The Little Virtues

“As far as the education of children is concerned,” states Natalia Ginzburg in this collection of her finest short essays, “I think they should be taught not the little virtues but the great ones."

"Considered among the best writers in contemporary Italy, Ginzburg should appeal to a wide American audience with this collection of essays."  -  Publishers Weekly

Between 1944 and 1960, Natalia Ginzburg wrote The Little Virtues, a collection of eleven vivid portraits of life that are central to her legacy as one of the greatest Italian writers of the twentieth century. From the Italian countryside, where she and her husband lived in exile under fascist rule, to the melancholy streets of 1960s London, Ginzburg explores loneliness and belonging against the backdrop of post-war Europe.

“A glowing light of modern Italian literature... Ginzburg’s magic is the utter simplicity of her prose, suddenly illuminated by one word that makes a lightning streak of a plain phrase... As direct and clean as if it were carved in stone, it yet speaks thoughts of the heart.”  -  The New York Times Book Review

In The Little Virtues, Ginzburg takes familiar objects and experiences – worn-out shoes, money boxes, meatballs, childhood, silence – and transforms them into subjects of great significance. While haunted by the political events of the time, Ginzburg rests her gaze on the human intimacies that shape and define our lives: friendships, marriage and parenthood. She describes her longest relationship – with her writing – in a definitive piece on vocation and motherhood, while her groundbreaking essay on raising children remains as vital as the day it was written.

The Little Virtues is a poignant portrait of Italy in the twentieth century and a singular work of memoir: intrepid, wise and dazzling.