If on a winter’s night a traveler
Introduction + Context
Plot Summary
Detailed Summary & Analysis
Chapter 1 If on a winter’s night a traveler Chapter 2 Outside the town of Malbork Chapter 3 Leaning from the steep slope Chapter 4 Without fear of wind or vertigo Chapter 5 Looks down in the gathering shadow Chapter 6 In a network of lines that enlace Chapter 7 In a network of lines that intersect Chapter 8 On the carpet of leaves illuminated by the moon Chapter 9 Around an empty grave Chapter 10 What story down there awaits its end? Chapter 11 Chapter 12
Themes
All Themes The Act of Reading Academia and Publishing Censorship and Government Oppression Love, Lust, and Anxiety
Quotes
Characters
All Characters The Narrator You (The Reader) Ludmilla (The Other Reader) Lotaria Ermes Marana Silas Flannery Uzzi Tuzii Irnerio Italo Calvino Mr. Cavedagna Corinna Madam Miyagi The Woman Who Sells Suitcases Ponko Mr. Okeda Mr. Kauderer the Farmer Bookseller Chief Gorin Mr. Kauderer the Meteorologist Miss Zwida Franziska Faustino Higueras Valerian Arkadian Porphyrich Jan
Symbols
All Symbols Books Trains
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If on a winter’s night a traveler

by

Italo Calvino
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If on a winter’s night a traveler Symbols

Books

Calvino’s If on a winter’s night a traveler is a book about books, and in it, books symbolize knowledge—specifically how the truth can appear simple on the surface but becomes complicated and fragmented upon…

read analysis of Books

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Trains

The trains that appear in this novel, most prominently in the titular If on a winter’s night a traveler, symbolize how reading is a journey that can transport readers to new and unexpected places…

read analysis of Trains

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