Appendix (Appendice, 1938)

The Appendix includes all of the stories that were collected neither by Pirandello himself in the first 14 Collections of Stories for a Year, assembled between 1922 and 1936, nor by the editors who compiled the posthumous Collection A Single Day (Una giornata; Milan: Mondadori, 1937) immediately after his unexpected death.

The Appendix likewise includes six “extravagant” stories, as they were defined by Pirandello’s publishers at Mondadori – that is to say, six stories that were never collected during Pirandello’s life and that were discovered by his editor, Manlio Lo Vecchio-Musti. We list these separately at the end here, although all of them are technically a part of the Appendix.

The definitive order of the 26 stories that constitute the Appendix was established in the authoritative edition published by Mondadori in their series I Meridiani.

Only nine of these stories were previously collected in volumes preceding the creation of Pirandello’s Stories for a Year: “The Wave,” “The Signorina,” and “The Wives’ Friend” all appeared in the first collection, Loveless Loves (Amori senza amore, Rome: Stabilimento Bontempelli editore, 1894); “The Twelve Letters” and “Prudence” were included eight years later in When I Was Crazy (Quand’ero matto; Turin: Streglio, 1902); “Mrs. Hope” was a part of Jests of Death and Life (Beffe della morte e della vita; Florence: Lumachì, 1902); “Master Love” was collected in The Two Masks (Le due maschere; Florence: Quattrini, 1914) and then re-collected in the subsequent volume You Laugh (Tu ridi; Milan: Treves, 1920); “Interviews with Characters” featured in the earlier volume of Berecche and the War (Berecche e la Guerra; Milan: Facchi, 1919), together with another story from the Appendix, “Fragment of the Chronicle of Marco Leccio and His War on Paper at the Time of Europe’s Great War.” While they were not included in any of the Collections constituting Stories for a Year, these nine thus had played a part in various of Pirandello’s editions of collected short stories from earlier in his career.

The following short stories appeared in various newspapers and magazines: “Little Hut: Sicilian Sketch” in La Gazzetta del popolo della domenica, June 1, 1884; “The Rich Woman” in La tavola rotonda, November 13, 1892; “The Cooper’s Cockerels” in Cenerentola, September 23, 1894; “The Signorina” was published serially in La domenica fiorentina from February through April, 1895; “Anna’s Refusal” was also serialized in the Gazzetta letteraria, September 7, 14, 21, and 28 and October 5, 1895, then edited and republished with a new title, “Lillina and Mita” (“Lillina e Mita”) in Rivista di Roma, April 10, 1906; “The Nest” in La tribuna illustrata, November, 1895; “Dialogues between the Big Me and the Little Me” consists of four chapters, which were published with separate titles in different venues before eventually being collected together in the Appendix, namely “Our Wife” (“Nostra moglie,” in La tavola rotunda, November 2, 1895), “The Agreement” (“L’accordo,” in Il Marzocco, June 13, 1897), “The Vigil” (“La vigilia,” in Ariel, December 25, 1897), and “In Society” (“In società,” in II ventesimo, February 4, 1906); “Who Did It?”, on the other hand, appeared in Roma di Roma, June 27-28, 1896; “Christmas on the Rhine” in Roma letteraria, December 24-25, 1896; “A Christmas Dream” in the Rassegna settimanale universale, December 27, 1896; “The Twelve Letters” in La domenica italiana, February 21, 1897; “The Gallant Creditor” in La tribuna, April 21, 1897; “Fear” in La domenica italiana, August 1, 1897; “The Choice” in Ariel, April 10, 1898; “Urban Trees” in II Marzocco, March 4, 1900; “Prudence” in II Marzocco, March 17, 1901; “This Year’s Mass” in II ventesimo, March 5, 1905; “Stefano Giogli, One and Two” in Il Marzocco, April 18, 1909; “Master Love” in Noi e il mondo, August, 1912; “Interviews with Characters” appeared in two parts, published separately in the Giornale di Sicilia, with the first in the issue from August 17-18, 1915 and the second in the issue dated September 11-12, 1915; finally, “The Two Giants” appeared in L’illustrazione italiana, June 4, 1916.

