Forbidden Notebook

A Novel

By: Alba de Céspedes

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

With an introduction by Jhumpa Lahiri, Quaderno Proibito is a classic domestic novel by the Italian-Cuban feminist writer Alba de Céspedes, whose work inspired contemporary writers like Elena Ferrante

In this modern translation by acclaimed Elena Ferrante translator Ann Goldstein, The Forbidden Notebook centers the inner life of a dissatisfied housewife living in postwar Rome.

Valeria Cossati never suspected how unhappy she had become with the shabby gentility of her bourgeois life—until she begins to jot down her thoughts and feelings in a little black book she keeps hidden in a closet. This new secret activity leads her to scrutinize herself and her life more closely, and she soon realizes that her individuality is being stifled by her devotion and sense of duty toward her husband, daughter, and son. As the conflicts between parents and children, husband and wife, and friends and lovers intensify, what goes on behind the Cossatis’ façade of middle-class respectability gradually comes to light, tearing the family’s fragile fabric apart.

An exquisitely crafted portrayal of domestic life, The Forbidden Notebook recognizes the universality of human aspirations.

©1952 Mondadori Libri S.p.A., Milano. English translation © 2023 by Ann Goldstein. Foreword copyright © 2022 by Jhumpa Lahiri. Originally published in Italian as Quaderno Proibito in 1952 by Mondadori. (P)2023 Blackstone Publishing

Time travel

This is the sad story of a woman with the misfortune of growing up and being trapped by rigid attitudes expecting women to be endlessly self-effacing. She perversely chooses duty over freedom and love, with the expectation of asserting moral superiority. Writing in her diary fails to move her from
Insight to change.

The main character

I liked the story it was very interesting. The notebook idea kept the storyline but needed more depth of true feelings in stead of guilt.

a must read

The Forbidden Notebook came to my attention when searching for diary novels recommendations. I enjoyed accompanying Valeria, the main character and owner of the diary, in her journey of self discovery with its ups and downs, contradictions, affirmations, and deep reflections. The pacing was perfect for me. The audible narrator was flawless. Highly recommended for these topics: the diary genre, mid-20th Century worldview, feminism, tradition, psychology, values, history, work ethics, relationships.

A Revelation

What I liked most about this book was the tone it stuck to throughout the story. You could say it was truthful to the main character’s, Valeria’s, despair. As she travels this period of her life, the neatly laid down formulas for the whys and how’s begin to unravel. Her
alternating loss and speculation over the events around her reveal a deeply universal, it seems to me, anxiety in many women’s lives. Furthermore, I realize this book was written in the early 1950s and in that fact reveals so much of what we don’t understand of that time, because the caricature of that era seemingly binds us to a more conventional tableau. In that instance, this book is a revelation. It is literary evidence of the simmering pot that in one more generation would give was to the women movement.

Interesting story

The story was interesting, as it reminded me of how women were stereo-typed and marginalized during that period. I took away stars because the story did not advance. I came away from the book feeling very sad

Brilliant

As a man, I wish I had read this 30 years ago. Also beautifully written and recorded.

UNSETTLING

Great book. I’m glad to have come across it. This was the time-period when my mother was young, married in /55, had me—the eldest of 6–in /56.
I can see so much of what is her in this book. The attitudes towards women, the women who, like my mother, had to do it all.
Deep insight into the minds and lives of women of that post-war time. Both joyful and sad. I didn’t like *all* the characters, but to me, that’s not the point of a book. The point is to write truth, insofar as we know it; to translate that truth into character and story.
I recommend this book to anyone who would rather have a book to make you think, than one to escape life in. Both are fine, each has their place.
But this is about the age-old struggle of women to find even just “a room of one’s own.”

Fantastic book!!!

Great exploration of the mind. It is amazing that this book was written so long ago, yet the thoughts and ideas are the same we deal with today.

“The more things change, the more they stay the same”

Beautiful, sad and powerful book. This is the story of an Italian woman in her early forties, soon after the war, juggling being a mother, a wife, a daughter, do all the cooking and cleaning and still work in an office to make ends meet. A lot has changed in these seventy years or so, but it is still so hard for women to fulfill all of these roles at the same time. Brilliant book.

Didn't care for it

I liked the idea of the story, hearing the íntimate thoughts of the main character through a diary but I didn't like any of the characters...at all. I had little patience for the main character who was a martyr. I understand that gender roles were different in the 50s but there was nothing interesting about her. She perpetuayed the problem. I grew tired hearing her complain.