Invisible Cities“Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.” — from Invisible Cities In a garden sit the aged Kublai Khan and the young Marco Polo — Mongol emperor and Venetian traveler. Kublai Khan has sensed the end of his empire coming soon. Marco Polo diverts his host with stories of the cities he has seen in his travels around the empire: cities and memory, cities and desire, cities and designs, cities and the dead, cities and the sky, trading cities, hidden cities. As Marco Polo unspools his tales, the emperor detects these fantastic places are more than they appear. “Invisible Cities changed the way we read and what is possible in the balance between poetry and prose . . . The book I would choose as pillow and plate, alone on a desert island.” — Jeanette Winterson |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - Cail_Judy - LibraryThingI feel like I barely scratched the surface of what's going on in this book. Calvino crafts incredible visuals with his descriptions, steeped in philosophical dialogue between Marco Polo and Kubla Kahn ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - LisaMorr - LibraryThingAt 165 pages, it should've been a quicker read for me, but nothing really happens - Marco Polo just describes imaginary cities to Kublai Khan, and it turns out they are all Venice. Lots of beautiful imagery, but I would've liked more plot. Read full review
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Common terms and phrases
Adelma Aglaura already arrived atlas Beersheba beneath Berenice bridges chicken run chrysoprase Cities & Desire Cities & Eyes Cities & Memory Cities & Names Cities & Signs Cities and eyes Cities and names city's Clarice cloud Cloven Viscount Continuous cities dead describe different cities domes dream emperor empire Eudoxia Eusapia everything exist face Fedora follow garden gaze hanging Hidden Cities houses imagined inhabitants Irene Italian Folktales Italo Calvino Jaguar Sun journey Khan's Kublai Khan land Lares Laudomia Leandra leave Leonia's living look marble Marco Polo Marozia Maurilia mountain move never night Nonexistent Knight Olinda palace past Penates Penthesilea Perhaps pipes Polo's Pyrrha recognize remain repeat rise roofs routes rubbish shifting silea space speak square stone streets tell Thin Cities things thought tions towers Trading Cities traveler Valdrada Venice walls wind words Zenobia