Si gira edited by Luca Stefanelli
Si gira was first published in serial between June and August 1915 in the magazine La Nuova Antologia. In 1916, it was published in book form by Treves (this is the edition used here, in accordance with the general criteria of the Edizione Nazionale, which gives priority to the first edition). In 1925 it was republished by Bemporad, Pirandello's new publisher since 1919, with several variations and a noticeable change to the title, Quaderni di Serafino Gubbio operatore; the work finally arrived, essentially unchanged, at Mondadori in 1932.
Uno nessuno e centomila edited by Federico Francucci
Uno, nessuno e centomila was also first published in a magazine, December 1925-June 1926 (in the “Fiera Letteraria” recently founded by Umberto Fracchia); by the end of 1926, it was already in print for Bemporad with a few variations (this is the text presented here); the final transition to Mondadori took place in 1932.
Things become more complicated when we look at what we know about Pirandello's feverish workshop, difficult to untangle, intersected with advances in magazines, tumultuously open to all kinds of writing and subject to many textual crossovers: in this light, the period of elaboration of the two novels, from the first public news to the first print, is, or appears to be, rather extensive.
The events narrated in the two texts are well known and extremely significant for the paradoxical creativity with which Pirandello invents and manages them, violently bringing out the ‘feeling of the opposite’ and the humorous gaze.
Introduction by Clelia Martignoni
