Reading Order
Invisible CitiesCalvino Invisible Cities Reading Order
Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities (1972) is the most beautiful and most purely imaginative of his books — the fictional dialogue between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan, in which Polo describes the cities of the Khan's empire, each organized around a different principle: memory, desire, signs, the dead, time. The cities are not real cities but meditations on what cities are: what it means to live in a shared space, what we project onto the built environment, what we lose when we move through the world without attention. Invisible Cities is a work of philosophy disguised as poetry disguised as fiction, and it can be entered anywhere and read in any order without losing its effect.
Where to start
Invisible Cities
Complete Invisible Cities Book List
- 1Buy
Invisible Cities
Italo Calvino·1972·Calvino's most purely beautiful book — the dialogue between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan organized around 55 imaginary cities; can be read in any order and in any amount - 2Buy
If on a winter's night a traveler
Italo Calvino·1979·The companion in Calvino's metafictional mode — the novel that addresses the reader directly as 'you' and organizes itself as a series of novel beginnings; for readers who want more Calvino after the transcendence of Invisible Cities - 3Buy
Cosmicomics
Italo Calvino·1965·Calvino's short stories organized around scientific facts — the universe before the Big Bang, the moment light first appeared, the formation of the first animals; the companion in his mode of using scientific premises as pretexts for philosophical fable - 4Buy
The Baron in the Trees
Italo Calvino·1957·The first of Calvino's Our Ancestors trilogy — the story of Cosimo Piovasco di Rondò, who climbs a tree at age twelve and never comes down; more accessible than Invisible Cities and a perfect introduction to Calvino's moral fables
Invisible Cities — Frequently Asked Questions
What order should I read Italo Calvino in?
Calvino wrote in several very different modes. The Baron in the Trees and the Our Ancestors trilogy are the most accessible starting point. If on a winter's night a traveler is his most celebrated single novel. Invisible Cities is his most purely beautiful work. Most readers find it best to start with one novel and then explore based on what drew them to that one.
Does Invisible Cities have a plot?
Not in the conventional sense. The book is organized as a dialogue between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan, framing 55 descriptions of imaginary cities. The cities are grouped into thematic categories (Cities and Memory, Cities and Desire, etc.) and the dialogue between Polo and the Khan provides a loose philosophical frame. It rewards reading in small doses as much as straight through.
What is Invisible Cities about?
Invisible Cities presents itself as a series of Marco Polo's reports to Kublai Khan about the cities of his empire. But the cities are fantastic and each is organized around a different principle — memory, desire, signs, the dead, time, the continuous, the hidden. The book is ultimately a meditation on what cities are, what travel means, and the relationship between language and reality.
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