Hate your job? Bored with your partner? So, what’s to do?

Obviously that’s a completely hypothetical question…

But one faced by the main character in Pirandello’s classic ‘Il fu Mattia’.

What’s to do? Stick with the boring job and nagging partner?

Or seize your chance to start a new life?

Find out in our e-book version of the story, which we produced around a year ago (but never officially released) and will now be posting here chapter-by-chapter over the next couple of weeks.

According to the OnlineItalianClub.com readers who kindly volunteered to read it and give us feedback, the level is good for A2 or B1.

So why are we revisiting this now?

Above all because we now have audio recordings to go with the text, and thought you might enjoy hearing (and reading) the story!

But also because we currently have our teachers producing new and original simplified Italian e-books for you… so we’re ‘warming up’ for the release of those, which will happen in about a month’s time.

Anyway, here’s the audio introduction to the story. Scroll down for the text. If you don’t see the audio plugin, click here to view this article on our website.

Transcript

Introduzione

Mi chiamo Mattia Pascal e sono speciale: è l’unica cosa che so. Lo dico sempre al mio amico Pomino.

«Pomino, amico mio, lo sai che io sono speciale?»

«Sì Mattia, lo so… La conosco a memoria questa storia… Ma ancora non ho capito il perché!»

«Non posso spiegartelo bene, ma io sento di essere diverso dagli altri. Tu sei mio amico e non te ne accorgi?»

«Amico mio, quello che io vedo è il tuo occhio strano… In quello sei sicuramente diverso da tutti!»

Non sembra, ma Pomino è il mio migliore amico; spesso chiacchieriamo quando sono al lavoro, e parliamo male di mia moglie (o meglio io parlo male di lei, lui invece la difende sempre; aspettate di leggere tutta la mia storia e capirete il perché…)

Cosa faccio? Lavoro in una biblioteca, ma non mi piace! Sono sposato con Romilda, ma non mi piace! Mi guardo allo specchio, ho un occhio strano, e non mi piaccio.

Cosa ho di particolare? No, non si tratta del mio occhio. A voi posso svelarlo: io sono morto due volte, la prima per errore, la seconda invece…

P.S.

If you’d rather not wait a few days to see how this pans out for Mattia, you can get the simplified e-book complete with all 6 audio files in our shop.

The e-book contains a comprehension exercise for each chapter, plus a glossary of some of the more difficult terms (Italian > English).

Naturally, there’s a special launch price (€7.99 instead of the usual €9.99) and, as with all our e-books, there’s a money-back guarantee (just ask!)

So, until the next exciting episode!

(Or click this link to get your copy right now.)

P.P.S.

This is off-topic, but please don’t forget:

– if you were planning to sign up for the Italian Writing Course, but hadn’t yet gotten around to it, the launch offer on THAT lasts just a few more days.

We’ve already had a good number of people join us. Once you’ve completed your order, you’ll be sent a pre-course questionnaire (so we can understand what your priorties are), and then. when you send that back, you’ll be assigned to a tutor, who will send you your first writing task!

Other than your tutor, who will be one of our pro native speaker Italian teachers, your contact person will be Lucia (she who organises our online lessons).

You’ll find more info on the Italian writing course here.