Napuljsko zlato

The Gold of Naples (1947) is the celebrated masterpiece of the Italian writer and journalist Giuseppe Marotta. This collection of closely related sketches, stories and memoirs is a moving and vivid tribute to the author's hometown. Marotta leads us through the steep streets, bustling squares and stuffy courtyards of Naples, painting a gallery of distinctive characters - from street vendors, petty swindlers and impoverished nobles to touchingly dignified families struggling with the hardships of everyday life.

The "gold" of the title does not denote material wealth, but the indestructible spirit, humor, ingenuity and philosophical resignation to fate with which the Neapolitans survive all historical hardships, poverty and injustices. Marotta's style combines a subtle journalistic gift of observation with lyrical melancholy, warm irony and bittersweet humor.

The book became an extremely influential classic of Italian post-war realism and enjoyed great popularity throughout Europe. Its timeless value was further confirmed in 1954, when the famous director Vittorio De Sica made an anthology neorealist film of the same name based on it, starring Sophia Loren, Totò and Silvana Mangano.