Reading, writing, translating; the avant-garde and tradition; the fate of the novel- these are just some of the themes of The Written World and the Unwritten World.

A collection of essays, forewords, articles, interviews, notes, and other occasional pieces, this work displays Calvino’s remarkable intelligence and razor-sharp wit as he explores the meaning of literature in a rapidly changing world.

Drawn from the Italian collections Mondo scritto e mondo non scritto (2002), Sulla fiaba (1988), and uncollected essays, this volume of previously untranslated work - now rendered in English by Ann Goldstein - is a major statement in literary criticism.