Pavese and the Langhe: a modest Divine Comedy – Part I

The title of this article will no doubt amaze numerous readers: comparing such an important piece of work as is Dante’s Divine Comedy with Pavese’s work might actually seem to be somewhat of a fantasy, perhaps dictated by an excessive fixation in comparing the texts.

Pavese’s letter

In fact, reading one of Pavese’s letters dated 1949 one discovers that relating Dante’s masterpiece with the last work by the Piedmont writer is not at all an exaggerated gesture, rather it’s the writer himself who describes his latest novel as follows:

Io sono come pazzo perché ho avuto una mirabile visione (naturalmente di stalle, sudore contadinotti, verderame e letame ecc.) su cui dovrei costruire una modesta Divina Commedia. Ci penso sopra, e tutti i giorni diminuisce la tensione – che alle visioni siano necessarie le Beatrici? Bah, si vedrà.
Cesare Pavese, lettera ad Adolfo ed Eugenia Ruata, 17 luglio 1949.

From the passage, rather brief but extremely important with regard to the philology of our author’s texts, it is quite clear how Pavese’s experiment is to transpose the experience contained in Dante’s Comedy into a novel, which he wrote, finishing it rather quickly, between the autumn and winter of 1949 (which the July letter gives a clear preview).

His “modest Divine Comedy”

In particular, the two most important elements of this quote are “admirable vision” and the parenthesis that follows it: Pavese’s illumination is, like that of Dante’s Vita nova (where the same expression is probably taking from), the reason that drives the artist to create his work, compose and give shape to his idea; differently from the nature of Dante’s work, however, Pavese intends to set his own work in a clearly rural setting of “contadinotti,” (farmers) namely that which for him represents the Langa scenario, often reflected in his novels.

The Moon and the Bonfires

This way of interpreting The Moon and the Bonfires has already been tested, albeit too timidly, and has given the first results of what might actually be a rewriting (in a very personal and revisited manner) of Dante’s masterpiece.

Pavese’s last novel, in fact, contains a number of reasons that lend themselves to comparison, some of which disclosed particularly in ‘The sea’, a story in August Holiday.

The conformity of the characters

Photo credit: Rutger Vos

First of all, particularly important for The moon and the Bonfires is the figure of Nuto, the great friend (and sometimes teacher) that Anguilla finds again on his return to Santo Stefano Belbo, identifiable with the real figure of carpenter Giuseppe Scaglione, who earned the nickname that distinguishes him after receiving a warm “welcome” from Pavese during one of his visits at his home in Turin.

With regard to the novel, he corresponds to Dante’s Virgilio because he accompanies Anguilla on his return to his childhood home, acting as a true guide in relation to the change that the town has undergone during the protagonist’s absence.

Nuto and Virgilio

There are several passages in which, while talking, Nuto illuminates his friend in a strong viriglian manner. An example may be the point at which, breaking the mythic-symbolic tension of the novel, he tells Anguilla, based on his partisan experience, of the political events that took place during the Second World War and the Resistance:

Ci sedemmo all’ombra di quattro canne, sull’erba dura, e Nuto mi spiegò perché il deputato non tornava. Dal giorno della liberazione – quel sospirato 25 aprile tutto era andato sempre peggio. In quei giorni sì che s’era fatto qualcosa. Se anche i mezzadri e i miserabili del paese non andavano loro per il mondo, nell’anno della guerra era venuto il mondo a svegliarli. C’era stata gente di tutte le parti, meridionali, toscani, cittadini, studenti, sfollati, operai – perfino i tedeschi, perfino i fascisti eran serviti a qualcosa, avevano aperto gli occhi ai più tonti, costretto tutti a mostrarsi per quello che erano, io di qua tu di là, tu per sfruttare il contadino, io perché abbiate un avvenire anche voi. E i renitenti, gli sbandati, avevano fatto vedere al governo dei signori che non basta la voglia per mettersi in guerra.
Si capisce, in tutto quel quarantotto s’era fatto anche del male, s’era rubato e ammazzato senza motivo, ma mica tanti: sempre meno – disse Nuto – della gente che i prepotenti di prima hanno messo loro su una strada o fatto crepare.
E poi? com’era andata? Si era smesso di stare all’erta, si era creduto agli alleati, si era creduto ai prepotenti di prima che adesso – passata la grandine – sbucavano fuori dalle cantine, dalle ville, dalle parrocchie, dai conventi. – E siamo a questo, – disse Nuto, – che un prete che se suona ancora le campane lo deve ai partigiani che gliele hanno salvate, fa la difesa della repubblica e di due spie della repubblica. Se anche fossero stati fucilati per niente, – disse, – toccava a lui fare la forca ai partigiani che sono morti come mosche per salvare il paese?
Cesare Pavese, La luna e i falò, capitolo XIII.

The reason for the change here is obvious, highlighted in particular by the political implications of the novel that ruins the search of the time lost in childhood (another extremely important aspect that binds Pavese to the Langhe).

The proof of this lies in the fact that Anguilla, despite his friend’s political hiatus, remains focused on the Gaminella (the hill on which he grew up along with the family that adopted him), that the two are observing, thinking of returning to it to see what effect time has had on it.

Pavese & the Langhe: the other articles

Below is a list, in order of publication, of articles dedicated to Pavese’s relationship with the territory, language and literature:

• Pavese’s Langa, between the August Holiday and The Moon and the bonfires
• Pavese & the Langhe: the language issue – part I
• Pavese & the Langhe: the language issue – part II
• Pavese and the Langhe: a “modest Divine Comedy” – Part II
• Pavese and the Langhe: a “modest Divine Comedy” – Part III
• Pavese and the Langhe: a “modest Divine Comedy” – Part IV