The Baron in the Trees

Calvino's fable tells the life story of young Cosimo, who, disgusted with the state of the world--and with his parents in particular--expresses his rebellion by climbing into the trees, vowing never to come down.

"A truly delicious fantasy...deserves to be read for its brio, for its charm, for the sheer fun of reading it." - (New York Herald Tribune Book Review)

"Italo Calvino has tackled a quixotic theme in the novel at hand, and I am happy to say that he has the narrative leisure and the style to do it at least initial justice. He also realizes that psychology can be a wet blanket in comedy. This is the reason, I think, why he sets his scene in an era long before the present one where nasty Dr. Freud compels writers to make their people so unbearably lifelike...Mr. Calvino seems to have intended nothing less than the deliberate transmutation of fantastic notion into universal allegory. Since he is not Cervantes he does not succeed--yet we are freque - Dorothy Dusek (New York Times Book Review, 10/11/59)

"THE BARON IN THE TREES takes to living in the wooded canopy of his estates as a boy and uses his ingenuity in order to never come down. Set before and during the Napoleonic Wars, this is a modern philosophical tale derived from the 18th century philosophical tale. It is full of wit and surprises." - J. F. Chaney (Salon, 6/21/99)

'A tour de force...a stunning one, which consists in making us believe that life in the trees is as natural as life on earth...a wonder and a delight." - (Saturday Review)

top literary genres books

Push - Sapphire +w Claireece Precious Jones is an overweight, illiterate black teenager pregnant...  read more

2.  Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen +w 3.  The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold +w 4.  Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister - Gregory Maguire +w 5.  Wicked - Gregory Maguire +w 6.  Dead to the World - Charlaine Harris +w 7.  The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky +w 8.  The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini +w 9.  Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk +w 10.  The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd +w

top conflicts & dualities books

My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult +w Kate Fitzgerald has had leukemia since she was 2 years old, and her family...  read more

2.  Dead As A Doornail - Charlaine Harris +w 3.  The Pact - Jodi Picoult +w 4.  Vanishing Acts - Jodi Picoult +w 5.  Salem Falls - Jodi Picoult +w 6.  Say You're One of Them - Uwem Akpan +w 7.  The Road - Cormac McCarthy +w 8.  Mirror Mirror - Gregory Maguire +w 9.  Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman +w 10.  Interview With the Vampire - Anne Rice +w