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Elena Ferrante (Italian pronunciation: [ˈɛːlena ferˈrante]) is a pseudonymous Italian novelist. Ferrante's books, originally published in Italian, have been translated into many languages. Her four-book series of Neapolitan Novels are her most widely known works.
Jul 12, 2024 · July 12, 2024. Seemingly overnight, Elena Ferrante — or rather, the novelist writing as Elena Ferrante — found worldwide acclaim. Her novels were everywhere: You couldn’t swing a tote bag...
- Joumana Khatib
- Overview
- Biography
- Early work
- My Brilliant Friend series and later novels
- Other work
- Identity
Elena Ferrante (born, Naples, Italy) pseudonym used by an anonymous Italian author best known for the so-called Neapolitan novels, which begin with My Brilliant Friend (2011). Her books explore the complexities and contradictions of being a contemporary, educated woman. Female narrators describe, sometimes with unsettling candour, their ambivalence...
Little is known about Ferrante, who agrees to few interviews and conducts them only through e-mail. She has often said, “My identity, my sex can be found in my writing.” Indeed, critics have cobbled together a few biographical details based on her work and published interviews, essays, and correspondence. They are relatively confident that Ferrante...
In 1992 Ferrante made her literary debut with L’amore molesto (Troubling Love), which follows middle-aged Delia as she returns to her native Naples to reconstruct the last days of her mother, whose body is found almost entirely naked and drowned in a river. In the lead-up to the novel’s release, Ferrante refused to do any publicity for it, writing to her editor, “I’ve already done enough for this long story: I’ve written it.” Ferrante remained true to her word, even as the novel received dazzling reviews in Italy and was adapted into a feature film (1995) by Italian director Mario Martone.
Ferrante did not publish again until a decade later, when she released I giorni dell’abbandono (2002; The Days of Abandonment). Her second novel is narrated by 38-year-old Olga, who suffers a violent breakdown after her husband leaves her for a younger woman. Once again, Ferrante’s book received positive reviews, and it was adapted for the big screen in 2005—this time by Italian director Roberto Faenza. That same year the book became the first of Ferrante’s works to be introduced to English-speaking readers. Elegantly translated by Ann Goldstein, then an editor at The New Yorker, the book received glowing reviews in the United States. Goldstein translated Troubling Love in 2006 and thereafter became the English translator for all of Ferrante’s books.
In 2011 Ferrante, already a well-regarded international author, surged to even greater celebrity with the publication of L’amica geniale (My Brilliant Friend). It was the first of four novels that follow narrator Elena Greco and her childhood friend—and sometime rival—Lila Cerullo. The two intelligent young women attempt to forge their way out of poverty-stricken Naples through diametrical paths. Lila is forced to abandon her studies and marry, while Elena convinces her parents to allow her to pursue an education. In the subsequent books—Storia del nuovo cognome (2012; The Story of a New Name), Storia di chi fugge e di chi resta (2013; Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay), and Storia della bambina perduta (2014; The Story of the Lost Child)—readers follow Elena and Lila as they grapple with the consequences of those fateful decisions. The honest portrayal of their friendship as it ebbs and flows connected with readers around the world. The beloved novels were soon adapted into a well-reviewed television series that premiered in 2018.
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Ferrante’s follow-up to her magnum opus was the novel La vita bugiarda degli adulti (The Lying Life of Adults). In 2019, when the book was published in Italy, fans were so eager to get their hands on a Ferrante novel after a five-year wait that they lined up at bookstores for the midnight release. The story centres around Giovanna Trada, who wavers between the middle-class Naples of her well-mannered parents and the gritty Naples of her estranged Aunt Vittoria. By the time the book was published globally in 2020, Netflix had already struck a deal to adapt it into a series; it was released in 2023 to mostly positive reviews.
In addition to her novels, Ferrante published books on the writing process, including La frantumaglia (2003; Frantumaglia: A Writer’s Journey) and I margini e il dettato (2021; In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing). A collection of the essays she wrote for The Guardian in 2018 were published under the title L’invenzione occasiona...
As Ferrante’s popularity rose, so did speculation about her identity. Over the years various names have been put forth, including Marcella Marmo, a professor working in Naples, and Domenico Starnone, an Italian author who lives in Rome. In 2016 Italian investigative journalist Claudio Gatti published a controversial exposé contending that Elena Fer...
Elena Ferrante is the author of The Days of Abandonment (Europa, 2005), Troubling Love (Europa, 2006), and The Lost Daughter (Europa, 2008), now a film directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal and starring Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, and Jessie Buckley.
Clare Thorp explores the extraordinary phenomenon of ‘Ferrante fever’. A searing new novel by the mysterious author is as unflinching as her millions of fans have come to expect.
Jan 12, 2019 · Elena Ferrante is a pseudonymous Italian novelist. Ferrante's books, originally published in Italian, have been translated into many languages. Her four-book series of Neapolitan Novels are her most widely known works.
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May 17, 2018 · Elena Ferrante is a woman without a face, whose identity is known only to her Italian publisher, E/O. Her name is a pseudonym, its sound a discreet homage to the great Italian novelist Elsa...
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