It was written in Florence between December 1943 and July 1944, during the German occupation, and published by Einaudi publishing house by September 1945. It was immediately a great success and aroused debates and reflections on the relationship between peasant civilisation and modernisation. The book represents for Italian literature one of the masterpieces and, in Carlo Levi’s life, the beginning of his writing activity.
The cover of the first edition reads: “As in a journey to the beginning of time, Cristo si è fermato ad Eboli tells the discovery of a different civilization. It is that of the peasants of Southern Italy: out of history and progressive Reason, ancient wisdom and patient pain. The book, however, is not a diary: it was written many years after the direct experience from which it originated, when real impressions no longer had the
prosastic urgency of the document [… ] the reader can find in it a reason for poetry, a world of language, a mirror of the soul, and the key to otherwise incomprehensible historical, economic, political and social problems.”
Click below to find the PDF of the entire work: READ
At the following link you will find the reading of Cristo si è fermato ad Eboli, on RAI radio, in the broadcast AD Alta Voce: LISTEN
