by Dino Buzzati
With the King, mortally wounded, on board, the little ship returned to the shore amid a profound silence, for the crowd, struck dumb with sorrow, could not even weep.
On disembarking, Leander was taken to the palace; doctors hastened to his aid, but they did not dare to speak. A few, however, shook their heads, as if to say that there was no hope.
Chapter 12
And now twilight had fallen, and King Leander had sent for his son and his most faithful bears, for he felt that he was about to die. Through the little hole made by the bullet, life was ebbing away drop by drop.
In order not to give him further cause for grief, no one had had the heart to tell him that the magic wand and the gold taken from the bank had been found in Saltpetre’s palace, that that magnificent palace did in fact exist and that on that famous evening, realizing the King was approaching, Saltpetre had made it vanish temporarily by a stroke of the magic wand which he had stolen.
But the sovereign was very pleased to see Professor Ambrose, who had immediately been released from prison, enter the room.
“Don’t leave us, papa,” implored his young son Tony. “What shall we do without you? You led us down from the mountains, you freed us from our enemies and from the sea serpent. Who will command our people now?”
“Do not grieve, dearest Tony,” murmured his father. “No one is indispensable in this world. When I am gone there will be some other brave bear to wear the crown. But for your own salvation, my brothers, you must promise me one thing.”
“Speak, O King,” they said, falling to their knees. “We are listening.”
“Go back to the mountains,” said Leander slowly. “Leave this city, where you have found riches but not peace of mind. Take off those ridiculous human clothes. Throw away your gold. Abandon your cannon, your rifles, and all the other devilish contraptions that men have shown you. Return to what you were before. How happily we used to live in those solitary caves open to the winds, how different it was from these hateful palaces full of vanity and corruption! Forest plants and wild honey will still seem the most exquisite food to you. Oh, drink pure spring water again, and not wine, which ruins your health. It will be hard to part with so many beautiful things, I know, but you will be the happier for it afterwards, and you will look the better for it. We’ve grown fat, my friends, that is the truth: we are not what we were.”
“Oh, forgive us, good King,” they said. “You will see that we shall obey you.”
Then King Leander raised himself on his pillows to breathe in the fragrant evening air. Night was falling. From the open windows, one could see the city shining marvellously in the last rays of the sun, the gardens all in bloom and, in the distance, a line of blue sea.
There was a long silence. Then suddenly the birds began to sing. They flew in at the window, each holding a little flower in its beak and, fluttering gently, let them fall on the bed of the dying bear.
“Goodbye, little Tony,” the King whispered once more. “Now I must really leave you. I beg you, if it would not be too much trouble, to carry me up to the mountains too. Farewell, my friends, farewell, my beloved people. Farewell to you too, Ambrose, a little stroke of your magic wand might perhaps help my worthy beasts come to their senses again!”
He closed his eyes. It seemed to him that kindly shades – the spirits of bears of old, his ancestors, his father and comrades fallen in battle – drew near to him to accompany him to the far-off paradise for bears, the land of eternal spring. And he ended his life with a smile.
The next day the bears left. To the amazement of men (and also to their regret, for on the whole the beasts had been liked), they left their palaces and possessions as they were, without taking so much as a pin with them: they piled up their arms, their decorations, their banners, their uniforms and so on, in one of the squares, and set fire to them. They gave all their money to the poor, down to the very last penny. And in silence they filed along the road down which they had come thirteen years earlier, winning victory after victory.
They say that the crowd of humans lining the walls of the city broke into sobs and laments when the body of King Leander, borne on the shoulders of four mighty bears, emerged from the main gateway, surrounded by a multitude of torches and flags – and perhaps you too will be a little sorry to see him depart for ever.
The Children:
Dearest bear cubs, do not go,
Dark the night and strange the way.
Wicked fairies wait to throw
Terrors in your path till day.
Just a little longer stay,
And we promise not to tease you,
We would find new games to play
And do everything to please you.
We would give you sweets to eat,
Sweets our fathers brought from Spain;
We would think of some new treat,
We would lend you our new train,
And our scooter and our kite
And our bricks, and all we could.
We would sing with you at night.
If you stay, we will be good.
The bear cubs:
Dearest children, cry no more,
Do not say such things to us,
For this voyage mysterious
Made us sad enough before.
How we wish that we could stay
With you on the grassy plain
We shall never see again –
How we hate to go away!
But go we must. Our Destiny
Calls to the mountain tops anew,
And like a dream our history
Is ended now. Adieu, adieu!
And so, along the white road stretching away to the mountains, the immense procession receded, until the very last group of them had left the city, looking back in salute.
