| Captain Corelli's Mandolin | |
|---|---|
1st Edition front cover |
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| Author(s) | Louis de Bernières |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Historical, Romance, War novel |
| Publisher | Secker & Warburg |
| Publication date | 1994 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 544 |
| ISBN | 0-436-20158-5 |
Captain Corelli's Mandolin, released simultaneously as Corelli's Mandolin.[1] in the United States, is a 1994[2] novel written by Louis de Bernières which takes place on the island of Cephallonia (Kefalonia) during the Italian and German occupation of World War II. The main characters are Antonio Corelli, an Italian captain, and Pelagia, the daughter of the local physician, Dr. Iannis. An important event in the novel is the massacre of Italian troops by the Germans in September 1943 -- the Italian Acqui Division had refused to surrender and fought the Germans for nine days before running out of ammunition. Some 1,500 Italian soldiers died in the fighting, 5,000 were massacred after surrendering and the rest shipped to Germany -- although 3,000 drowned when the ship carrying them hit a mine.
Contents |
Captain Corelli's Mandolin explores many varieties of love. We see the initial lust-based love between Pelagia and Mandras, which burns out as a result of the war, and the change it prompts in both of them. Corelli and Pelagia's slow-developing love is the central focus of the novel. Love is described by Dr. Iannis as "what is left when the passion has gone", and it certainly appears that this criterion is fulfilled by the love of Corelli and Pelagia. The paternal love of Iannis for Pelagia is also strong and is heavily compared and contrasted to that of Corelli.
The theme of music is predominant, offering a direct contrast to the horror and destruction that the war brings, showing how something beautiful can arise from something horrible.
The war is described in graphic detail, particularly the death of Francesco. It is responsible for the fall of Mandras and Weber, the deaths of Carlo and Francesco, and the separation of Pelagia and Corelli.
Throughout the novel, de Bernières takes a harsh view of all forms of totalitarianism, condemning Fascism, Nazism, and Communism alike. De Bernières described this as a novel about "what happens to the little people when megalomaniacs get busy."
Another theme of the novel is the study of history. Dr. Iannis spends much of his spare time attempting to write a history of Cephallonia, but often finds his personal feelings and biases running through whatever he writes. There is also a strong feeling against 'professional' history which is suggested by Carlo Guercio's statement that "I know that if we [the axis] win then there will be stories about mass graves in London and vice versa". This is reinforced by De Bernières' quotation that: "history ought to be made up of the stories of ordinary people only." From this viewpoint it can be seen that de Bernières as very much a revisionist historian, considering social history superior to that of political.
De Bernières takes an ambiguous attitude toward heroism and villainy in the novel: many of the characters, despite committing atrocities, are viewed as human victims of bad circumstances. For example, the character Günter Weber carries a great degree of sympathy from the writer, even though he fully engages with the Nazi ideology and is guilty of taking part in the killing of an entire Italian division. Despite having become friends with many of the men, he must follow orders. Similarly, Mandras is guilty of murder, torture and rape, yet the author portrays him sympathetically: "just another life tarnished... by war."
Near the end of the novel (Chapter 62), Pelagia receives a photograph from Günter Weber with a German passage from Goethe's "Faust" (also a very popular German Lied, set to music by Schubert: Gretchen am Spinnrad) written on the back. It reads:
Meine Ruh ist hin,
Mein Herz ist schwer,
Ich finde sie nimmer
und nimmermehr.
Which translates as:
My peace is gone,
My heart is sore [lit. "heavy"],
I will find it never
and nevermore.
De Bernières has denied that the character of Corelli is based on Amos Pampaloni who was then an Italian artillery captain in Cephellonia, despite the many similarities in their stories. Pampaloni survived execution, joined ELAS, the Partisans in the Greek civil war, and fought with them in Epirus for 14 months. Pampaloni was interviewed by the Guardian newspaper in 2000[3] and expressed the view that the novel was unduly critical of the Greek left.
The novel also shows some similarities to Bandiera bianca a Cefalonia, a novel by Marcello Venturi published in 1963, translated in English as The White Flag (1969).
1995 - Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book
2004 - 19th place on The Big Read
The novel was adapted as four 45-minute radio plays from 17–20 September 2007 on BBC Radio 4, having been chosen as a popular 'Book of the Week' on the same station some years earlier. The episode titles were "A Pea in the Ear," "Invasion of the Italians," "Looking for Snails" and "Earthquake." It was narrated by Tom Goodman-Hill, with Celia Meiras as Pelagia, Stephen Greif as Dr Iannis, Daniel Philpott as Corelli. The mandolin music for it was composed and performed by Alison Stephens, and the production was produced and directed by David Hunter. Other cast members included:
A film version of Captain Corelli's Mandolin was released in 2001, with Nicolas Cage as the Italian Captain Corelli, John Hurt as Dr. Iannis, and Penélope Cruz as his daughter, Pelagia. It also starred Christian Bale and Irene Papas. It was directed by John Madden.
In 2011, the Mercury Theatre of Colchester, UK and Kote Marjanishvili Theatre of Tbilisi, Georgia produced an adaptation written by Mike Maran and directed by Levan Tsuladze. The production combined live actors and puppetry. The production had its premiere in Georgia at the Tbilisi International Festival in October 2011 before transferring to the Mercury.[4][5]