Two novellas: the first, a parody of medieval knighthood; the second, a fantasy about a nobleman bisected into his good and evil halves. Two allegorical, satirical novellas: THE NONEXISTENT KNIGHT is the tale of a suit of armor that performs the duties of a knight better than a human ever could because he can remain emotionally detached; THE CLOVEN VISCOUNT tells the story of a philosophical aristocrat, accidentally split in two by a cannonball, who …showed first 75 words of 1226 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1226 total…Italo Calvino was one of Italy's greatest and most powerful writers. His superb storytelling earned him worldwide renown. Calvino saw how fables functioned both as repositories of idealistic, ethical or practical wisdom and as a technique for expressing fears or hopes when more direct forms of verbal communication might prove traumatic. Although loneliness is an essential condition in his writings, he imbues his stories with passion and celebrates the human capacity for love and imagination.