Slowly, slowly the lengthy ranks appeared smaller and thinner. Towards sunset nothing could be seen save a narrow, black streak on the brow of a distant hill. (Farther away still, at an inestimable distance, the towering peaks glittered, amidst ice and solitude.) Then nothing more could be seen.
Where did they bury King Leander? In what pinewood, in what green pasture, in the heart of what rock? No one has ever known – probably no one will ever know. And what did the bears do afterwards, in their ancient kingdom? Those are secrets guarded for all eternity by the mountains. In memory of the bears there remains only the uncompleted monument, its head half finished, dominating the roofs of the capital. But tempests, gales and the centuries have, little by little, destroyed even this. Last year only a few stones remained, crumbling and unrecognizable, piled up in the corner of a garden.
“What are those strange boulders?” we asked an aged in- habitant who was passing by.
“Why, don’t you know, Sir?” he said pleasantly. “They are the remains of an antique statue. Do you see? Once upon a time, a very long time ago…” And he began to tell the story.
Index of Illustrations
Once upon a time, in the ancient mountains of Sicily, two hunters captured the bear cub Tony, son of Leander, King of the Bears. But this occurred some years before our story begins.page 1
The bears, driven by cold and hunger, go down to the plains and engage in battle with the seasoned troops of the Grand Duke sent to repulse them. The intrepidity of the bear Titan puts the Grand Duke’s soldiers to flight.page 19
Count Molfetta’s fighting boars attack the bears unexpectedly, but Ambrose the astrologer transforms them by a spell into balloons, gently rocked by the breeze. Hence the famous legend of Molfetta’s flying boars.page 27
Professor Ambrose lures the bears to the terrifying Demon Castle, inhabited by ghosts, so that they shall die of terror. How could he have foreseen that it would all end in a party with music, songs, waltzes and minuets, among the ruins?page 37
In the deep gorge between the Pilgrim Mountains, the bears are attacked by Marmoset the Cat, thirsty for blood. Some fly,
some fire shots in a vain attempt at defence, some hide, some leap into the abyss rather than end their days as a mouthful for the legendary monster.page 49
Led by their King, Leander, the bears lay siege to Cormorant Castle, on the edge of the capital, and conquer it after thirty-two hours of the bitterest fighting, thanks to the wise foresight of the bear Marzipan and the machines invented by him.page 61
The historic scene in the Grand Theatre Excelsior as the victorious bears force their way in. King Leander recognizes the tightrope walker as his son – kidnapped when small – and the Grand Duke, out of revenge, fires straight at the bear cub.page 71
Sicily conquered, the gallant legions of bears parade in the market square. The little bear cub Prince Tony is also able to be present, saved by the intervention of the wizard, but still a little weak owing to having lost so much blood. For that reason he is seated on an easy chair.page 79
When evening falls, the bears celebrate to the strains of a select orchestra, dancing in the park illuminated by a thousand lights, while the reformed Professor Ambrose, unable to take part owing to his age, contents himself with peeping from a corner.page 81
After Professor Ambrose’s magic wand has been stolen, King Leander harangues the citizens, exhorting the culprit to restore the precious object and threatening severe punishment if he doesn’t. He is exceedingly angry.page 91
New symptoms of corruption among the bears. Ambrose says that in the cellars of a mysterious castle he discovered animals abandoning themselves to shameful orgies. The account leaves King Leander perplexed and much disgusted.page 97
Who was it who attacked the Grand Universal Bank one night and stole its treasures? Saltpetre the Chamberlain insinuates that the deed was carried out by humans at the instigations of the wizard. But it may be that this is not exactly what happened.page 99
At the suggestion of Dandelion, the detective bear, King Leander visits a villa in Acacia Avenue and discovers a gambling den. Worse than that, he discovers his son Tony, who is squandering all he possesses on this ruinous vice.page 107
To pacify his King’s wrath, Saltpetre the Chamberlain causes a gigantic monument to be erected in his honour. But joy is short-lived. Down there on the right various terrified fishermen are coming running, and they are certainly bringing bad news.page 111
Aboard a barque, King Leander goes forth against the terrible sea serpent menacing the city. He kills it with one stroke of his harpoon. But, as you will see, Saltpetre’s perfidy throws the jubilant populace into grief and mourning!page 119
In accordance with the last wishes of their valiant and unfortunate King, the bears forsake riches, elegance and debauchery, to return to their ancient mountains. They depart in an endless column. We shall never see them again. Farewell, farewell!page 127
a reader’s companion to
The Bears’ Famous
Invasion of Sicily
by Lemony Snicket
Now that you have finished Dino Buzzati’s The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily, you are probably sighing with the satisfaction of completing a good story, or wiping one last tear from your eye as you contemplate the melancholy ending, or holding your empty glass upside down over your mouth in the hopes that there are one or two more drops of your Buzzati cocktail left inside for you to enjoy, or doing all three of these things at once, or getting up from your bed and making sure all the doors and windows are locked in case the werewolf from the list of characters – who does not appear in the story after all – has decided to appear in your neighbourhood on this very evening and is attracted to the glow of your bedside lamp as he wanders the sidewalks in search of nourishment. In any case, you are probably in no mood to read any sort of reader’s guide hidden in the back of a book.
