Mythology, folklore, and sacred legends

Naples

by Matilde Serao

First published: Date unknown
Language: French

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Description from Project Gutenberg

"Naples : Les légendes et la réalité" by Matilde Serao is a collection of literary essays written in the late 19th century. The work blends legend, folklore, and reflective reportage to portray Naples as a city where love, landscape, and daily life are inseparable, turning places, seasons, and memories into living myths. The opening of the work sets Naples against the misty North, then reimagines the city’s birth through the love of Parthenope and Cimon, declaring Parthenope eternally alive in Naples. It celebrates and demystifies the legend of Virgil the Mage—his marvels for the city—before arguing that his true “magic” is poetry. A lyrical panorama of the gulf follows, characterizing each stretch of sea (Carmine, the Môle, Santa Lucia, Chiatamone, Mergellina, Pausilippe) as a different soul and destiny, ending with a stark legend of consolation in the waves. A suite of love-legends ties hills, islands, fountains, and the Vesuvius–Capri axis to passion and grief. The haunted Palazzo Donn’Anna frames a tale of jealousy between a powerful duchess and her rival, with love ending in disappearance and solitude. A darker story evokes a ghostly boat: Thécla and Aldo drowned by her husband Bruno, a scene said to reappear only to true lovers. The section closes by beginning the story of Cicho the Sorcerer in medieval Naples, a feared recluse whose “secret” is introduced as he turns from a pleasure-filled youth to a quest to benefit humankind. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

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Why this book is in the catalog

Included because retained bibliographic metadata links this work to Mythology, folklore, and sacred legends.

Mythology, folklore, and sacred legends
Controlled discovery queries from project-gutenberg matched “folklore” and “mythology”. Retained metadata contains “Folklore” in the description, “legend” in the description, “Legends” in the description, and 1 additional metadata match(es).
- “folklore”· via Project Gutenberg
- “mythology”· via Project Gutenberg
- “Folklore”· in description
- “legend”· in description
- “Legends”· in description
- “Folklore”· in subject

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Edition	Date	Publisher	Language	ISBN	Access	Links
Project Gutenberg electronic edition Project Gutenberg metadata does not identify the source print edition.	2025-07-06	Project Gutenberg	French	—	Public domain (USA)	Project Gutenberg (opens in a new tab)