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Outside the town of Malbork
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in If on a winter’s night a traveler, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Act of Reading
Academia and Publishing
Censorship and Government Oppression
Love, Lust, and Anxiety
Summary
Analysis
You (the Reader) use a paperknife to cut into the book you’re reading. As you look at the book, you realize there was a printing error and there’s only text on one side of the pages. You begin to suspect that the book you’re holding might not really be Outside the Town of Malbork after all, since names like Brigd aren’t Polish. You realize instead that the story must be set in the country of Cimmeria.
By now, the novel has settled into a rhythm where the audience knows to expect the novel’s embedded stories to end abruptly, but interestingly, each story gets cut off for different reasons in each case. Although there have been real groups of people called Cimmerians, the few details that Calvino gives here about the time and place of Cimmeria make it clear that it is a fictional country.
Themes
You want to contact the Other Reader, whose name it turns out is Ludmilla, but when you call, you instead get her sister, Lotaria. Lotaria says Ludmilla is always reading. She asks you several questions about the book you’re currently reading, which you can’t answer since you’re still not sure about which book you actually have.
Lotaria is the opposite of Ludmilla in many ways, and her first appearance in the novel establishes this by presenting her as standoffish and suspicious instead of welcoming, like Lotaria. This reflects how Ludmilla is open to new experiences but Lotaria is more set in her ways.
Themes
Lotaria invites you to a seminar at a local university, but you don’t want to commit to anything. Eventually Lotaria reveals that Ludmilla doesn’t actually live with her and Ludmilla just gives Lotaria’s number to people she wants to keep at a distance. You are disappointed, until all of a sudden, a new voice comes over the phone line, and it’s Ludmilla herself.
This is the first of many times in the story when the narrator’s audience doubts the strength of his connection to Ludmilla. His anxieties reflect how difficult it can be to know what another person is thinking and specifically how it can be difficult to know what someone else will think when they read something.
Themes
You (the Reader) and Ludmilla confirm that you both have the same Cimmerian novel. The two of you make plans to speak with Professor Uzzi Tuzii, a professor of Cimmerian literature that Ludmilla knows. Later, you go to the university alone but struggle to find either Ludmilla or the professor. Eventually, you run into a mysterious young man named Irnerio who offers to take you to Uzzi Tuzii.
The narrator’s audience’s journey to finally read the end of a story takes him to many of the different places traditionally associated with books, first a bookstore and now a university. The novel is an exploration not just of what books contain but also the places and culture that spring up around books.
Themes
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Irnerio reveals to you that even though he’s a student, he never reads. The trick is simply to look at words on the page so intensely that they disappear. Irnerio takes you to a room at the university that seems to be closed for renovation and leaves you there. But as you enter, you realize that a man you thought was a painter is actually Uzzi Tuzii.
Irnerio embodies the type of person who likes to appear knowledgeable and likes the culture around books but who doesn’t actually like the physical act of reading. Irnerio shows once again how readers won’t necessarily have the same experience with a book and how it’s possible for some people to read a book without understanding its content.
Themes
Uzzi Tuzii asks if you (the Reader) really came to learn about Cimmerian literature, implying that perhaps you really came to see Ludmilla (who still hasn’t arrived). You agree to hear more about Cimmeria. The professor tells you that Cimmerian is a dead language, and so his whole department is dead. You insist that in spite of this, you’re still interested. You begin mentioning how your novel has characters in it with names like Ponko, Zwida Ozkart, and Brigd.
While Irnerio is honest about his unusual motivations for looking at books, the narrator’s audience seems to be genuinely conflicted about why he reads. Although he claims to be interested in Cimmeria, it’s clear that Ludmilla plays a big role in motivating his ongoing reading quest. Still, there really does seem to be a part of the narrator’s audience that is naturally fascinated by seeing the end of stories, which harmonizes with his desire for Ludmilla.
Themes
Uzzi Tuzii says the book you’re thinking of must be Leaning from the steep slope by the Cimmerian poet Ukko Ahti. But when you start the book, you realize that although some of the proper names are similar, everything else about the book seems very unfamiliar.
By this point, Calvino’s audience is familiar with the novel’s structure, and the struggle of the book’s unnamed “you” to never finish a story becomes humorous as he finds himself in increasingly improbable situations.
Themes
