15 h 21 minAudiobook6 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
A joke becomes a memory, and a memory becomes a sharp look at the ways people fool themselves.
In Scraps, Lorenzo Stecchetti turns short prose into a place for wit, memory, and scrutiny. Sketches, essays, and reflections move between playful mockery and a plain look at human weakness. There is no single plot to follow. Instead, each small piece offers another chance to notice how people behave—and what solemn words can hide.
Stecchetti is the pen name of Olindo Guerrini, the Italian writer and Bologna librarian known for his mocking, playful voice. Here, irony takes the air out of solemn claims, while memory gives remembered people, places, and customs their weight. The appeal lies in those quick changes of direction: laughter opens the door, and reflection asks you to stay.
What you’ll discover
- Wit as a lens See how a mocking eye makes solemn claims look less certain and human habits more revealing.
- Small memories with weight Find reflections that give remembered people, places, and customs room to matter.
- An irreverent voice Meet a writer whose playful skepticism challenges pious speech and polite literary fashion.
- Quick turns of thought Move from a joke to a memory, then toward a harder look at behavior.
- Human weakness in view Explore the gap between solemn claims and the habits that invite a writer's mockery.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy a witty, opinionated voice, the literary quarrels of nineteenth century Italy, mountain walks, sly satire of officials and priests, and the small human stories that sit beside big history.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A young man learns to be a writer
- Family tenderness and the weather
- Libraries and the machinery of the state
- Mountains, fog and the open air
- Priests, miracles and love stories
- Politics, the poor and the comfortable
- Portraits of poets, rulers and historians
- Literature, taste and the novel
- A voice that still carries
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Scraps in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Scraps
A young poet leaves his first article in a pipe-smoke fog, and a whole irreverent Italy unfolds.
Challenging10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Imagine a young man with an enthusiastic article and a head full of nerve, walking into a newspaper office so thick with smoke that he cannot see the desk. That is where Scraps begins.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A young man learns to be a writer
The book opens with a confession. In the winter of 1868 the author lets his family think he is studying law. He graduates anyway, after a tipsy thesis that praises liberty and abuses popes.
Then Carducci's Levia Gravia comes out, and the young reader is delighted. He writes a muddled, enthusiastic article and carries it to a republican paper. The editorial room is so full of pipe smoke that he can barely make out the desk.
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What is Scraps by Lorenzo Stecchetti about?
It is a collection of short newspaper pieces from the early 1880s. They include comic sketches, mountain walks, small tales, reviews of poets and historians, and essays on libraries, divorce, miracles and politics, all in a witty voice.
Who was Lorenzo Stecchetti?
Lorenzo Stecchetti was the pen name of Olindo Guerrini, an Italian poet and librarian who died in 1916. He wrote in the circle of Carducci and published Postuma, a book of poems that made his name.
Is Scraps a novel or a collection?
It is a collection of separate pieces. You can read them in any order, since each one has its own subject, from a comic confession to a literary review to a short story.
The author
Lorenzo Stecchetti
1845–1916 · Italian poet
Lorenzo Stecchetti was a pen name of Olindo Guerrini, an Italian poet and writer. He was born in Forlì in 1845 and died in Bologna in 1916. He wrote poetry in Italian and in the Romagnol dialect. His poetry collection Postuma was published in 1877.
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