A Vast Silence: The Untranslated Corpus of Pirandello’s Novelle and the Task of Recovery

There is a paradox at the heart of Luigi Pirandello’s reputation in the English-speaking world. He is widely acknowledged as one of the transformative literary figures of the twentieth century — a Nobel laureate whose dramatic innovations shaped the course of modern theatre from Beckett to Pinter, from the Theatre of the Absurd to the postmodern stage. His name is invoked with easy authority in surveys of European modernism, and his most celebrated plays are performed, taught, and theorized across anglophone universities and theatres with a consistency that seems to affirm his canonical status. Yet this reputation rests on a conspicuously narrow ledger. The plays are known; the short stories, by and large, are not. And since it was in the short story that Pirandello worked most continuously, most obsessively, and arguably most freely for the entirety of his writing life, this gap is not a minor lacuna — it is a structural distortion of our understanding of his art.

The ambition behind the Novelle per un anno — Stories for a Year — was as vast as the title suggests. By 1919, Pirandello had begun to envision a larger structure that would collect all of his short stories and arrange them into a multi-volume whole. He began gathering together this multi-volume collection in 1922, but at the time of his death had completed only 244 stories, falling short of his title’s aspiration by some hundred and twenty days. The ambition was Scheherazadean in its scope: one story for every day of the year, a vast human calendar animated by the full spectrum of modern experience. The stories span a wide range of themes, addressing socioeconomic disparities in Sicily and the European south, questions of gender, and the modernist preoccupations with identity, relativity, and the existential quandaries of modern life. The project was never completed, but what Pirandello left behind is nonetheless an intimidating body of work — intimidating not only to the translator, as the most recent scholarly edition acknowledges, but also to a critical tradition that has found it convenient to reach for the plays when reaching for Pirandello.

The consequences of this imbalance for anglophone reception are serious. Despite his acclaim as a dramatist, Pirandello’s short stories have received far less scholarly and critical attention in English-speaking contexts, a neglect directly attributable to the limited number of translations available. What translations do exist have largely arrived in thin, selective anthologies — a handful of stories here, a dozen there — chosen with an eye toward accessibility or thematic familiarity rather than toward representing the range and depth of the corpus. Early English-language collections such as Better Think Twice About It, The Naked Truth, and The Medals, and Other Stories offered tantalizing samples that generated real critical enthusiasm in their time, but they remained precisely that: samples. The vast majority of the Novelle per un anno — stories of psychological torment, social comedy, metaphysical inquiry, and Sicilian tragedy — have never appeared in English at all. Collections have been made and will continue to be made, since the opera omnia remains untranslated.

This situation has not been without scholarly acknowledgment. Critics have long noted that even among the few translations available, many are questionable renderings of Pirandello’s thought rather than of his rhetoric — a distinction of no small consequence for a writer in whom style and philosophy are inseparable. The problem is compounded by a historical tendency to read the novelle not as an autonomous and self-sufficient body of work but as a kind of workshop for the plays — a quarry from which the dramatist extracted his most striking situations and characters before abandoning the narrative form. It is true that the form Pirandello’s thoughts took at their grandest was clearly foreshadowed in the dramatic juxtapositions which characterize the stories, and the tone of the plays at their best carries the echo of his prose fiction. But this genealogical reading does the novelle a profound disservice. To read them only as pre-theatrical sketches is to miss what they accomplish on their own terms: their intimacy, their narrative suppleness, the slow psychological corrosion they perform upon characters who have no stage on which to declaim their anguish. In the novelle, Pirandello’s existential concerns are enacted in the quieter, more ruthless register of the page.

The distortion produced by an untranslated corpus extends beyond aesthetics into canon formation itself. What English-language readers and scholars know of Pirandello’s short fiction is, by definition, what translators and publishers have chosen to make available — a selection shaped by market considerations, personal taste, and historical accident as much as by any principled assessment of literary value. Certain stories have achieved a kind of isolated celebrity: “La giara” (The Jar) for its Sicilian comedy, “Quando si comprende” (War) for its wartime pathos and subsequent pedagogical circulation in American and Canadian classrooms. Virginia Jewiss’s recent Yale University Press translation brought thirty stories to English readers, some for the very first time — a significant scholarly contribution, but still a fraction of the whole. Meanwhile, a collaborative digital project launched in 2021 by scholars Michael Subialka and Lisa Sarti to produce scholarly English translations of all 245 short stories was, as of 2024, only halfway complete — testimony both to the scale of what remains undone and to the growing recognition that the neglect can no longer stand.

