The Nonexistent Knight and The Cloven Viscount
by Italo Calvino
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Book Summary Information
Author: Italo CalvinoEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1977-03-28
ISBN: 0156659751
Number of pages: 264
Publisher: Mariner Books
Book Reviews of The Nonexistent Knight and The Cloven Viscount
Book Review: Perfection - Who Needs It?
Summary: 4 Stars
First of all, I have no idea why these two short novels are published together and "The Baron in the Trees" is published separately, except possibly that "Baron" is a little bit longer. Other than purely practical considerations like that one, the three stories go together quite well, and some years ago some smart guy did indeed publish all of them under the title "Our Ancestors". We, however, will simply have to live with what we've got.
Which brings us to "The Nonexistent Knight" and "The Cloven Viscount", both of which in some way concern living with what we've got. They have a lot of other things in common, too - unlike "Baron", which takes place during the Enlightenment, these two stories take place in the Middle Ages and deal with men who go to war against the Turks. As the titles imply, one of them gets cut exactly in half by a Muslim cannonball, and the other has no such worries because he doesn't exist in the first place.
Furthermore, like "Baron", these two stories have narrators with seemingly irrelevant points of view. The narrator of "Viscount" is the title character's nephew, and the narrator of "Knight" is a nun with a certain interest in the story. You might say, indeed, that these aren't really stories about the nonexistent knight or the cloven viscount, but rather about their impact on the people around them, including the narrators. What, after all, can you say about half a man or an empty suit of armor?
Well, you can say a few things about those characters, of course. Turns out, for instance, that Medardo, the viscount, survives as two half-men, one of them evil and one of them good. The people of his town don't really like either one of them very much, and eventually you know they'll have to confront each other. As for Agilulf, the empty suit of armor, we learn that he finds his state even more unnerving than you might think; to maintain his relationship with the existing world, he dedicates himself to organizing everything around him perfectly until he becomes quite insufferable.
In other words, these stories begin with the very romantic notion of knightly heroism in war and gradually devolve into much more realistic, banal tales. Only to be expected from an ironic postmodernist like Italo Calvino.
The novels are far more than mere games, however. Good thing, too, or they'd be impossible to read. As I said earlier, they both examine in different ways what it means to live with what you've got. Generally speaking, that idea here has to do with the fact that seeking perfection only makes us miserable.
Agilulf, for instance, seeks perfection wherever he goes, and therefore his fellow knights can't stand him - he's always interrupting their leisure time to organize sentry duty and kitchen supervision and whatnot. Eventually, to prove that he deserves his knighthood, he has to go on a long and pointless journey to prove that the woman he rescued years ago was a virgin. In doing this, he somehow fails to notice that a young woman has fallen in love with him, and that a young man has fallen in love with her. Considering that this guy isn't even there, he causes an enormous amount of trouble just to maintain his own status, never mind seeking perfection.
Similarly, both the good and bad halves of Medardo insist that the elimination of the other half has purified their perception of the world. More importantly, the bisection makes them anxious to introduce everyone else to a like sense of purity. Pretty soon, no one can stand either one of them, including the good half, who preaches goodness whether anyone wants to hear him or not. None of this does Medardo's young nephew any favors, needless to say, and it's even worse news for the young woman both halves of Medardo fall in love with. Evidently, perfection is nothing more than a pain in the rear.
Mind you, although the two stories have these elements in common, they are more than distinct enough to make both worth reading. This is largely a matter of what they emphasize as being the advantages of imperfection. The nephew-narrator of "Viscount" comes to realize that the perfection his uncle seeks leaves no room for exploration or learning, and the nun-narrator of "Knight" realizes that perfection eliminates all adventure - in fact, eliminates the future. Needless to say, it's the manner in which these narrators come to their realizations that make the stories so interesting. I'll say no more about that, except to observe that the nun and the nephew are both social outcasts, which probably isn't an accident.
In some ways, then, "The Nonexistent Knight" and "The Cloven Viscount" come to the same truth from opposite directions, "Knight" from the cleanliness of pure theory and "Viscount" from the dirt of battle wounds. Meanwhile they are both clever, funny and thought-provoking. Combined with "The Baron in the Trees," these stories prove that weird tales can and do cover material that more mainstream novels require pages and pages to deal with. So much for those who consider weird tales to be a waste of time and insist upon realism. I've said it before and I'll say it again - you need both. For the weird stuff, by all means start with "Our Ancestors". Won't take you long and will probably give you a few laughs along the way.
Benshlomo says, Life is strange - your reading should be, too.
Summary of The Nonexistent Knight and The Cloven Viscount
Two novellas: the first, a parody of medieval knighthood told by a nun; the second, a fantasy about a nobleman bisected into his good and evil halves. ?Bravura pieces... executed with brilliance and brio?(Chicago Tribune). Translated by Archibald Colquhoun. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book
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