Dizionario Filosofico Napoletano – Detti, motti e proverbi


Author: Alberto Consiglio
Rating: 2/5

I procured myself with a dictionary of short laconic Neapolitan sayings, in order to pick up some idiomatic expressions and be more colorful when interacting with others.

It is a collection of popular proverbs of Neapolitan origin and the for each, the author offers:

Nothing really beats a folk saying in efficacy, shortness and effect.

I even bought sticky bookmarks to highlight the pages of the phrases (underlined with a pencil) that I liked the most.

Some of it is quite fun, but unfortunately most are simply not applicable in my day-by-day (lots of raging on about marriage infidelity, sleeping with other women, power and poverty, etc.).

Also, I didn’t like the author tendency to magnificate the people of Naples, always bickering with the “unjust” fame given them by posterity.

Furthermore, I found that some of the explanations were “superficial” in the sense that often the author was satisfied in giving a “face value” explanation of the proverb without trying to dig deeper for another layer of meaning (that was certainly there).

It was a fun read, and a cute little book to add to my collection, but nothing life changing.

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