It is against this backdrop that new translations and critical editions of the novelle take on a significance that extends well beyond individual literary pleasure. Each story brought into English for the first time is not merely an addition to an already substantial record; it is a corrective act, a restoration of a work to a readership that has been making do with an incomplete picture. When an ebook edition pairs newly translated stories with critical apparatus designed to situate them within Pirandello’s intellectual development — tracing the movement from the early Sicilian verism through the metaphysical and surreal later work — it does something that a stand-alone anthology cannot: it offers the anglophone reader a framework for understanding how these stories belong together, what philosophical architecture subtends even the most apparently modest of them, and why the silence around them has cost us something real.

Pirandello himself was clear about the ambitions of the Novelle per un anno. In positioning his collection in relation to the Thousand and One Nights and Boccaccio’s Decameron, he was claiming a place within a tradition of short fiction understood not as minor or supplementary but as a primary mode of engaging with human experience in its fullest register. The anglophone critical tradition has been slow to honor that claim. The work of recovery is underway, and it remains one of the more quietly urgent tasks in the translation of twentieth-century European literature.

Pirandello’s fascination with the interplay between reality and illusion is another recurring motif in his short stories. In “The Jar” he uses humor and absurdity to blur the lines between the real and the surreal. The story revolves around a farmer who hires a craftsman to repair a large jar, only for the craftsman to become trapped inside it. Through this seemingly simple narrative, Pirandello explores themes of entrapment and the absurdity of human existence. Similarly, “A Voice” delves into the psychological landscape of its protagonist, blurring the boundary between sanity and madness, reality and perception.

The translation of Pirandello’s short stories into English is a meticulous endeavor, requiring not only linguistic precision but also an appreciation of the cultural and philosophical underpinnings of his work. This collection strives to maintain the integrity of Pirandello’s original prose, preserving his distinctive voice while making his stories accessible to a modern English-speaking audience. The translators have taken care to convey the nuances of Pirandello’s irony, his subtle shifts in tone, and his often complex narrative structures.

Pirandello’s work is marked by its deep empathy and insight into human frailty. His characters, whether they are struggling with societal expectations, personal crises, or existential dilemmas, are rendered with profound psychological realism. This collection includes some of his most poignant and thought-provoking stories, showcasing his ability to illuminate the human experience with both compassion and a critical eye.

A new English translation

In introducing this new translation, we invite readers to immerse themselves in Pirandello’s world, where the ordinary and the extraordinary intertwine, and where every story offers a glimpse into the multifaceted nature of human existence. Whether you are a longtime admirer of Pirandello or a newcomer to his work, these stories promise to engage, challenge, and inspire. Through this translation, we hope to contribute to a greater appreciation of Pirandello’s literary legacy and to spark renewed interest in one of the most enigmatic and insightful writers of the 20th century.

By making these stories available in English for the first time, this publication opens a new window into Pirandello’s artistic vision, offering readers the opportunity to experience the richness and depth of his short fiction. We trust that this translation will not only enhance the understanding of Pirandello’s work but also encourage further exploration of his remarkable contribution to world literature.

Pirandello’s short stories published in this blog:

• Black Shawl
• Hitting the Mark
• Distraction
• Above and Below
• The Fish Trap
• The Fly
• The Forgotten Mask
• All Three
• The Room is Waiting

Immerse yourself in tales that are as relevant today as they were when first conceived, transcending time and place to resonate with readers across generations. Join us as we breathe new life into Pirandello’s unfinished masterpiece, inviting you to explore the depths of his creativity and embrace the enigma of the human soul. This selection of stories, published in #ebook format, captures the essence of his storytelling, allowing you to savor every nuance, every twist, and every revelation that Pirandello’s literary universe has to offer.

Free ebook sample

If you fill in the form below you will receive a free ebook sample featuring the critical introduction to the book, one newly translated story from Pirandello’s collection “Short Story for a Year” and one critical essay related to Pirandello’s literary themes. You will also receive a free monthly newsletter about Pirandello’s work.

Enzo Martinelli is available for academic talks, translation commissions and consultancy services on Italian literature in translation. Get in touch with an email to: enzomartinelli64@gmail.com

The Fly, by Luigi Pirandello ✒️📃🇮🇹

Black Shawl, by Luigi Pirandello 1/5

Hitting the Mark, by Luigi Pirandello

Distraction, by Luigi Pirandello

The Fish Trap, by Luigi Pirandello

You can find my top 5 bestseller ebooks on Amazon:

1. Dark Love Sonnets, by Federico García Lorca
2. Shorts Stories for a Year, by Luigi Pirandello
3. Selected Story Stories, by Horacio Quiroga
4. Summer Sunshine, by Grazia Deledda
5. Poetic Multitude, by Fernando Pessoa

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