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La Bella Lingua: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language [NOOK Book]
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In this charming love letter to the language and culture of Italy, journalist Hales recounts her inebriation with Italian's sounds and her lovesickness over its phrases. Enamored of this lovely and lovable language, Hales immerses herself in Italian culture on numerous trips to Italy in her attempt to "live Italian." She comes to think of Italian as "a lovable rascal, a clever, twinkle-eyed scamp that you can't resist even when it plays you for a fool." Hales regales us with the mysteries of the language, such as when a color becomes more than hue. She tells us that yellow, for example, refers to a mystery "because thrillers traditionally had yellow covers." In her rapture over the language, she also swoons over Italian literature (from Dante to Manzoni), opera (Verdi and Puccini) and cinema (Marcello Mastroianni and Fellini) as she rehearses the many ways in which the language has seductively slipped into Western culture and consciousness. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.By interspersing interviews and anecdotes from her life in Italy, Hales, an American journalist and health writer (An Invitation to Health), interweaves her story of learning to speak Italian with highlights of the language's development. Hales explores political history, biographies of powerful artistic contributors, the widespread and continued use of local dialects, and, of course, food. Likewise, readers are treated to interviews with the likes of the president of the revered L'Accademia della Crusca, where Hales touched the society's first dictionary, nearly 400 years old. She portrays riveting performances of Dante and Verdi in Rome and Milan, and she describes how she could consistently hear from the mouths of ordinary Italians Dante's or Verdi's beautiful lyrics specifically crafted to be read aloud or sung. A word lover yet not a linguist, Hales offers helpful but not in-depth or technical linguistic background, so the bibliography is valuable. An enthusiastic cultural tour guide and introduction to Italian, this is recommended for public libraries.
—Marianne Orme
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction: My Italian Brain and How It Grew 1
Confessions of an Innamorata 13
The Unlikely Rise of a Vulgar Tongue 35
To Hell and Back with Dante Alighieri 59
Italian's Literary Lions 79
The Baking of a Masterpiece 102
How Italian Civilized the West 122
La Storia dell'Arte 142
On Golden Wings 164
Eating Italian 190
So Many Ways to Say "I Love You" 211
Marcello and Me 235
Irreverent Italian 256
Mother Tongue 274
Glossary 291
Bibliography 301
Reader's Guide 312
For anyone who has been enchanted by the always beautiful, often frustrating Italian language and tried to grasp its basics as well as its intricacies, Dianne's tales will not only ring true but also comfort you.
From obscure word etymologies to entertaining anecdotes, La Bella Lingua will keep you turning pages, nodding along in agreement, laughing, and even learning-I picked up quite a few new words myself.
And Dianne's writing? A sheer pleasure. Truly.
La Bella Lingua is a *must* for any lover of the Italian language; it assolutamente warrants five espresso cups out of five.
~ Michelle of Bleeding Espresso
http://bleedingespresso.com
4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted July 4, 2009
I loved Dianne Hales book "La bella lingua"! It is a great read for anybody in love with Italian language and culture.
Her witty writing style and thorough observer of human nature added to the fun of reading this book.
I highly recommend it for anybody taking an Italian class, I'm going to pass it around in my own.
I was sad when I finished it and I'm now re-reading some chapters.
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted November 26, 2011
Good
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.MulgaBill
Posted July 19, 2011
Dianne Hales book "La Bella Lingua" is a delightful work for those who just KNOW they were Italian in previous life!
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted May 20, 2011
While the introduction to this book is lovely and witty the following chapters spend far more time eulogizing and fawning over Dante than they discuss the Italian language or Italians themselves. This is a great read if you're a linguist anthropologist but not if you wish simply to be entertained.
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Overview
“Italians say that someone who acquires a new language ‘possesses’ it. In my case, Italian possesses me. With Italian racing like blood through my veins, I do indeed see with different eyes, hear with different ears, and drink in the world with all my senses…”A celebration of the language and culture of Italy, La Bella Lingua is the story of how a language shaped a nation, told against the backdrop of one woman’s personal quest to speak fluent Italian.
For anyone who has been to Italy, the fantasy of living the Italian life is powerfully seductive. But to truly become Italian, one ...