How
would you like it, when a youngy nobleman of very high rank, suddenly, one fine
day, climbs up and up, higher and higher into the trees as an act of rebellion
and never ever decides to come back down to the earth?
There’s
this young Italian nobleman by name Cosimo, who nests himself comfortably
within the branches of hugey trees, and then - surprise of surprises - resolves
to be perched there amongst the trees, the rest of his entire life!
From
here, settled amongst the branches of the trees, he does a soulful connect with
the great minds of the Enlightenment with vigor and gusto, and towards the end
of his life, steps onto a better, wiser and higher plane.
Interestingly,
Calvino, oops Cosimo ;-) comes up with wonderfully unique and ingenious answers
to the pressing problems of humankind such as food, hygiene, clothing,
friendship, etc.
Although
superficially the story might look weird, there’s a wonderful thread of
enriching philosophy or ecosophy that runs deep through its storyline.
Although
he’s now a man so confined to the branches of the wildest of trees, he is still
able to get the most revolutionary of thoughts and ideas, thanks to the books!
In fact, Calvino portrays Cosimo’s whole
life has being guided passionately by three things: books and books and books!
Some
of the descriptions found at the beginning of the book are so throbbing with
the solace and the luxuries of Nature: on the nature of each tree, the animals,
the sounds and scents.
The
young baron’s resolve to lead an arboreal existence, makes him one of the most
believable characters in the entire gamut of world literature. The alternate
reality that enthralls the reader skyhigh with such intense wisdom, connecting
so subtly with memory, history and nature, is unique and so one of its kind!
A few excerpty lovely lines from the text
for us all -
On
a fig tree, though, as long as he saw to it that a branch could bear his
weight, he could move about forever; Cosimo would stand under the pavilion of
leaves, watching the sun appear through the network of twigs and branches, the
gradual swell of the green fruit, smelling the scent of flowers budding in the
stalks. The fig tree seemed to absorb him, permeate him with its gummy texture
and the buzz of hornets; after a little Cosimo would begin to feel he was
becoming a fig tree himself, and move away, uneasy.
Now for the delightful review by MD
Sollars!
The
Baron in the Trees | Italo Calvino | 1957
Published first in Italian in 1957 and
translated into English in 1959, The Baron in the Trees is an
enchanting novel by ITALO CALVINO.
Because of the book’s mixture of fantasy
and allegory, The Baron in the Trees
is viewed by many readers to be among Calvino’s best work.
The author is often regarded as one of
the best fiction writers in Italian in the latter half of the 20th
century.
The
Baron in the Trees is, in fact, part of a trilogy of books
that also includes The Cloven Viscount and The Nonexistent Knight. These three
tales were published collectively under the title Our Ancestors.
The books were inspired by Ludovico
Ariosto’s mock epic Orlando Furioso (1516), which satirizes the chivalric
conventions of the Middle Ages.
The Baron in the Trees,
however, does not take the Middle Ages as its time period, but rather the
Enlightenment of the 18th century.
The book bears witness to the passing of
this Age of Reason and Enlightenment and the time of Voltaire, a figure with
whom the narrator of the book converses during a visit to Paris.
The novel is not so much about this
narrator, who admits the limits of his narrative ability, as it is about his
brother, Cosimo Piovasco di Rondo—the
baron of the book’s title.
It opens with the definitive event in
Cosimo’s life: On June 15, 1767, Cosimo declares that he will not eat the
snails his parents put in front of him and out of protest he decides to climb
into the trees near his home.
The book subsequently follows Cosimo’s
life as the young man spends his entire existence above ground in the branches
and leaves of tall trees.
The community tenderly cares for him even
though he appears to have gone mad.
Cosimo never touches the ground again,
but grows old living above the world. As he nears death, the protagonist grabs
onto a balloon that passes by his tree and floats away, never to be seen again.
Not long after initially climbing into
the trees, Cosimo meets the love of his life: a young girl known as Viola.
Soon Viola moves away with her family,
leaving Cosimo brokenhearted. Viola reappears late in the novel, and Cosimo
admits to her that he has longed all these years for her return.
After a brief period of shared happiness,
the two are finally parted by jealousy, as Viola uses two expatriate officers,
one English and the other Neapolitan, to push Cosimo into an envious fury that
ruins their relationship.
Unable to reconcile, Viola moves away
again, never to return, and Cosimo is haunted for the rest of his life by his
lack of understanding of her.
Aside from his love for Viola, Cosimo
spends his years in the trees engaged in a number of adventures, all the while
accompanied by a dachshund he names Ottimo Massimo, who turns out to be Viola’s
pet from her youth.
Cosimo sabotages the clandestine work of
pirates, he cleverly eliminates a wolf pack that invades his home of Ombrosa,
and he even finds time to impress luminaries such as Napoleon.
Despite his rugged life in the trees,
Cosimo becomes a well-read and educated man who corresponds with prominent
thinkers of his time, such as the 18th-century French encyclopedist Denis
Diderot, and catches the attention of even the famed satirist Voltaire himself.
Nevertheless, Cosimo remains a mystery to
the townsfolk and to his family, particularly his father, who is both
embarrassed and dumbfounded by Cosimo’s resistance to quit his arboreal life.
Through the historical time period
covered in the book, Calvino is able to represent an important transformation
in ideas and art, particularly in Europe where the Age of Reason gave way to
romanticism and new ideas about liberty, revolution, and nation.
In the midst of Cosimo’s strange
stubbornness to live apart from others, he lends a helping hand when he can,
such as when he begins to design elaborate hanging aqueducts.
The book thus comments on what it means
to be part of a community, as Cosimo, despite his seeming aloofness, remains
quite engaged with those around him.
The reader also finds in the book a
simple love story that ultimately teaches the importance of communication and
mutual respect.
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