Introduction

Abstract

Italo Calvino’s short novel The Baron in the Trees, set in Liguria in the eighteenth century, is the tale of a boy, Cosimo, who climbs a tree after an argument with his sister and decides never to come down. He manages to live a self-sufficient life in the treetops. The philosopher Voltaire hears of his exploits and asks Cosimo’s brother Biagio whether Cosimo went to live in the treetops in order to be nearer to the sky. Biagio replies: “My brother considers that anyone who wants to see the earth properly must keep himself at a necessary distance from it.”