Black Shawl (Scialle nero, 1922)

This Collection of fifteen stories was named after the long story at its core, “Black Shawl” (“Scialle nero,” 1900); it was published with this title in the first edition of Pirandello’s Stories for a Year by the Florentine press Bemporad in 1922.

Some of these fifteen tales were previously published in different collections and volumes. “If …” (“Se…”) appeared in Jests of Life and Death (Beffe della morte e della vita) with the Florentine editor Lumachi in 1902; while “Black Shawl,” “Wedding Night” (“Prima notte”), “Fumes” (“Il fumo”), “A Mere Formality” (“Formalità”), and “Best Friends” (“Amicissimi”) were included in White and Black (Bianche e nere), published by Streglio in Turin in 1904. There are also three short stories, “Defense of Mèola” (“Difesa del Mèola”), “The Lucky Ones” (“I fortunati”), “Seeing As It Isn’t Raining” (“Visto che non piove”), which were grouped in a small sub-collection titled Cassocks of Montelusa (Tonache di Montelusa) because of their common themes related to landscape and characters. These three short stories were published with their original titles, although the sub-collection was included in a wider collection, Weeds from Our Garden (Erba del nostro orto), published by Studio Editoriale Lombardo in Milan in 1915.

More precisely, “If …” appeared in La Tribuna illustrata della domenica, August 26, 1894 and later in Ariel, June 5, 1898; “Wedding Night” in Il Marzocco, November 18, 1900; “And two!,” titled as “Pull it Tighter” (“Stringi”) in Il Marzocco, September 29, 1901; “Best Friends” in La Riviera ligure, October 1902; “The Paper Fan” in La Riviera ligure, July 1903; “The Shrine” in Il Marzocco, October 8, 1909; “The Lucky Ones” in Rassegna contemporanea, in August 1911; “Reply” in the Corriere della Sera, February 4, 1912; “The Bat” in La lettura, in January 1920.

Some of these stories also served as source material for other works. The short story “Black Shawl,” together with “The Other Son” from the collection In Silence (In silenzio) were the source for the three-act comedy The Graft (L’innesto) first performed in 1919 but published only in 1921. “Paper Fan” was turned into a movie with the same title by Mario Soldati in 1934 and “The Bat” served as the subject for a screen play of the same title Pirandello dictated to Guido Salvini in 1925 while he was on tour with the Teatro d'Arte in Paris. From the short story “Best Friends,” Stefano Landi (nom de plume of Pirandello’s son Stefano) adapted a one-act comedy staged in 1955 in Rome at the Teatro delle Arti by Peppino De Filippo.

The fifteen stories included in this Collection are:

“Black Shawl” (“Scialle Nero”)
“Wedding Night” (“Prima notte”)
“Fumes” (“Il ‘fumo’”)
“The Shrine” (“Il tabernacolo”)
“In Defense of Mèola” (“Difesa del Mèola”)
“The Lucky Ones” (“I fortunati”)
“Seeing As It Isn’t Raining” (“Visto che non piove…”)
“Formalities” (“Formalità”)
“The Paper Fan” (“Il ventaglino”)
“And Two!” (“E due!”)
“Best Friends” (“Amicissimi”)
“If …” (“Se…”)
“The Rivers of Lapland” (“Rimedio: la geografia”)
“Reply” (“Risposta”)
“The Bat” (“Il pipistrello”)