well-formed, captivating... Every essay here is a blend of deep thought, rigorous analysis and graceful prose.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Engaging, slyly disruptive... As writers and readers, Ferrante suggests, we will always be at once united with and separate from the people, language, literature, and culture we inhabit, inherit, and create.”—Air Mail
“An unmistakable triumph.”—Asymptote Journal
“In these wise and vigorous pieces examining Ferrante's lifetime spent reading and writing—and what it has meant to do these things as a woman....There are gems aplenty... A slim but formidable book.”—Booklist
“An ode to reading and writing... In the Margins illuminates the themes that characterise [Ferrante’s] novels: intense female friendships, mother-daughter relationships and betrayal.”—Financial Times
“If you’ve recently thrilled to the adaptation of ‘The Lost Daughter,’ these four new essays by the Neapolitan author will keep the thrill going.”—Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times
