The Garden of the Finzi-Continis

The narrator arrives in Micòl’s room and she welcomes him in. All she has been doing is reading, and she insists that he sit down so they can catch up. He rejects her offer of drinks and they begin rapidly discussing Bartleby in the Piazza Tales. She compares him to Bartleby, but he rejects this character’s philosophy. Once it is clear that he feels that Bartleby is too serious and ungrateful, Micòl is quick to defend Bartleby from the narrator. Micòl defends the right of a worker to only do what they are paid for. He tells her how he dreamed of her room and how it matches his imagination exactly. While he goes on uninterrupted, she lightly touches his jacket. After she does this, he kisses her, and she rejects him both physically and verbally. He climbs onto the bed, but after a physical confrontation, the narrator stops himself, and “finally I hid my face against her neck” (145). He knows that what he is doing is pushing her further from him, but he does not stop or speak. It is only when she tells him to get up because she cannot breathe that he finally goes and hides in the bathroom. Jor attempts to break into the room.

In the bathroom, the narrator confronts himself. His face is red, and he feels unlike himself. Rather than thinking, he tries to listen to Micòl talking on the telephone. Without acknowledging what happened, Micòl explains why she left for Venice. After the moment in the carriage, she knew that their relationship was changing, and “it was more her fault than mine if the landslide had gathered momentum” (147). It was for Alberto that she kept the narrator in their lives. She reveals that she has felt sorry for the narrator since childhood. After admitting this, she apologizes for it all, but the idea of them being together seems impossible to her. It is the physical side of their relationship, which she calls “making love” that “embarrassed her” (149), that keeps them apart. Everything about their relationship that encourages the narrator—having a religion in common, a shared childhood, and the satisfaction of their families—causes Micòl to mock the idea of them ending up together. She fights against their inevitability in the eyes of those around them. She denies that there is somebody else, but when she calls down to the kitchen for food, he realizes that she must have been calling that someone else on the phone when he was in the bathroom.

The narrator travels to France to bring money to his brother, Ernesto. His brother has Italian friends in France, but the narrator spends his days at the library. Reading the English words, “all lost, nothing lost,” he suddenly feels “healed” (154). He sends those words to Micòl on a postcard without any additional context, confident in letting her believe what she likes. When he returns to Italy, spring has arrived. Although he delays, he returns to the Finzi-Contini gardens where Micòl is playing tennis against Malnate. As Alberto mocks Malnate’s tennis playing, the narrator becomes angry at how close Micòl and Malnate have become.

Alberto, with none of his usual shyness, tells the story of Micòl trying to regather the old tennis group. They had all arrived and had a wonderful time, but by Monday morning, the layer, Tabet, arrived to accuse the Professor of causing a scandal. Tabet claims that this small gathering of friends was competing against the Eleonora d’Este Tennis Club and threatens sanctions. The narrator notices Alberto’s pale skin and thin body and realizes that he is sick when he sees Alberto’s parents walking through the garden wearing mourning black.

The narrator, Micòl, Alberto, and Malnate spent the last days of August 1939 in the garden. As the Nazi invasion of Poland looms closer, their conversation stays focused on the usual topics and playing tennis, even as Alberto’s health worsens. The narrator cannot stay away longer than four days before returning to the gardens. The tennis court is upgraded and Perotti cares for the new dirt. Alone with Micòl, the narrator begins his “boring, absurd, eternal siege” to convince Micòl to be with him (159). Micòl is frustrated by his accusations and insecurities and insists that she cannot do anything to please him. He kisses her hands and hides his face against her legs. She leaves, refusing to forgive him, and tells him that he must not return for three weeks. Even when he does, he should not come more than twice in one week.

The narrator remains away and gains his degree. He keeps away from Micòl and instead seeks out Malnate at his apartment. Malnate rents out a room from a judge outside Port San Benedetto, and the narrator waits for him to arrive with the landlords. The judge’s wife makes conversation about the narrator’s family—she knows them well. Malnate arrives and greets him with uncharacteristic friendliness. He informs the narrator about the landlord and how he fears that Malnate is a political troublemaker. As the narrator admits to staying away to avoid Micòl, Malnate attempts to reassure him. Before going to dinner, the narrator attempts to ask after Alberto’s health, but Malnate dismisses it.

