Raven Book (Traduttore) & Cesare Pavese 
The Beautiful Summer [EPUB ebook] 

The Beautiful Summer is a trilogy of short novels published in Turin in 1949. The Beautiful Summer was written in 1940 under the title La tenda; The Devil in the Hills dates from 1948, and Among Women Only from 1949. The protagonist of the first novel is the very young Ginia, who works in a fashion atelier and lives with her brother Severino. She meets the more experienced Amelia, who leads her through a kind of initiation ritual, encouraging her to leave behind adolescent prejudices and modesty. Amelia occasionally works as a model for painters and introduces Ginia to Rodriguez and Guido—the latter serving in the military—two artists with very different personalities. Personal relationships intertwine: Ginia falls in love with Guido, while Amelia’s ambiguous relationship with Rodriguez is complicated by her love for Ginia and her consequent jealousy toward Guido. Eventually, Ginia decides to pose nude for Guido but, overwhelmed by shame, distances herself from all three. Later, she reunites with Amelia—who has in the meantime recovered from syphilis contracted with another woman—and it seems that both have completed their journey toward maturity and a sense of responsibility. The Devil in the Hills follows three university students—Pieretto, Oreste, and the unnamed narrator—who spend their nights wandering through the hills of Turin, drinking and engaging in deep conversations. During one of these nocturnal excursions, they meet Poli, a wealthy young man who seems interested in their discussions, though his privileged background prevents him from truly appreciating their spontaneity. Poli drags along his barely tolerated lover, Rosalba, who, betrayed and humiliated, ends up shooting him—wounding him—and later takes her own life. The three friends then decide to spend the summer in the countryside at Oreste’s family home. However, during their stay, they encounter Poli again, this time accompanied by his beautiful wife, Gabriella. Oreste falls in love with Gabriella, and she seems to reciprocate his feelings, but when Poli, weakened by tuberculosis, has to return to Milan, she ultimately chooses to stay with him. The contrast between the simplicity and naturalness of rural life and the corruption, boredom, and decadence embodied by Poli and the enigmatic Gabriella seems to push the three friends toward a more mature awareness. Among Women Only serves as an indictment of the wealthy bourgeoisie in the aftermath of the war. Clelia, a woman from Turin who has built a successful career in the fashion industry in Rome, returns to her hometown to open a new boutique on Via Po. This endeavor draws her into a world of corruption and vice, represented through three women: Rosetta, Momina, and Mariella, each embodying different aspects of this decadent society and the clash of contrasting psychologies. In this struggle, cynicism and boredom prevail, leading Rosetta to two suicide attempts—the second of which is successful—while Momina remains cynical and Mariella reacts with foolish indifference. Clelia is powerless in the face of this tragedy, and her despair makes her attempt to reconnect with the lost innocence of her childhood seem impossible. This nostalgic longing forms the novel’s central theme, with the only positive moment emerging from her fleeting relationship with the working-class Becuccio. The other male characters are deliberately insignificant, serving only to emphasize the pettiness and decay of the world of villas and high-society gatherings. The novel Among Women Only was later adapted into Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1955 film Le amiche (The Girlfriends).