When was Fontamara first translated to English?
Fontamara
September 1934
It is Silone's first novel and is regarded as his most famous work. It received worldwide acclaim and sold more than a million and a half copies in twenty-seven languages.[2] It was first published as a German translation in Zurich, Switzerland in 1933[3] and was published in English by Penguin Books in September 1934.[4] Fontamara is derived from the Italian 'Fonte Amara' (Bitter Stream),[5] which Victor Wolfson used as the title for his 1936 stage adaptation of the book, presented in New York at the Civic Repertory Theatre.[6][7] The novel was also adapted for cinema by director Carlo Lizzani and the film Fontamara was released in 1977.[8][9] Appearing on the eve of the Spanish Civil War, and published just a few months after Hitler came to power, when the world was beginning to take sides for or against fascism, the novel had a galvanising effect on public opinion.[2] Fontamara 'became the very symbol of resistance'[6] and ‘is widely agreed to have played a major role as a document of anti-Fascist propaganda outside Italy in the late 1930s’[10] as it criticises the deceitful and immoral nature of the Fascist party and its followers.