Among super classics, bestsellers, instant books and hit and run books, how much good literature have we missed? How many volumes were born from the genius and idea of great authors and authors, were perhaps lovingly raised and kept to then be unjustly condemned to oblivion?
An answer to this question can be given by "Libri sperduti", a new series from the Minerva publishing house of Bologna which was created to rediscover and save from oblivion those undervalued, forgotten, set aside, but necessary books. Texts by well-known and lesser-known classical authors, short stories, novels, travel narratives, bildungsromans, autobiographical texts. A narrative on an international scale that, starting from the nineteenth century, gives us precious volumes, worthy of being brought to the knowledge of the Italian reader and preserved.
The series is directed by Raffaella Cavalieri, scholar and translator of travel literature and cultural tourism. We ask you to tell us how the idea of this series was born:
«The idea of creating the Libri Sperduti series was born from the encounter between the desire of the publisher, Roberto Mugavero, to create a series of fiction, and mine to give back to Italian readers those forgotten texts, left behind slowly because they have been supplanted by the success of others. The idea was to give a voice to the excluded".
What are the salient features of the necklace?
«The main aim was to create something new, which embraced the entire world literature, without limits or borders. New, but which comes from the past and maintains a retro flavour. We have therefore thought of texts published between the 1830s and the 1920s, in all languages, by well-known and lesser-known authors. First editions of well-known but now unobtainable books or editions enriched with unpublished material will also be re-proposed. Retro flavor I said, researched down to the smallest detail, from the covers of Lucia de Marco to the Avis au lecteur which, like the books of the past, addresses the reader directly, providing the fundamental elements for knowing the work and its author, those traits which make it clear how the text they are about to read was conceived and created».
How does the choice of authors to propose take place?
«First of all, we try to offer varied proposals in terms of themes, literary forms and cultures, and maintaining a balance between authors left aside from the publishing market and the best known, of which minor works are presented, works unpublished in Italy, or even works that have been provided to the Italian reader in a form that no longer respects the original. We want to offer readers the work conceived by its author, make them feel the feeling that generated it, let them touch the moment in which it was born».
Among the first releases of the series there are two volumes of which she directly supervised the translation: "A rapid tour of the world" by Elizabeth Bisland and "Around the world in 72 days" by Nellie Bly. These are works of fiction by journey written by two American journalists at the end of the 19th century Why the decision to publish two books that seem to literally “talk” to each other?
«My interest in travel fiction led me to meet these two magnificent reporters, travellers, but above all extraordinary women. It is fascinating to think that at the end of the 19th century, when travel and writing itself were still a male prerogative, two young Americans embarked on a race around the world with the intention of beating Phileas Fogg's record. The narration of the journey reveals a world of conventions, clichés and etiquette, of preparations, luggage, meetings, technological innovations and means of transport. Nellie Bly was known for this and other feats of hers that led to the invention of investigative journalism. Elizabeth Bisland remained more in the shadows and was completely unknown in Italy. Thus was born the idea of giving a voice to both, of having the experience of that feat accomplished at the same time, one leaving for Europe, the other for Asia. The covers themselves are connected: placing them side by side, we will complete the background map and then we will find the two globetrotters facing each other, represented as they are described, in clothing and in the details».
What will you focus on for the next releases?
«For the next releases we will offer the reader some unpublished stories by Edith Wharton; a historical novel by Henri de Montherlant, "The Desert Rose"; of the beautiful unpublished stories of Lucy Maud Montgomery and a first Italian edition of the Boys of via Pal, by Molnár».