Naples : Les légendes et la réalité by Matilde Serao
"Naples : Les légendes et la réalité" by Matilde Serao is a collection of literary essays written in the late 19th century. The work blends legend, folklore, and reflective reportage to portray Naples as a city where love, landscape, and daily life are inseparable, turning places, seasons, and memories into living myths. The opening of the work sets Naples against the misty North, then reimagines the city’s birth through the love of
Parthenope and Cimon, declaring Parthenope eternally alive in Naples. It celebrates and demystifies the legend of Virgil the Mage—his marvels for the city—before arguing that his true “magic” is poetry. A lyrical panorama of the gulf follows, characterizing each stretch of sea (Carmine, the Môle, Santa Lucia, Chiatamone, Mergellina, Pausilippe) as a different soul and destiny, ending with a stark legend of consolation in the waves. A suite of love-legends ties hills, islands, fountains, and the Vesuvius–Capri axis to passion and grief. The haunted Palazzo Donn’Anna frames a tale of jealousy between a powerful duchess and her rival, with love ending in disappearance and solitude. A darker story evokes a ghostly boat: Thécla and Aldo drowned by her husband Bruno, a scene said to reappear only to true lovers. The section closes by beginning the story of Cicho the Sorcerer in medieval Naples, a feared recluse whose “secret” is introduced as he turns from a pleasure-filled youth to a quest to benefit humankind. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
"Les légendes" appears to be a translation of: La leggenda di Napoli. "La réalité" appears to be a partial translation of: Il ventre di Napoli.
Contents
Les légendes: La ville de l'amour. Virgile. La mer. La légende de l'amour. Le palais Donn'Anna. La barque-fantôme. Le secret du mage. Donn'Albina, Donna Romita, Donna Regina. O' Munaciello (le Moinillon). Le diable de Mergellina. Mégaride. Le Christ mort. Providence, bonne espérance. Légende de Capodimonte. Légende de l'avenir -- La réalité: Où ils habitent. Ce qu'ils gagnent. Ce qu'ils mangent. Ce qu'ils croient. Ce qui les perd. Ce qui les ruine. Ce qui les entoure. Ce qui les soutient.
Credits
Laurent Vogel and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica))
Reading Level
Reading ease score: 69.2 (8th & 9th grade). Neither easy nor difficult to read.
