Abstract

Celebrating an anniversary means recalling the elapsed time and the way Cosimo Piovasco di Rondò looks his age today; but it also means going back with memory to the time this young disobedient was born. In this way, this paper tries to draw a quick picture of the period in which Italo Calvino wrote "The Baron in the Trees", with particular attention to the Einaudi's background. Using five keywords as compass - fairy tale, Nievo, History, Rousseau and isolation - I will try to identify books, authors or entire editorial lines which had influences on the novel's conception and writing.