Vasco Pratolini, (born Oct. 19, 1913, Florence, Italy—died Jan. 12, 1991, Rome), Italian short-story writer and novelist, known particularly for compassionate portraits of the Florentine poor during the Fascist era. He is considered a major figure in Italian Neorealism.
Pratolini was reared in Florence, the setting of nearly all his fiction, in a poor family. He held various jobs until his health failed. His illness forced his confinement in a sanatorium from 1935 to 1937. He had no formal education but was an incessant reader, and during his confinement he began to write.
Pratolini went to Rome, where he met the novelist Elio Vittorini, who introduced him into literary circles and became a close friend. Like Vittorini, Pratolini rejected fascism; the Fascist government shut down Pratolini’s literary magazine, Campo di Marte, within nine months of its founding in 1939.
His first important novel, Il quartiere (1944; The Naked Streets), offers a vivid, exciting portrait of a gang of Florentine adolescents. Cronaca familiare (1947; Two Brothers) is a tender story of Pratolini’s dead brother. Cronache di poveri amanti (1947; A Tale of Poor Lovers), which has been called one of the finest works of Italian Neorealism, became an immediate best-seller and won two international literary prizes. The novel gives a panoramic view of the Florentine poor at the time of the Fascist triumph in 1925–26. Un eroe del nostro tempo (1949; A Hero of Today, or, A Hero of Our Time) attacks fascism.
Between 1955 and 1966 Pratolini published three novels under the general title Una storia italiana (“An Italian Story”), covering the period from 1875 to 1945. The first, Metello (1955), considered the finest of the three, follows its working-class hero through the labour disputes after 1875 and climaxes with a successful building masons’ strike in 1902. The second, Lo scialo (1960; “The Waste”), depicts the lassitude of the lower classes between 1902 and the mid-1920s preparatory to the Fascist takeover. The final volume, Allegoria e derisione (1966; “Allegory and Derision”), deals with the triumph and fall of Fascism, focusing on the moral and intellectual conflicts of the Florentine intelligentsia.
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Italian literature: Social commitment and the new realism…working classes were painted by Vasco Pratolini (
Il quartiere[1945; “The District”; Eng. trans. The Naked Streets] and Metello[1955; Eng. trans. Metello]) and of the Roman subproletariat by Pier Paolo Pasolini ( Ragazzi di vita[1955; The Ragazzi] and Una vita violenta[1959; …
Neorealism: Literature.Vasco Pratolini left his autobiographical work behind and published such vivid and moving accounts of the Florentine poor as
Il quartiere(1944; The Naked Streets,1952) and one of the finest novels of the Neorealist movement, Cronache di poveri amanti(1947; A Tale of Poor……
Italian literatureItalian literature, the body of written works produced in the Italian language that had its beginnings in the 13th century. Until that time nearly all literary work composed in Europe during the Middle Ages was written in Latin. Moreover, it was predominantly practical in nature and produced by…
JournalJournal, an account of day-to-day events or a record of experiences, ideas, or reflections kept regularly for private use that is similar to, but sometimes less personal than, a…
Short storyShort story, brief fictional prose narrative that is shorter than a novel and that usually deals with only a few characters. The short story is usually concerned with a single effect conveyed in only one or a few significant episodes or scenes. The form encourages economy of setting, concise…
More About Vasco Pratolini2 references found in Britannica articles
- association with Neorealism