When spending his evenings with Malnate, they never speak about the Finzi-Contini house. Together they explore Ferrara during long walks and good dinners. Malnate always drops the narrator off at his house. Although the narrator pushes to explore, it is Malnate who makes friends, such as the girl at the shooting range who falls for Malnate. At an outdoor movie, they flee antisemitic taunts. Without Alberto there, they do not fight or talk of politics but rather the narrator’s favorite subject: literature. The narrator shares a poem that he wrote and Malnate not only commits it to memory but advocates for it to Micòl and Alberto. Malnate’s memory is extensive and he can recite huge paragraphs. His favorite topic, though, is the thought of returning home to Milan.

Following Micòl’s schedule for him, the narrator returns to the gardens on specific days. However, the narrator avoids playing games and keeps Alberto company instead. Despite Alberto knowing that he’s doing worse, he won’t leave the city for his health. Alberto uses the lack of treatments ordered for him as proof that there must not really be something wrong with him. Trapped by the antisemitic race laws, he cannot leave to go to certain places and does not want to go where he can. Regardless, Malnate and the narrator do not invite Alberto out in the evenings.

One night, the narrator tells Malnate the story of Dr. Fadigati, who died by suicide years ago. From the story of the doctor to a discussion of queerness, Malnate and the narrator disagree. Even as their debate increases in intensity, the sudden realization of how much they drank breaks the tension and they burst out laughing. Drunk and wandering through the town, Malnate suggests visiting a brothel. Although Malnate makes the better impression, only the narrator goes upstairs with a girl. He does not describe the scene. After leaving the brothel, Malnate denies Alberto’s illness, and they talk about the Finzi-Continis with caution. In Malnate’s eyes, the narrator and Micòl have stopped fighting and become friends again. The narrator stops hiding his disappointment and reveals how he has treated Micòl and details the physical side of their relationship. Malnate listens in silent judgment.

The narrator’s father waits for him despite how late it is. While he knows that the narrator has been meeting Malnate, he wrongly believes that Malnate is a student and not a working man. However, he does correctly guess that the narrator has spent the night having sex with a woman. He is happy to hear that the narrator is spending his time the way he believes that young men should, and he offers the narrator money. However, he shares his concern about the narrator’s obsession with Micòl. Not only does he doubt that their families are compatible, but he also questions whether the narrator is mature enough to care for a family. Becoming engaged seems like a remote possibility at this time given the narrator’s meager job prospects. The father reveals the concern that he and the narrator’s mother have for him since Dr. Fadigati’s death. When the father suggests again that he give up Micòl, the narrator agrees.

Leaving the conversation with his father, the narrator follows through on his promise to stay away from Micòl. Besides avoiding the whole Finzi-Contini house, he also avoids Malnate. For an entire week he ignores the others and they in turn ignore him. It takes a phone call from Malnate to tempt the narrator out again. The narrator arranges to meet Malnate at a restaurant but doesn’t show. When Malnate arrives, the narrator watches him from a distance and catalogs his every move.

Now spending his evenings alone, the narrator bikes around the city. One evening, he makes his way to stare at Micòl’s room from outside the wall. He is grabbed by the impulse to sneak onto the estate. Wandering through the gardens he remarks how beautiful it is. When he is caught by Jor, he calls out to the dog. He follows Jor, and when he doesn’t know where to go, he settles into a theory that Micòl had been meeting Malnate every night after Malnate dropped the narrator at home. The paranoia settles into certainty. Jor leaves him and the narrator calls out for him. The narrator regrets keeping his father up late waiting for him while he indulges in this exploration.

Acknowledging that he never returns to the garden again, the narrator discusses the deaths of the Finzi-Contini family. Alberto died in 1942 from the illness about which everyone had been too afraid to speak. The Professor worked through the war to provide Alberto with expensive oxygen tanks. The rest of the family was sent to concentration camps in Germany. After Malnate returned to Milan, he died in the army. Although the narrator questions whether anything romantic happened between Micòl and Malnate, he remembers them both together, arguing over the value of the future.