The story “The Wives’ Friend” was the source of a three-act comedy with the same title, which premiered in 1927 and was published by Bemporad in Florence the same year.

The play Other People’s Reason (La ragione degli altri) is based on the short story “The Nest.” The play was written in 1889 and first performed with another title, Not Like That (Non così), in 1915. This was the first three-act comedy in Italian that Pirandello wrote. He had at first envisioned a drama to be titled The Kite (II nibbio; see II Marzocco, April 23, 1889). “The Nest” also served as a source for the plot of his novel, Her Husband (Suo marito; Florence, Quattrini, 1911).

“Fear” provided material that was adapted into a one-act drama published under the title “The Epilogue” (“L’epilogo”) in Ariel (March 20, 1898) and then with the new title “The Vice” (“La morsa”) in Noi e il Mondo (March 1, 1914). The play was first performed in 1910.

The three-act comedy But It’s Nothing Serious (Ma non è una cosa seria) was based on the story “Mrs. Hope,” together with another story derived from it and entitled “It’s Nothing Serious.” The play premiered in 1918.

The three short stories “Interviews with Characters,” “Characters,” and “A Character’s Tragedy” together served as a starting point for the concept that eventually developed into Pirandello’s most famous play, Six Characters in Search of an Author (Sei personaggi in cerca d’autore), which premiered in Rome at the Teatro Valle in 1921.

“Stefano Giogli, One and Two” offered a first version of the idea that would later be developed into Pirandello’s final novel, One, No One, and One Hundred Thousand (Uno, nessuno e centomila), which is also inspired in part by another short story in the Appendix, “Urban Trees” (“Alberi cittadini”). At the same time, “Stefano Giogli” also inspired a comedy in three acts, Mrs. Morii, One and Two (La signora Morii uno e due), which adapted elements from another short story as well, “The Dead and the Living.” The play was performed in 1920 and published in the same year.

In the short story “The Choice” a character named Pinzone appears; he would later feature in the novel The Late Mattia Pascal (Il fu Mattia Pascal).

The Appendix consists of the following 26 stories, plus the “Extravagant” stories, listed separately below:

“Little Hut: Sicilian Sketch” (“Capannetta: bozzetto siciliano”)
“The Wealthy Woman” (“La ricca”)
“The Wave” (“L’onda”)
“The Signorina” (“La signorina”)
“The Wives’ Friend” (“L’amica delle mogli”)
“The Cooper’s Cockerels” (“I galletti del bottajo”)
“Anna’s Refusal” (“Il “no” di Anna”)
“The Nest” (“Il nido”)
“Dialogues between the Big Me and the Little Me” (“Dialoghi tra il Gran me e il piccolo me”)
“Who Did It?” (“Chi fu?”)
“Christmas on the Rhine” (“Natale sul Reno”)
“A Christmas Dream” (“Sogno di Natale”)
“Twelve Letters” (“Le dodici lettere”)
“The Gallant Creditor” (“Creditor galante”)
“Fear” (“La paura”)
“The Choice” (“La scelta”)
“City Trees” (“Alberi cittadini”)
“Prudence” (“Prudenza”)
“Mrs. Hope” (“La signora Speranza”)
“This Year’s Mass” (“La Messa di quest’anno”)
“Stefano Giogli, One and Two” (“Stefano Giogli uno e due”)
“Master Love” (“Maestro Amore”)
“Interviews with Characters” (“Colloquii coi personaggi”)
“The Two Giants” (“I due giganti”)
“Fragment of the Chronicle of Marco Leccio and His War on Paper at the Time of Europe’s Great War” (“Frammento di cronaca di Marco Leccio e della sua guerra sulla carta nel tempo della grande guerra europea”)
“All Passion Spent” (“Sgombero”)