And what have we here?

SITE CONTENTS

1) Welcome!

2) Some General Introductory Stuff

3) The Don Camillo Books

4) Author Giovanni Guareschi

5) Other Works by Guareschi

6) Guareschi's Translators

7a) The Fernandel- Cervi Films

7b) Other Film, TV, and Radio


8) Finding Copies of the Books & Films
-- Books in English
-- Books in Italian
-- Films on Video


9) Visiting the Little World Today

10) Latest News From the Little World

11) Guareschi Links Online

12) The Don Camillo E-mail List

13) The Little World Wide Web Ring

14) Some Don Camillo Downloads

15) Contact Me / Sign My Guestbook


For Sale (Books in English)

Okay, I'm ready to buy! Where are the books?

The English-language versions of the Don Camillo books are out-of-print, but that doesn't mean you can't lay your hands on copies, provided you're willing to have "previously read" ones. The best way to find them is to use an online secondhand book service, such as one of the following:

  • The Advanced Book Exchange: I've bought plenty of books, including 5 or 6 by GG, from this site. You'll get a lot of returns when you search on the string "Guareschi," but if you're willing to sift through the many results, you can almost always find something in your price range.
  • Bibliofind: I used to love this service, till they were bought out by Amazon.com. Don't like them near so well now, since it seems to me they play tricks like listing expensive copies first, etc. However, I list the site because the inventory's not identical to ABE's, so it still might be useful.
  • Alibris: Another with a similar database to ABE. Much more expensive than other services, though.

OR you can always try ...

a big online book retailer, the two best-known of which both also claim to have secondhand book locator services. Here are the links, and my comments:

  • Amazon.com's catalog lists a variety of GG's titles-- and, in that lovely Amazon way, it lists some of them multiple times, while omitting others altogether. What's significant is that it claims that several of the titles are still in print, and that new copies are in stock or on order! What gives?

    Well, the fact is that technically the books are out-of-print in English, but a specialty house called "Ameron" (a New York-based company whose address I can't seem to find) has issued some limited-run, facsimile reprints of them. I actually bought one (from Barnes & Noble, who used to carry them but don't anymore) in 1998. Mine's a hardback copy of The Little World of Don Camillo which appears to have been printed in the '70's (and stuck in some warehouse all that time?). The quality is reasonable-- it's kind of compact in size, though, and not quite as nice as the retired library copies I've picked up over the years. Still, if you want un-used copies, these Ameron editions might be for you. I had email from someone who got all 6 Ameron DC titles, special-ordered from the US via a UK bookstore, circa 2000, and he's quite pleased.
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  • Barnes and Noble's website lists all of Guareschi's books in English, identifying them as out-of-print (or, in the case of the Ameron reprints, as out of stock). BUT the New York-based B&N also offer lots of still-in-print Guareschi titles... in Italian!

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And something else-- If you teach or lead a study group which is reading The Little World of Don Camillo, you might want to try to track down a company called "Teacher's Silent Helper," which used to (in 1998, at least) sell a Study Guide for the book (I bought mine from the organization's now-defunct website). The product is rather home-made looking (i.e., typewriter-and-Xerox-machine-produced), but it's essentially a "Cliff's Notes," with tests and quizzes included. While I can't say I learned anything new from it, I still enjoyed leafing through it (there are some fun typos, and the whole thing is rather "vintage"). It discusses the typical areas of emphasis of a "high school English class" -level analysis: plot, characters, themes, use of language (metaphor, etc.), and historical background.

As I said, the website seems to have disappeared, but I'll give you the company's last known (by me) snail mail address:

Teacher's Silent Helper
PO Box 128
Dixon, Nebraska 68732-0128

If the company is still in business, expect to pay about $25.00 for the Guide. And I think another $10 buys you even more duplicatable material for your class.

(This page last updated 01 June 2002.)

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