The Italian ghost of Tom Joad

by Anna Tagliavini – The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck’s masterpiece on the Great Depression, has lost none of its poignancy and impact even today. But the same cannot be said of the Italian version, Furore. Its publication in 1940 – just a few months after the novel appeared in the USA – was certainly a daring and commendable venture. Nonetheless, Carlo Coardi’s translation has outlived its time: obsolete and baroque in style, it has a number of mistakes and misinterpretations and, even worse, too much cutting… Perhaps the time has come for a new, and most of all, integral translation.