Carlo Emilio Gadda, Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana [That Awful Mess on Via Merulana]

Eloisa Morra (University of Toronto)

Ed. by Jo Ann Cavallo, Columbia University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.6.1: Italian Writing and Culture, 453-present.
Vol. editors: Carla Bregman (Independent Scholar - North America), Jo Ann Cavallo (Columbia University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1946

Places

Italy (Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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Printed with great acclaim by the Milanese-based publisher Garzanti,

Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana

[

That Awful Mess of Via Merulana

]

(1957) is unanimously considered Carlo Emilio Gadda’s masterpiece. The novel recounts the police investigation of two criminal cases, one trivial and the other inhuman. Both take place in the same apartment house in the center of Rome within the space of a few days: a widow, eager to be consoled, is robbed of her jewelry; a married woman, disconsolate because she cannot bear children, is stabbed to death. The robbery and murder take place in an apartment building (

palazzo

)

not far from the Colosseum, known as “Palazzo degli Ori”, in Via Merulana number 219. Detective Francesco Ingravallo, an acquaintance of the latter victim, Liliana…

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2535 words

Citation: Morra, Eloisa . "Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 02 September 2021 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=38889, accessed 24 April 2024.]

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