Point of View

Nearly all of the stories in this collection are written from the first-person perspective, reflecting perhaps the literary conventions prevalent in Italy. The third-person perspective is especially important in "Rosso Malpelo." Its author, Verga, was heavily influenced by the French naturalist school. According to this school, the subject of fiction ought to be presented as a cool object of scientific study. The author ought not to intersperse any prejudices, judgment, or evaluation. A first-person perspective is naturally laden with the values of the narrator and thus would be wholly unsuitable for such an "objective" style.

The only story written in the first-person perspective is "Competition," which is also the most recently written of all of the stories. The choice of perspective here is important. As the story's introduction indicates, Moravia's writing is characterized by putting the words of common, uneducated Romans into a unrealistically sophisticated and...