Zibaldone Hardcover – Lay Flat, July 16, 2013

Z is the title of this magnificent volume of writing.,It would, if you do consider reading this book,behoove you to love antiquity and ancient languages;it is an elaborate and lengthy exploration of human expression and poetry dating back to antiquity. The reader should, it would seem, gird himself or herself for a passionate display of love of language and its origins on the part of this author. This volume is a translation from the Italian, labor of love.

I own two editions in Italian of the Zibaldone, but this one is now my first resource. The patient creation of a whole raft of scholars and translators, this massive volume is simply indispensable. Why study Leopardi? Well, not only was he a major lyrical poet, but also a thinker of the caliber of Montesquieu, Rousseau, Vico, Jaspers and a (very few) others. He deals acutely with such issues as the relation between nature and culture, the interaction of poetry and science, and the destiny of nations and cultures. In the Zibaldone (or miscellany) these penetrating reflections are interrupted here and there by dry philological notes on Latin and Greek words. It is easy just to skip over these and proceed to the ideas--though those concerned with ancient languages will find the philological matter interesting also.

It's difficult to review such a book as this translation of Leopardi's hodge podge of notes, diary entries, conversational remarks and massive digressions touches on seemingly every topic which crossed the great poet's mind. I have been waiting thirty years to see an English translation and this is one of the most useful, elegant books to be published by any academic or commercial publisher in a generation. FSG receives high praise for releasing this almost 2000 page edition, finally making available this great pathfinder's inner thoughts and everyday remarks. Leopardi was a man of all times, of a modern as well as classically trained sensibility whom we would do well to study and rediscover our civilizing roots in today's civil maelstrom. Patrick Sulaiman Cole

A stupendous translation project, and one entirely oriented to scholars of Italian literature, romanticism, and philosophy. I gather that this volume would never have seen the light of day without the generous support of the Italian state. All well and good, but this benefit does in this case seem to have come at some cost to the free-wheeling spirited independence that Leopardi himself, in his inward life, exemplified.

This book reminds me of Pascal's "Pensee." But without the severe Calvinism. So many ideas. Leopardi explores unhappiness, boredom, illusion, nature, distraction, writing, language etc... A lot packed into two thousand+ pages. One entry/thought could be meditated on for a long time... There are about five pages near the beginning that were rather pedantic in which the author criticizes various writers. Besides these entries, it has been an amazing reading experience.

Leopardi is one of the greatest of the Western Romantics, up there with the early Goethe, Shelley, Hugo and Novalis. And this publication of his notebooks has got to be the publishing event of this millennium. I never thought they'd finally get translated in toto and have waited for more than a decade for this. The Zibaldone, which I have finally finished reading, reveals a mind infinitely sensitive to its own processes and confirms for me my suspicion that Leopardi is one of the greatest of Western writers.

Leopardi's Zibaldone deserves a whole cosmos of stars. This publisher's choice of paper, however, warrants barely a glimmer. They would have done well to follow the lead of various publishers' paper choices for hardback versions of Proust or Montaigne. Still, since it is the only version available in English translation, it gets five stars because—difficult though the pages be to turn precisely, and as much as they may make a marginalia maniac's life a struggle—it should be bought and read and reread, and, if owing to the shoddy paper, bought again and reread again.Alas, as Leopardi wrote: "In this respect, pleasure is similar to peace of mind. The more it is sought and desired in itself and alone, the less it is to be found and enjoyed . . . The very desire for peace of mind necessarily excludes it, and is incompatible with it."

It will take me a while to get through this one. But so glad to have this full translation!