Italo Calvino, William Weaver (translator) · 1979 (Eng. 1981) · EPUB · Calibre ID 7787
Resurfaced in Only the Incipit (2026-09-30).
Role in the triad
The theory of the incipit as narrative promise; ten broken-off first chapters; Flannery’s wish for a book that is only a beginning.
Why this book
Flannery’s diary (ch. 8) states the fascination, the wish and the copyist’s vocation; ch. 7 gives the counter-view that every first line refers to something already begun, which is the hinge to Jullien. The ten titles form one unfinished sentence (ch. 11).
Quotations
Verified against the book’s own text on the day of the reading.
- “I would like to be able to write a book that is only an incipit, that maintains for its whole duration the potentiality of the beginning, the expectation still not focused on an object.” (ch. 8)
- “it is the promise of a time of reading that extends before us and can comprise all possible developments.” (ch. 8)
- “Everything has already begun before, the first line of the first page of every novel refers to something that has already happened outside the book.” (ch. 7)
- “For an instant I seem to understand the meaning and fascination of a now inconceivable vocation: that of the copyist.” (ch. 8)
- “if you need little to set the imagination going, I require even less: the promise of reading is enough.” (ch. 11)
- “Just a moment, I’ve almost finished If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino.” (ch. 12)
Themes
Arabian Nights · copyist · incipit · interruption · narrative promise · reader · second person