Alberto Arbasino’s Autocronologia: A Self-Portrait as Infinite Catalogue

Adelphi has published Autocronologia, a new volume on Alberto Arbasino curated by Raffaele Manica. The book expands on the earlier Mondadori Meridiano, adding 250 pages focused on Arbasino’s youth and his final years up to his death in 2020. It blends biographical portrait with Arbasino’s distinctive rapid, erudite prose, avoiding sentimentality. The first part covers his formative years and critique of provincial Italy. The second section (1950–1980) recounts encounters with Borges, Pasolini, Calvino, Tennessee Williams, and Truman Capote, highlighting his rejection of ideological commitment in favor of irony. Later chapters examine his analysis of theater and opera, his obsession with rewriting classics, and his role as a detached moralist observing cultural and political decay. The volume also references his unfinished works like Un ingegnere in blu and Un paese senza, described as open archives. Arbasino’s farewell to friends from Gadda to Moravia closes the book, reflecting on his status as a living classic and his belonging to a fading European literary civilization.