The Little Virtues

'As far as the education of children is concerned I think they should be taught not the little virtues but the great ones...' So begins the titular essay in Natalia Ginzburg's extraordinary collection, which takes little subjects - shoes, meatballs, moneyboxes - and turns them into subjects of great significance. Whether she writes of the loss of a friend, the effects of World War II, the horrors of British food, the craft of writing, the importance of silence, or the Abruzzi, where she and her first husband lived in forced residence under Fascist rule, Ginzburg brings to her reflections the wisdom of a survivor and the spare, wry, and poetically resonant style that makes these essays as contemporary and relevant as when they were originally published.

Ginzburg is regarded as one of the finest and most important Italian writers of the twentieth century and this collection will introduce her remarkable writing to a new generation of readers. This is feminist, personal writing at its very best, which sings with wonder and grace.

Winner of The Strega Prize 1963

Natalia Ginzburg (1916-1991) was born in Sicily and became one of the most important Italian writers of the twentieth century. She published her first short stories at the age of eighteen, and went on to write dozens of novels, plays and essays, including Voices in the Evening, All our Yesterdays, and Family Lexicon, which won the prestigious Strega Prize in 1963. She was the first person to translate Proust into Italian. As well as being a prolific writer, she was involved in politics and activism throughout her life, and served in the Italian parliament from 1983-1987.

'I really love and admire The Little Virtues by Natalia Ginzburg... She writes beautiful, short essays about very simple things: shoes, food, children, writing itself. Her sentences have great precision and clarity, and I learn a lot when I read her.' - Zadie Smith 'As far as the education of children is concerned I think they should be taught not the little virtues but the great ones...' So begins the titular essay in Natalia Ginzburg's extraordinary collection, which takes little subjects - shoes, meatballs, moneyboxes - and turns them into subjects of great significance. Whether she writes of the loss of a friend, the effects of World War II, the horrors of British food, the craft of writing, the importance of silence, or the Abruzzi, where she and her first husband lived in forced residence under Fascist rule, Ginzburg brings to her reflections the wisdom of a survivor and the spare, wry, and poetically resonant style that makes these essays as contemporary and relevant as when they were originally published. Ginzburg is regarded as one of the finest and most important Italian writers of the twentieth century and this collection will introduce her remarkable writing to a new generation of readers. This is feminist, personal writing at its very best, which sings with wonder and grace.

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