The Complete Cosmicomics

Translated by Martin McLaughlin, Tim Parks, & William Weaver

De: Italo Calvino, Martin McLaughlin - translator, Tim Parks - translator, William Weaver - translator

Narrado por: Jefferson Mays

Italo Calvino's beloved cosmicomics cross planets and traverse galaxies, speed up time or slow it down to the particles of an instant. Through the eyes of an ageless guide named Qfwfq, Calvino explores natural phenomena and tells the story of the origins of the universe.

Poignant, fantastical, and wise, these 34 dazzling stories - collected here in one definitive anthology - relate complex scientific and mathematical concepts to our everyday world. They are an indelible (and unfailingly delightful) literary achievement.

Translation of "The Distance of the Moon", "At Daybreak", "A Sign in Space", "All at One Point", "Without Colours", "Games Without End", "The Aquatic Uncle", "How Much Shall We Bet?", "The Dinosaurs", "The Form of Space", "The Light-Years", and "The Spiral" copyright © Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc. and Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1968

Translation of "The Soft Moon", "The Origin of the Birds", "Crystals", "Blood, Sea", "Mitosis", "Meiosis", "Death", "t zero", "The Chase", "The Night Driver", and "The Count of Monte Cristo" copyright © Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc. and Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1969

Translation of "World Memory", "Nothing and Not Much", "Implosion", and "The Other Eurydice" copyright © Tim Parks, 1995

Introduction and translations of "The Mushroom Moon", "The Daughters of the Moon", "The Meterorites", "The Stone Sky", "As Long as the Sun Lasts", "Solar Storm", and "Shells and Time" copyright © Martin McLaughlin, 2009

All rights reserved.

©2002 The Estate of Italo Calvino (P)2017 Recorded Books

Unlike anything I’ve ever read

These stories hilariously place you into the minds of many different types of beings across space and time.

Calvino Had Me Laughing

Calvino is so ingenious and imaginative that he had me laughing throughout his superb collection, The Complete Cosmicomics. I couldn't help but smile. The smile inevitably turned to a laugh out loud. He is genuinely one of the 20th century's great storytellers.

A bunch of rambling nonsense.

I really liked, If on a winter's night a traveler. But not this, disappointing and a waste of a credit.

Hated this.

Had to read for a college English honors class and I genuinely thought this was truly awful. But in the words of Jim Carey as The Grinch “One mans toxic sludge is another mans potpourri”. Enjoy.

Moments of Greatness = Worth the Read

Interwoven between science and fiction, Calvino transports us to another dimension where the laws of physics in our own society do not necessarily apply. Calvino has moments of great beauty in the Cosmicomics, but there are also vast distances he tries to connect in his literal translation of fiction science. His story telling, creativity, and reconfiguration of the laws of physics bring a whirlwind of fun and sometimes confusing adventure. The moments of brilliance are worth the grandiose expanse of fumbling science and confusing story telling. Go forth with Qwefquik