The House That Nino Built — Part 1

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The non-Camillo books

In one of his later essays, Giovannino Guareschi explains that, as an author, he’d created two sets of characters: one “for outside stories, for export” and another “for the inside stories.” The first group, we know well; it comprises Don Camillo, Peppone, and the other denizens of the Little World. The second group is perhaps less well-known among Guareschi readers in English, but not for real lack of opportunity to meet its members. For they are the author’s own family, and they are featured in three collections of stories and essays published in English in 1953, 1966, and 1970, respectively.  

The non-Camillo Books in English — Intro.

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The non-Camillo books

Many of those familiar with Giovannino Guareschi’s Don Camillo books are unaware that among the Italian humorist’s other translated writings are several volumes set in other “little worlds.” For instance, there’s Guareschi’s world of home and hearth, represented in English by three books of comic stories about the author’s family. And there’s also the world of Continental high society, or GG’s stylized version thereof, which readers in English can visit via two charming farces dating from the beginning of the author’s career. Finally, there is the dark world of the German internment camp where Guareschi spent several years during the Second World War; his collected prison writings round out the works available in English.