In all likelihood these pages are entirely useless. In all likelihood, you have read Dino Buzzati’s The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily as an assignment in the school or headquarters where you spend most of your days. In all likelihood, your instructor has helped you explore the valuable information contained in Mr Buzzati’s history. In all likelihood, you have reached a thorough appreciation of the philosophical truths of The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily, even if you are not a bear, or have no interest in invading Sicily. In all likelihood – a phrase which here means “probably”, although it is such a rare expression that it is unusual to find it more than four times in a single paragraph – you can safely ignore this last section of the book, just as you can safely ignore that suspicious shadow that has just appeared across your window shade, because in all likelihood it is not a werewolf.
However, there is a slim possibility that the instructors at your school or headquarters are a bit foolish, and instead of assigning a valuable work such as The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily, they have chosen to focus on something less important, such as long division, or planting bean sprouts in cups, or learning how to be a good sport. I cannot imagine an instructor who would do such a foolish thing, but if this is the case, you have probably read Dino Buzzati’s book on your own, and you may want to serve as your own instructor and learn as much as you can from The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily before it is too late. In that case, you may find this guide helpful.
The Reader’s Companion is divided into sections – one for each of the sections of the book. As you read the companion, you may want to go back to each section to refresh your memory, keeping one finger here in the guide so you do not lose your place. I recommend using your own finger, as you never know where the fingers of others have been.
SECTION ONE
Once upon a time…
page 1
A brief summary of events: Mr Buzzati writes a brief description of something that happens before the story begins: the kidnapping of Tony, son of Leander, by two hunters. In a way, it is this tragic incident that is the cause of all the bears’ troubles in Sicily – and so this incident, which happens before the story begins and appears before the book begins, is actually the beginning of the story as well as the beginning of the book.
The lesson of this brief section is clear: kidnapping, no matter how exciting it is, rarely leads to good things.
QUESTIONS YOU MAY FIND INTERESTING:
Is hunting a moral act, a phrase which here means “something that is not as wicked as kidnapping, but perhaps a little wicked nonetheless”?
Why wasn’t Tony held for ransom?
In the illustration, how are the hunters able to stay on the mountain? It looks very steep.
SUGGESTED ACTIVITY:
Either by reading a newspaper or by eavesdropping, learn about a recent kidnapping and rescue the kidnapping victim yourself. When my instructor first suggested this activity, I thought she was talking nonsense, but four years later, as I untied her and led her out of the cave hidden behind a very large magazine stand, I realized this was a valuable activity indeed.
SECTION TWO
List of Characters
page 5
A brief summary of events: in this section of the book, Mr Buzzati provides a list of the heroes, villains, friends, enemies, monsters and other mysterious individuals who may or may not appear in the book. Several characters are so distressing that one is tempted to shut the book immediately and forget the whole thing.
The lesson of this section is clear: it is helpful to have a list before embarking on an adventure, so you know who to avoid and who to befriend.
QUESTIONS YOU MAY FIND INTERESTING:
Which character seems the most interesting, based on this list? Which character seems the most frightening? Which character seems the happiest? The saddest? The tallest? The nastiest? The most likely to enjoy freshly squeezed juice? The most likely to say that he or she will attend a birthday party, but then call and cancel at the last moment?
Do monsters make a story more interesting, or are they too frightening and ought to be removed from all stories, by force if nec
essary?
Do you suppose any of these monsters live in your neighbourhood? If so, oh dear. If not, remember they may visit your neighbourhood even if they do not live there.
What was that noise?
Why are so many of the characters facing to the right?
SUGGESTED ACTIVITY:
Make a list of heroes, villains, friends, enemies, monsters and other mysterious individuals in your own life. You will probably have to change this list very often.
SECTION THREE
The Scene
page 11
A brief summary of events: Mr Buzzati describes some of the locations in which the story takes place. Some people may find this section slightly boring, but if you don’t pay close attention you find yourself lost in the desolate and snowy surroundings of the book.
The lesson of this brief section is clear: if you do not know where you are, it is impossible to conduct a famous invasion.
QUESTIONS YOU MAY FIND INTERESTING:
Where are you?
Are you sure?
Mr Buzzati describes “palaces of yellow marble” in the city. Do you think yellow is an appropriate colour for royal decorating? If not, make another suggestion.
