Author’s Prefatory Note to Stories for a Year, 1922–1928 [1]
How to cite this work:
Luigi Pirandello. “Author’s Prefatory Note to Stories for a Year, 1922-1928.” Translated by Lisa Sarti and Michael Subialka. In Stories for a Year, eds. Lisa Sarti and Michael Subialka, Digital Edition, www.pirandellointranslation.org, 2025.
I am gathering into a single body all my short stories that have so far been published in multiple volumes, along with many other stories as yet unpublished, under the title Stories for a Year (Novelle per un anno).[2] This may seem modest while, on the contrary, it is perhaps too ambitious, if one considers that by ancient tradition other collections of this kind were often titled after nights or days, some of which became very famous.[3]
According to the intention suggested to me by this title, I would have wished that the entire collection be contained in a single volume, one of those monumental ones that for a long time now are no longer used for literary works. The Publisher (and the reader will easily understand the reasons) did not want to go along with this desire of mine. Indeed, he advised me to divide the collection not into twelve volumes with thirty or more stories each, as I had at least resigned myself to request of him, but rather into twenty-four. To those inclined, this could suggest some not useless reflections on the disposition and requirements of our own time.[4]
I hasten to note that the stories in these twenty-four volumes are not meant to correspond to the seasons, nor to the months, nor to each single day of the year. One story per day, for an entire year, without any of them deriving its quality from the days, the months, or the seasons.
Each volume will contain more than a few new stories, and of those already published, some have been entirely rewritten, others reworked and retouched here and there, and all of them, in short, re-elaborated with long and loving care.[5]
Thanks at least to this care, the author of Stories for a Year hopes that readers will pardon him if, due to the idea he had of the world and of life, they will find and see too much bitterness and too little joy in these many small mirrors that reflect that idea whole.
Endnotes
1. The “Author’s Prefatory Note” was included in every volume of his Stories for a Year that was published by the Florentine press Bemporad in the years from 1922 through 1928. The note functions as a sort of “paratext” Pirandello insisted on adding to “warn” the reader (“avvertenza” can also mean “warning” in Italian) about how the arrangement of his stories into so many separate volumes or “collections” (“raccolte”) reflects the necessities imposed by the publishing market rather than the ideal vision of his original design. In this way, this prefatory note functions as both an authorial disclaimer and a subtle reminder of the tension between artistic intention and editorial strategy. The following list brings together all the volumes of Stories for a Year that appeared, whether as first editions or reprints, with the “Author’s Prefatory Note”:
Luigi Pirandello, Scialle nero [Black Shawl] (Florence: Bemporad, I922), Novelle per un anno, vol. I (reprinted by Bemporad in I922, 1923, and 1925; by Mondadori in Milan in 1932 and 1938, where it appeared as part of the «Nuova edizione riveduta»- Collezione Omnibus I).
Luigi Pirandello, La vita nuda [Naked Life] (Florence, Bemporad, 1922), Novelle per un anno, vol. II (reprinted by Bemporad in 1923 and I925; by Mondadori in Milan in 1935 and 1938, where it appeared as part of the «Nuova edizione riveduta»- Collezione Omnibus I).
Luigi Pirandello, La rallegrata [A Prancing Horse] (Florence: Bemporad, 1922), Novelle per un anno, vol. III (reprinted by Bemporad in I928; by Mondadori in Milan in 1934 and 1938, where it appeared as part of the «Nuova edizione riveduta»- Collezione Omnibus I).
Luigi Pirandello, L'uomo solo [The Lonely Man] (Florence: Bemporad, 1922), Novelle per un anno, vol. IV (reprinted by Bemporad in I929; by Mondadori in Milan in 1934 and 1938, where it appeared as part of the «Nuova edizione riveduta»- Collezione Omnibus I).
Luigi Pirandello, La mosca [The Fly] (Florence: Bemporad, 1923), Novelle per un anno, vol. V (reprinted by Mondadori in Milan in 1932, 1935, and 1938, where it appeared as part of the «Nuova edizione riveduta»- Collezione Omnibus I).
Luigi Pirandello, In silenzio [In Silence] (Florence: Bemporad, 1923), Novelle per un anno, vol. VI (reprinted by Mondadori in Milan in I932, 1935, and 1938, where it appeared as part of the «Nuova edizione riveduta»- Collezione Omnibus I).
Luigi Pirandello, Tutt'e tre [All Three] (Florence: Bemporad, I924), Novelle per un anno, vol. VII (reprinted by Bemporad in 1925 and 1926; by Mondadori in Milan in 1934 and 1938, where it appeared as part of the «Nuova edizione riveduta»- Collezione Omnibus I).
Luigi Pirandello, Dal naso al cielo [From Nose to Sky] (Florence: Bemporad, 1925), Novelle per un anno, vol. VIII (reprinted by Bemporad in 1925; by Mondadori in Milan in 1933 and 1938, where it appeared as part of the «Nuova edizione riveduta»- Collezione Omnibus II).
Luigi Pirandello, Donna Mimma (Florence: Bemporad, 1925), Novelle per un anno, vol. IX (reprinted by Mondadori in Milan in 1934 and 1938, where it appeared as part of the «Nuova edizione riveduta»- Collezione Omnibus II).
Luigi Pirandello, Il vecchio dio [The Old God] (Florence: Bemporad, 1926), Novelle per un anno, vol. X (reprinted by Bemporad in 1929; by Mondadori in Milan in 1934 and1938, where it appeared as part of the «Nuova edizione riveduta»- Collezione Omnibus II).
Luigi Pirandello, La giara [The Jar] (Florence: Bemporad, 1928), Novelle per un anno, vol. XI, where the date of publication listed on page III is 1928 while the copywright listed on page IV is 1927 (reprinted by Mondadori in Milan in 1934 and 1938, where it appeared as part of the «Nuova edizione riveduta»- Collezione Omnibus II).
Luigi Pirandello, Il viaggio [The Trip] (Florence: Bemporad, 1928), Novelle per un anno, vol. XII (reprinted by Mondadori in Milan in 1934 and 1938, where it appeared as part of the «Nuova edizione riveduta»- Collezione Omnibus II).
Luigi Pirandello, Candelora (Florence: Bemporad, I928), Novelle per un anno, vol. XIII (reprinted by Mondadori in Milan in 1934 and 1938, where it appeared as part of the «Nuova edizione riveduta»- Collezione Omnibus II).
2. We have inserted a sentence break here to facilitate legibility in English, though the entire paragraph is a single, fluid sentence in the original Italian.
3. Pirandello is alluding to two of the most celebrated collections of short stories: the iconic compendium of Middle Eastern folktales from the Islamic Golden Age called One Thousand and One Nights (also often known as The Arabian Nights); and Boccaccio’s late-Medieval masterpiece Decameron, structured into ten days of story telling where each day features ten stories. In this way, Pirandello is positioning his own collection in reference to two canonical models, both of which feature a strong sense of integral cohesion that groups the stories together as part of a single frame narrative. While Stories for a Year was never meant to have a frame narrative, it is telling that Pirandello reflects on these cohesive collections as he articulates his own ambition to gather his stories into a single, unified corpus.
4. Pirandello, like many cultural creators of the early twentieth century, frequently bemoaned the market-driven decision making of commercial publishers and the ways in which profit motives limited or constrained artistic choices.
5. Indeed, the publication history and different iterations of each tale in Stories for a Year is complex and interesting. Readers will find the pertinent details described in the ‘Introduction’ that we have added at the beginning of each story.