The Gold-Rimmed Spectacles

Giorgio Bassani

New translation of another novel in the Ferrara sequence which includes The Garden of the Finzi-Continis

This moving and lyrical novel is the second in Bassani's loosely connected Ferrara sequence, newly translated here by poet Jamie McKendrick. Set in the late 1930s in Fascist Italy it concerns the marginalization of both Jews and homosexuals. The narrator is a young Jewish man, and the man with the gold-rimmed spectacles of the title is a homosexual. Subtle and poignant, it beautifully evokes the difficult atmosphere of Ferrara just before WWII.

'Singular . . . The town of Ferrara and its inhabitants are realized with an extraordinary clarity' Guardian

Giorgio Bassani was born in 1916. From 1938 onwards he became involved in various anti-fascist activities for which he was imprisoned in 1943. His works include The Gold-Rimmed Spectacles, The Heron, Behind the Door and Five Stories of Ferrara, which won the Strega Prize. The Garden of the Finzi-Continis was awarded the Viareggio Prize in 1962 and was made into a feature film.

Jamie McKendrick is an award-winning poet and translator. His translation of Bassani's The Garden of the Finzi-Continis is already available, and he is currently translating the rest of the Ferrara Cycle anew for Penguin Modern Classics.