Heart is a children's novel

Children's literature

Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...

 by the Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 author Edmondo De Amicis

Edmondo De Amicis

Edmondo De Amicis was an Italian novelist, journalist, poet and short-story writer. His best-known book is the children's novel Heart.-Early career:...

 who was a novelist, journalist, short story writer, and poet. The novel is known to be his best known work to this day, having been inspired by his own children Furio and Ugo who had been schoolboys at the time. It is set during the Italian unification

Italian unification

Italian unification was the political and social movement that agglomerated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of Italy in the 19th century...

, and includes several patriotic themes

Patriotism

Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...

. It was issued by Treves on October 18, 1886, the first day of school in Italy, and rose to immediate success.

Through its investigation of social issues such as poverty, Heart shows the influence of left-wing

Left-wing politics

In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...

 ideologies on De Amicis' work (he was later to join the Italian Socialist Party

Italian Socialist Party

The Italian Socialist Party was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy founded in Genoa in 1892.Once the dominant leftist party in Italy, it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party following World War II...

). Because of this, the book remained influential (and the staple of many textbook

Textbook

A textbook or coursebook is a manual of instruction in any branch of study. Textbooks are produced according to the demands of educational institutions...

s) in countries of the Eastern Bloc

Eastern bloc

The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...

.

The novel was translated into Chinese

Chinese language

The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...

 in the early 20th century (with the title "愛的教育" – literally "The Education of Love") and became quite well known in East Asia

East Asia

East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms...

. As well as being translated into Spanish with the title, "Corazón" meaning "Heart." The book was very popular in Latin countries, such as Mexico, among young boys and girls in the 1960s and 1970s.

On the other hand, the book's strong evocation of Italian nationalism

Italian nationalism

Italian nationalism refers to the nationalism of Italians or of Italian culture. It claims that Italians are the ethnic, cultural, and linguistic descendants of the ancient Romans who inhabited the Italian Peninsula for centuries. The origins of Italian nationalism have been traced to the...

 and Patriotism also made it very welcome in Fascist Italy

Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)

The Kingdom of Italy was a state forged in 1861 by the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was its legal predecessor state...

.

The novel was also extremely popular and influential in 1950s Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

, though at present it is considered rather old-fashioned and no longer well-known to the current generation of young Israelis.

In 1962, Umberto Eco

Umberto Eco

Umberto Eco Knight Grand Cross is an Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose , an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...

 publishes Elogio di Franti (In Praise of Franti) viewing Franti, the "bad boy" of the novel, as a figure of resistance against militarist and nationalist ideology.

One of the two teenage characters in the film I Prefer the Sound of the Sea

I Prefer the Sound of the Sea

I Prefer the Sound of the Sea is a 2000 Italian-French drama film directed by Mimmo Calopresti. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival.The title Preferisco il rumore del mare is a verse of Dino Campana...

 (2000) reads Cuore and has a job in a bookshop named Franti.

The book has been used as one of the inspirations for academic achivement in Mexico, having used the name of the author for one of the world school of the international baccalaureate called Instituto D´Amicis, located in the city of Puebla.

Plot and characters

The novel is written in a diary

Diary

A diary is a record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. A personal diary may include a person's experiences, and/or thoughts or feelings, including comment on current events outside the writer's direct experience. Someone...

 form as told by Enrico Bottini, a 9-year old primary school student in Italy with an upper class

Upper class

In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...

 background who is surrounded by classmates of working class

Working class

Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...

 origin. The entire chronological setting corresponds to the third-grade season.

Enrico's parents and older sibling interact with him as written in his diary. As well as his teacher who assigns him with homework that deals with several different stories of children throughout the Italian states who should be seen as role model

Role model

The term role model generally means any "person who serves as an example, whose behaviour is emulated by others".The term first appeared in Robert K. Merton's socialization research of medical students...

s – these stories are then given in the book as Enrico comes upon reading them. Every story revolves around a different moral value, the most prominent of which are helping those in need, having great love and respect for family and friends, and patriotism.

Adaptations

In 1948, it was made into a film

Heart (1948 film)

Heart is a 1948 Italian drama film directed by Vittorio De Sica and Duilio Coletti. De Sica was awarded the Silver Ribbon by the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists.-Cast:* Vittorio De Sica - Professor Perboni* María Mercader - Clotilde Serra...

, directed by Vittorio De Sica

Vittorio de Sica

Vittorio De Sica was an Italian director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement....

 and Duilio Coletti

Duilio Coletti

Duilio Coletti was an Italian film director and screenwriter. He directed 29 films between 1934 and 1977. His film Submarine Attack was entered into the 4th Berlin International Film Festival. He was a member of the jury at the 8th Berlin International Film Festival.-Selected filmography:* Mr...

.

One of these stories, "From the Apennines to the Andes," became the basis of the 1976 anime series 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother

3000 Leagues in Search of Mother

is an anime series directed by Isao Takahata and aired in 1976. It is loosely based on a small part of the novel Heart by Edmondo De Amicis, i.e...

. The series consisted of 52 episodes and was broadcasted in the World Masterpiece Theatre. The whole series was viewable in many different languages, and became popular all over the world. In conclusion to the series, a movie was released in 1980 that was later remade, also as a feature film, released in 1999.
Cuore itself was later adapted in its entirety by Nippon Animation

Nippon Animation

is a Japanese animation studio. The company is headquartered in Tokyo, with chief offices in the Ginza district of Chūō and production facilities in Tama City....

, as the 26-episode series in 1981. This series was also broadcast on Italian TV as Cuore.

External links

• Heart at Internet Archive
  Internet Archive
  The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
  
  (scanned books original editions color illustrated, English)
• Cuore : Italian and English text
• Cuore at Wikisource (Italian).
• Cuore at liberliber.it (Italian).