One, None, and a Hundred Grand

A hilarious exploration of the relativism of identity from Italian novelist and playwright Luigi Pirandello, winner of the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature.

When Vitangelo Moscarda’s wife tells him his nose leans slightly to the right, his entire world swings off kilter. Loafing about, suddenly estranged from himself, he accosts friends, strangers, and passersby to look closely and confirm: Am I not the self I thought I was? Wandering from mirror to mirror, Moscarda embarks on a dizzying pursuit to see himself as others see him, to root out the stranger within. Searching endlessly for his true self, Moscarda ricochets through insecurity, reclusiveness, self-detachment, and doubt -- resolving, with icy recognition, that ＂people roll through their lives like stones, complacent, insensate, and closed,＂ locked in an unknown face. Things quickly escalate from pensive reflection to dramatic confrontations as the protagonist disintegrates. With sharp dialogue and comic brilliance, Pirandello dissolves the fixity of perception, challenging us to question the solidity of our own identities and to consider the ways we are each held captive by the gazes of others.

Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936) was a prolific Italian writer most famous for his plays, which inspired the absurdist théâtre de l’absurde movement. An influence on writers and thinkers from Samuel Beckett to Jean-Paul Sartre, Pirandello won the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature for his contributions to European modernism. His metatheatrical play Six Characters in Search of an Author remains a cultural touchstone for contemporary playwrights.

Sean Wilseyis an author, translator, and documentary filmmaker from San Francisco. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker and The London Review of Books, and his memoir Oh the Glory of It All was published by Penguin in 2005. His film IX XI debuted at the Perth Revelation Film Festival in 2023.