Ithaca College

Marella Feltrin-Morris (Modern Languages and Literatures) has published the first English translation of “Mondo di carta” ("Paper World," 1909) and "La fede" ("Faith," 1922), two short stories by the Italian writer Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936) and winner of the 1934 Nobel Prize for Literature, in volume 32 of the Journal of the Pirandello Society of America, pp. 161-168 and 169-176.

Paper World. 1909. Valeriano Balicci lives to read. As he is losing his eyesight, he is forced to hire a reader, Tilde, but, disliking her voice, he asks her to just read quietly in his presence and to tell him about the places described in the books. A passionate traveler, Tilde is bored with this task, so she tries to portray to him the real places she visited. Which reality is more fascinating to Balicci? The one outside the window or the one on the page?  

Faith. 1922. A young priest, having grown skeptical of traditional faith, resolves to leave the clergy. However, before he manages to announce his decision, he is asked to assist an old woman who insists on depriving herself of the only goods she has left and offer them as a vow. Exasperated by what he considers an exploitation of poor people’s naïve faith, he tries in vain to dissuade the woman, but finally realizes that the only thing he can do to respect her sacrifice is to sacrifice his beliefs in turn and act his part as priest.