Beppe Fenoglio
Beppe Fenoglio (born Giuseppe Fenoglio 1 March 1922, Alba (CN) - 18 February 1963, Turin) was an Italian writer. His work was published in a critical edition after his death, but controversy remains about his book Il partigiano Johnny (translated as Johnny the Partisan), often considered his best work, which was published posthumously (and incomplete) in 1968.
The works of Fenoglio have two main themes: the rural world of the Langhe and the partisan war; equally, the writer has two styles: the chronicle and the epos. His first work was in the neorealist style: La paga del sabato (this was published posthumously too in 1969)
The novel was turned down by Elio Vittorini who advised Fenoglio to carve out stories and then incorporate them into the I ventitré giorni della città di Alba ("The twenty-three days of the city of Alba") (1952). These stories were a chronicle of the Italian Partisans or of rural life. One of such works was La malora (1954), a long story in the style of Giovanni Verga.
“-Battuti. Io adoro gli uomini battuti.”
“Basta. Non mi parlare più. Mi fai piangere. Le tue bellissime parole servono solo, riescono solo a farmi piangere. Sei cattivo. Mi parli così, questi argomenti li cerchi e li sviluppi solo per vedermi piangere. No, non sei cattivo. Ma sei triste. Peggio che triste, sei tetro. Almeno piangessi anche tu. Sei triste e brutto. E io non voglio diventare triste, come te. Io sono bella e allegra. Lo ero.”