Italo Calvino, Why Read the Classics? (London, 1999)
From the review by John Sutherland in the Guardian, 17 July 1999
There is a humbling aspect to this collection for the reflective Anglo-Saxon reader. Well read Italians, like well read Germans, are palpably more international in their frame of cultural reference than the average Briton or American. These other countries invariably rank near the top in Unesco's translation indexes — while we, with our "world language" — inevitably come bottom. British book trade wisdom is that there are two sure ways to lose money: publishing poetry and publishing translations. Calvino's chosen texts range across eight national literatures. My guess is that a good third of them will not be found in print in English translation.
[Anm. des Herausgebers: Es bleibt also wohl nichts anderes übrig, als sie im Original zu lesen! Entweder das, oder sich's in der angelsächsischen Kulturprovinz bequem machen — und provinziell bleiben.]