The Garden of the Finzi-Continis

The author Giorgio Bassani used his novels to revisit his formative experiences in Ferrara, a city in northeastern Italy, and much of The Garden of the Finzi-Continis was inspired by real events. Born in 1916, Bassani was studying literature in Bologna when Italy passed the antisemitic laws targeting Jewish people. As a Jewish writer, Bassani was forced to publish under a pseudonym during that time, but after the war he found great success writing about fascism, antisemitism, and class. He was not exclusively a novelist, and his mournful and lyrical tone can be found in poetry, screenplays, and essays. While the narrator of The Garden of the Finzi-Continis is unnamed, the 1974 film adaptation uses the name Giorgio to pay homage to the author. Both Bassani and the narrator are from Ferrara, and they learn the harsh new realities of fascism in their twenties. Bassani’s own experiences of being expelled from the local tennis club are reflected in the novel. Finally, both the author’s and the narrator’s fathers were members of the fascist party who eventually turned against the party due to the rising antisemitism of the 1930s.