 | The Divine Comedy (The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso) by Dante Alighieri
Buy new: $12.35 / Used from: $7.98 The Divine Comedy is the reigning champ of epic poetry and arguably all literature. The John Ciardi translation of Dante's journey through Heaven and Hell isn't the most literal, but it is the most poetic, with simple notes to keep things enjoyable.
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 | Pinocchio (Penguin Classics) by Carlo Collodi
Buy new: $10.26 / Used from: $6.88 Like many of the children's stories that inspire Disney movies, the original tale of Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio is slightly darker and more absurd.
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 | The Name of the Rose: including the Author's Postscript by Umberto Eco
Buy new: $11.48 / Used from: $0.01 The Name of the Rose is the Da Vinci Code for those who those who thought the Da Vinci Code was too breezy. Pretentiousness abounds! Oh yeah...
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 | The Godfather (Signet) by Mario Puzo
Buy new: $7.99 / Used from: $0.01 Mario Puzo's Godfather is America's little contribution to Italian literature. Refuse at your own risk.
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 | Fo Plays: 1: Mistero Buffo, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Trumpets and Raspberries, The Virtuous Burglar, and One Was Nude and One Wore Tails (Methuen Contemporary Dramatists) by Dario Fo
Buy new: $19.95 / Used from: $4.07 This is a good sampling of plays from a great contemporary dramatist. Dario Fo is witty, snarky and fun.
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 | The Prince (Oxford World's Classics) by Niccolò Machiavelli
Buy used from: $1.86 Machiavelli's Prince shows what happens when a keen intelligence is turned to the science of brutal rule. Poor Mach probably wound up in one of the nine circles of the inferno.
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 | The Dylan Dog Case Files by Tizlano Sclavi
Buy new: $16.47 / Used from: $7.95 Dylan Dog: Nightmare Investigator is the most popular of Italy's 'fumetti,' or comic books.
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 | Italy from a Backpack
Buy new: $15.95 / Used from: $6.25 This book shows what bell'italia is like as experienced through the eyes of young travelers. Great for anyone interested in seeing the 'real' Italy.
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 | The Aeneid (Penguin Classics) by Virgil
Buy new: $9.60 / Used from: $0.01 It might've been written in Latin, but Virgil's Aeneid is still a classic of the Italian region. W.F. Jackson Knight's prose version is a moving and faithful English translation of this Roman epic.
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 | Click 2 by Milo Manara
Buy new: $11.01 / Used from: $10.00 The Click series are fumetti of a different kind. Milo Manara is Italy's best known graphic novelist of erotica.
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 | Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino
Buy new: $10.08 / Used from: $2.24 Italy's premier metafictionist, Calvino is a master of intelligent trippy-cool.
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 | The Bomb and the General by Umberto Eco
Buy used from: $0.83 The Bomb and the General is a children's book by Umberto Eco with great dramatic power and terrific art. Both kids and adults will love it.
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 | The Decameron (Signet Classics) by Giovanni Boccaccio
Buy new: $8.95 / Used from: $3.99 Boccaccio's Medieval classic is a collection of loosely connected short stories. Taking place during the Black Death, these tales are often surprisingly bawdy and highly readable.
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 | Parmenides of Elea: A text and translation with an introduction (Phoenix Supplementary Volume)
Buy new: $22.45 / Used from: $16.94 Again, Italian via technicality, the ancient Greek philosopher Parmenides of Elea wrote a profound poem on the nature of truth that has challenged the great thinkers from Plato to Heidegger and beyond. While only 150 lines of his text remain, Parmenides' message remains powerful, elusive, and beautiful.
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 | The Cambridge History of Italian Literature
Buy new: $38.04 / Used from: $30.27 Still want to know more? Dig into this comprehensive review.
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