History (113 page)

page
130.
Negus
was a term well-known also in the US at the time. Here it is an insult because it refers to Nino's outlandish getup.

page 141. Morra.
A game for two or more players in which each participant throws a number of fi in his right hand while simultaneously calling out a number. The player to call the correct number of total fi wins.

56 1

page
174
fl
The reversed name order, placing the surname before the first name (as

here in Vivaldi Carlo ), is a European usage that generally means the tone is either offi or working·class or peasant. Thus when Eppetondo presents himself as Cuc chiarelli Giuseppe it shows he is working-class . The author uses the form frequently especially in the case of Vivaldi Carlo-to indicate how others think of the person in ques

page
180.
Castelli.
The Castelli Romani are a group of towns scattered over the Alban hills south of Rome. As the name suggests, they were the si tes of castles of Popes and Roman patrician families. There are more than a dozen Castelli, including Frascati, Albano, Castel Gandolfo, Nemi, etc.

page
225.
PAL Polizia Afri Italiana. A mili tary police force set up by the Fascists originally for their African territories, but functioning also later in Rome, where its members collaborated actively with the Nazis. See also pages
286-

page
304.
Segnorine.
GI's in Italy in
1943-4
used to accost young women, saying "Seg nori (mispronouncing "Signorina" ) . Among Italians the mispronunciation soon came to mean prostitute or, more specifi a girl who went with the Allied soldiers.

page
506.
Seneghin seneghin:
a disparaging term for Jew in the dialect of the region of Emilia, used at the turn of the century.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ELSA MORANTE was born in Rome in
1912.
Her

previous books include two volumes of poetry, a collection of stories, and three novels, among them
Arturo's Island,
which was published by Alfred A. Knopf in
19 59.