Novel
The Stronghold
Il deserto dei Tartari
Dino Buzzati · 1940
Synopsis
Young Lieutenant Giovanni Drogo is posted to Fort Bastiani, an isolated fortress on the northern frontier, facing a desert from which the enemy, the Tartars, once came. He thought he would stay there only a short time, but the place holds him and he extends his stay. The years, then the decades, go by to the rhythm of reliefs and alerts, while the garrison watches the horizon for the attack that would give meaning to its life.
Context
The novel appeared from Rizzoli in 1940, in the series “Il Sofà delle Muse” directed by Leo Longanesi; its author had titled it “La fortezza”, and Longanesi had the title changed. The book grew out of the years when the author worked nights at the editorial office of the Corriere della Sera and wondered whether the hopes of his youth would gradually die out. Michel Arnaud translated it into French for Robert Laffont in 1949. In English, Stuart Hood translated it in 1952 under the title “The Tartar Steppe”, and Lawrence Venuti in 2023 under that of “The Stronghold”, which returns to the title the author first wanted.
Who it is for
A novel of medium length, with deliberately minimal action, in which waiting is the very subject of the book.
Prizes and reception
Valerio Zurlini adapted it for the cinema in 1976, with Jacques Perrin in the role of Lieutenant Drogo.
Sources for this page 4
The pages consulted to check this page.