History (2 page)

dv E NTU RA I

The Vintage
Librar
y

of
Contem pora ry
World Lit
era
tur
e

A

Other Books in The Vintage Library of Contemporary World Literature

Blood of Requited Love
BY MANUEL
PUIG
The Guardian of the Word
BY CAMARA LAYE
A Minor Apocalypse
BY TADEUSZ KONWICKI

The Ten Thousand Things
BY MARIA DERMOUT

We Love Glenda So Much and

A Change of Light
BY
JULIO
CORT..I.

Ake: The Years of Childhood
BY WOLE soYINKA

Correction
BY THOMAS BERNHARD

Maira
BY DAIICY RIBEIRO

Masks
BY
FUMIKO ENCHI

One Day of Life
BY MANLIO ARGUETA

The Questionnaire
BY JIRi GRUSA

HISTORY A NOVEL

HISTORY A NOVEL

ELSA MORANTE

Translated from the Italian by William Weaver

AVENTURA

The Vintage Library of Contemporary World Literature

VINTAGE BOOKS A DIVISION OF RANDOM HOUSE NEW YORK

First Aventura Edition, March
1984

Translation Copyright©
1977
by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. All rights reserved under International and

Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. This translation ori published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. in
1977.
Originally published in Italian as
La Storia: Romanzo
by Giulio Einaudi Editore, S.P.A., Turi Copyright©
1974
by Elsa Morante and Giulio Einaudi Editore, S.P.A., Torino.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Morante, Elsa,
1916-

History.

(
Aventura-the Vintage library of contemporary world literature
)

Translation of: La Storia.

I. Title.

P
Q
4829.0615S813 1984 853'.912 83-40512

ISBN
0-394-72496-8

Manufactured in the United States of America

Por el anal/abeto a quien escribo

There is no word in the human language capable of consoling the guinea pigs who do not know

the reason for their death.

(A sun> of Hiroshima)

• . . thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes
  

for so it seemed good in thy sight.

Luke 1 0: 21

Contents

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...
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.. 1941
I 65

..
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... 1942
I 97

...... 1943
I 119

...
. . .
1944
I 249

..
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... 1945
I 307

. . .
... 1946
I 331

.
.
.
.
.
. 1947
I 411

.
.
....19--
I 549

xi

Notes I
559

• • • • • •

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