The Garden of the Finzi-Continis

The narrator knows about the Finzi-Contini family tree in detail, and he discusses the status that these local celebrities once had. His obsession reveals a level of envy for the rich great-grandfather of Alberto and Micòl, who wanted the world to see his “merits” as an Italian Jew, but he never earned the narrator’s artistic respect. The criticism of the tomb’s style is shared throughout the Jewish Ferrarese community, and they mock the family. In the present day of the novel, the estate is no longer as famed as it once was. The local Touring Club Guide is certain that the grounds must not be important enough to advertise to the public, and the narrator repeats their ideas despite being able to recall every detail of the estate.

The narrator’s father is introduced; he ridicules the “typical nouveau riche idea” of the Finzi-Contini house (12). The previous owners were a typical blue-blooded Italian family, but the narrator’s father doesn’t insult these people. As he shies away from criticizing the older generations, he criticizes the attitude of Professor Ermanno and his wife, Signora Olga, who act as though they are somehow better than the other Jews in Ferrara. The narrator relays his father’s winding stories until they reveal the tragic death of young Guido Finzi-Contini, Olga and Ermanno’s first son, in 1914. At large holiday gatherings, these stories are dredged up “chiefly for the pleasure of summoning up the old tales of the community” (15). In 1933, Professor Ermanno, who had long refused to take a membership card in the fascist party, bribed a lawyer, Geremia Tabet, with a 5,000 lire donation to the party to secure an old and isolated Spanish synagogue for his family’s use.

Returning to the death of Guido, the narrator explains the scene of the death of six-year-old Guido. The doctor at the scene, Dr. Corcos, realized that there was nothing left for him to do. The narrator remembers how affected Dr. Corcos had been by the death because, unknown to the Finzi-Contini family, he had lost his son. Guido’s death preceded the birth of Alberto in 1915 and Micòl in 1916. The narrator focuses his attention on the upbringing of the living Finzi-Contini children. They were privately tutored by overlapping professors, while the other children attended public school and received a level of patriotic status. However, even as a child, the narrator focused his attention on his similarities with the Finzi-Contini children despite how different they were. He remembers his school professors as enthusiastic and talkative, and he rarely highlights the decisions or personalities of the other children. He always looked forward to school examinations when he was able to observe the siblings for himself. A “glistening” carriage with expensive and luxurious details delivered them to school.

The narrator describes his relationship to Alberto and Micòl with one word: “intimate.” Although he acknowledges that being Jewish brought them together, he is quick to dissect what the Jewish community means, and he suggests that it does little to bring young people into shared spaces. Instead, they were more meaningfully connected as “the Via Vittoria people” who all went to the smaller Levantine synagogue (22). Entering the synagogue, men and women were separated so that the narrator, his brother, his father, Professor Ermanno, and Alberto were sometimes joined by Alberto’s mysterious Spanish uncles. His curiosity for the larger Finzi-Contini family turned his head during services and frustrated his father. Characterizing his father as a “modern Jew,” the others’ ostentatious devotion enticed the narrator’s curiosity even as it alienated him further from his father. Staring at Professor Ermanno, the narrator was usually unobserved except for the silent winks and smiles by Alberto and Micòl, who snuck down into the men’s section during services.

In June 1929, when the school posts the spring exam results, the narrator is unsurprised to find that he failed. This dread had been building for a long time; even the favoritism of Professor Meldolesi could not balance out his struggles in algebra. The narrator discounts mathematics in his future ambitions to study literature at University. While he is facing the reality of taking the October makeup exams, other schoolboys crowd around him. They pester the narrator about overreacting to a single bad grade, but his pride cannot handle being compared to his classmates. Hiding from his father, the narrator bikes around Ferrara until he stops at an ancient tree (this tree does not last through the war). After falling asleep under the tree, worrying about his family’s reaction, Micòl wakes him up. They converse from above the wall of the estate; she already knows about his bad grade. This conversation is the first time he has heard her speak, and her voice matches her brother, Alberto. The siblings named their dialect “Finzi-Continian,” and they confuse everyone with their bizarre speech patterns. From behind the wall, Jor, the large Great Dane, reveals himself and Micòl offers to let the narrator inside.

The narrator is intimidated by his fear of heights, despite having taken trips with his mother to the Montagnone (a park in Ferrara) and seeing how people naturally traverse the sheer wall there. He realized after visiting the park that he has a fear of heights, but it is his fear of rejection from Micòl that causes him to refuse to climb the wall over to her. After Micòl refuses to risk Perotti, their servant, discovering him, she directs the narrator to hide his bicycle. As she joins him over the side of the wall, she points out the footholds that he will need. Despite her practice, she still falls. She directs him over to an alcove similar to an Etruscan monterozzi (cemetery) which leads down into the wall itself. Leaving her at the opening, he carries his new bike down into the shadows. He lies about being scared, and after descending he reaches a kind of tranquility. He hopes for a kiss from Micòl. He imagines never returning to the surface of the alcove. He imagines Micòl bringing him food and visiting but mainly going unobserved throughout the town and perhaps one day revealing the fact that he is alive to his mother. When he emerges, Micòl is up on the wall arguing with someone. When she notices that he has returned, just like in the synagogue, she winks at him and disappears.