Dino buzzati seven floors of hell

The another novel I've read, A Love, about the unshared passion a man has for a prostitute, is also excellent. And don't get me started on his stories. I stumbled on the author in 7th or 8th grade, when I discovered Il Segreto del Bosco Vecchio among my suggested Holiday readings. I have no idea why it was there, not sure it is age appropriate, but it was so different that I devoured the collection.

Ok, It might put you into depression but the quality and surreality of the stories So, I mentioned Kafka a bit earlier. Now it will become clear why. Seven Floors is the story of a slightly sick man who becomes a patient in a strange Hospital. As the name suggests, the Hospital has 7 floors. The patients are assigned to each floor based on the gravity of their disease.

Our character is admitted to the highest floor where the lightest cases can be found but, for different reasons, he is transferred lower and lower, gradually, to the more serious cases. As a reviewer wrote, it is like the Dantesque Inferno, the 7 levels of Hell. The reasons for the transfer are mostly absurd and here it reminded me of Kafka.

As I wrote before, the writer is a master of the metaphors so everything can be interpreted as another allegory of life, from being young to death. The authors definitely likes those. I highly recommend the author but please note reading him will not make you happy. Myriam V. Excelente relato sobre un hombre que es internado en un hospital organizado como un Infierno dantesco.

Il povero Giuseppe Corte entra in un ospedale per una piccola affezione polmonare, una cosa da nulla, quasi impercettibile. Gli viene assegnata una stanza al settimo piano di questo enorme stabile. Un racconto consigliatissimo! But he could see nothing interesting. Most of the windows were completely hidden by gray venetian blinds.

But Corte did see someone, a man, standing at a window right next to his own. The two looked at each other with a growing feeling of sympathy but did not know how to break the silence. Only the priests. And of course. As you can see, on the other floors the shutters are all open. May I wish you all the best. The man vanished from the windowsill and shut the window firmly; a light was lit inside the room.

Giovanni Corte remained standing at the window, his eyes fixed on the lowered blinds of the first floor. He stared at them with morbid intensity, trying to visualize the ghastly secrets of that terrible first floor where patients were taken to die; he felt relieved that he was so far away. Meanwhile, the shadows of evening crept over the city. One by one the thousand windows of the sanatorium lit up, from the distance it looked like a great house lit up for a ball.

Dino buzzati seven floors of hell: As a reviewer wrote, it

Only on the first floor, at the foot of the precipice, did dozens of windows remain blank and empty. His temperature however showed no signs of going down, even though his condition was otherwise satisfactory. But the doctor was pleasant and encouraging. Certainly he was affected—the doctor said—but only very slightly; in two or three weeks he would probably be cured.

Dino buzzati seven floors of hell: In Catastrophe, the renowned Italian

Down to the fourth perhaps? On the rare afternoons when he was allowed up he made the acquaintance of some of his fellow patients. He followed the treatment scrupulously, concentrated his whole attention on making a rapid recovery, yet his condition seemed to remain unchanged. About ten days later, the head nurse of the seventh floor came to see Giovanni Corte.

He wanted to ask an entirely personal favor: the following day a woman with two children was coming to the hospital; there were two free rooms right next to his, but a third was needed; would Signor Corte mind very much moving into another, equally comfortable room? So Giovanni Corte went down to the sixth floor, and though he was convinced that this move did not correspond to any worsening in his own condition, he felt unhappy at the thought that there was now a definite barrier between himself and the everyday world of healthy people.

The seventh floor was an embarkation point, with a certain degree of contact with society; it could be regarded as a sort of annex to the ordinary world. But the sixth was already part of the real hospital; the attitudes of the doctors, nurses, of the patients themselves were just slightly different. It was admitted openly that the patients on that floor were really sick, even if not seriously so.

From his initial conversation with his neighbors, staff and doctors, Giovanni Corte gathered that here the seventh floor was regarded as a joke, reserved for amateurs, all affectation and caprice; it was only on the sixth floor that things began in earnest. So Giovanni Corte decided not to forfeit anything that was his by right and not to yield to the temptations of habit.

Dino buzzati seven floors of hell: Seven Floors is even

The others listened without interest and nodded, unconvinced. He agreed that Giovanni Corte could most certainly be on the seventh floor; the form the disease had taken was ab-so-lute-ly negligible—he stressed each syllable so as to emphasize the importance of his diagnosis—but after all it might well be that Giovanni Corte would be better taken care of on the sixth floor.

This is the only reason, in my opinion, why you might be better off down here on the sixth floor, where the methods of treatment are more highly specialized and more intensive. One day he was informed that the Director of the nursing home, after lengthy consultation with his colleagues, had decided to make a change in the subdivision of the patients.

From now on the patients on each floor were to be divided into two categories according to the seriousness of their condition indeed the respective doctors had already made this subdivision, though exclusively for their own personal use and the lower of these two halves was to be officially moved one floor down. For example, half the patients on the sixth floor, those who were slightly more seriously affected, were to go down to the fifth; the less slightly affected of the seventh floor would go down to the sixth.

Giovanni Corte was pleased to hear this, because his return to the seventh floor would certainly be much easier amid this highly complicated series of removals. However, when he mentioned this hope to the nurse he was bitterly disappointed. He learned that he was indeed to be moved, not up to the seventh but down to the floor below. He was still shouting when the doctor arrived to explain matters more fully.

For instance, the seven floors of the hospital represent the different stages of life, with each floor symbolizing a different age group. The use of the metaphorical imagery allows the reader to understand the inevitability of aging and the fragility of life. Moreover, the author uses the imagery of the hospital to create a sense of hopelessness and despair.

The hospital is depicted as a cold, sterile, and oppressive place, where patients are treated like objects rather than human beings. This imagery emphasizes the dehumanizing effects of the healthcare system and highlights the struggles of the protagonist as he confronts his mortality. Buzzati also employs foreshadowing and irony to create a sense of tension and anticipation throughout the story.

The irony lies in the fact that the hospital is supposed to be a place of healing, yet it is portrayed as a place of despair and hopelessness. The use of foreshadowing creates a sense of inevitability and reinforces the themes of mortality and the cycle of life. Many readers have interpreted the story as a commentary on the inevitability of aging, disease, and death, as well as the bureaucratic healthcare system that often fails to provide adequate care for the elderly.

The seven floors of the nursing home where Giovanni Corte seeks treatment are not only a symbol of the stages of life, but also a reference to the seven days of creation in the Book of Genesis. This biblical allusion adds another layer of meaning to the story, suggesting that the cycle of life and death is part of a larger, divine plan. The nursing home itself is described in vivid detail, with each floor representing a different stage of decline and decay.

Its exploration of mortality, aging, and the human condition is both timeless and universal, making it a true masterpiece of modern literature. Giuseppe Corte, a slightly feverish man, arrived at a renowned sanatorium one morning in March. He was advised to seek treatment at this facility due to its expertise in treating his specific illness.

The building was a seven-story white structure, surrounded by tall trees.

Dino buzzati seven floors of hell: My favorite is “Seven

After a brief medical examination, Giuseppe was assigned to a cheerful room on the seventh floor, the top floor of the building. He soon learned that the hospital had a unique system of assigning patients to different floors based on the severity of their illness. The seventh floor was for the mildest cases, while the first floor was for those who were beyond hope.

Each floor had its own distinct atmosphere, rules, and traditions, as well as a different doctor in charge.