The Baron in the Trees
On the fifteenth of June, 1767, twelve-year-old Cosimo Piovasco di Rondò refuses to eat a plate of snails his aristocratic father has ordered served at dinner, climbs out the window of the family villa in Ombrosa, and settles himself in a holm oak with the promise that he will never come down again. He does not. Over the following six decades, Cosimo lives his entire adult life in the canopies of the trees of Liguria, courts and loses Viola the neighbor girl, corresponds with Voltaire, fights bandits, leads a liberation of the local peasantry, and watches Napoleon pass below. Italo Calvino's 1957 novel is the second volume of the Our Ancestors trilogy, narrated in affectionate hindsight by Cosimo's younger brother Biagio, and remains one of the great modernist fables of willed eccentricity.
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In 1767, twelve-year-old Cosimo Piovasco di Rondò leaves the family table after a fight over snails and climbs the holm oak in the garden. He never returns to the ground, and the novel walks through his life in the trees.
The Baron in the Trees was written by Italo Calvino and originally published in Italian in 1957. It is the second book in his Our Ancestors trilogy, alongside The Cloven Viscount and The Nonexistent Knight. Each is a fable for adults.
The Baron in the Trees is shorter and more linear than If on a Winter's Night a Traveler or Invisible Cities. The premise (a baron who decides to live in trees and never come down) is fable-like. Most readers find it accessible.
The Baron in the Trees is 275 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Baron in the Trees takes most readers 4 to 6 hours to finish.
The Baron in the Trees is a standalone novel by Italo Calvino, not part of a series.
The Baron in the Trees is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.