Italian Reader.
Essential Biblical Stories
Twenty-one timeless stories in Giovanni Luzzi's lyrical 1924 Italian with a literal English gloss beneath every line, familiar narratives as a doorway into Italian prose.
210 pages · Paperback & Kindle · Beginner–intermediate
Genesis 1:1 in Luzzi's 1924 translation, the first line of the collection
Twenty-one stories.
Old and New Testament narratives in Luzzi's classic Italian.
Italian rewards readers who arrive through its classics, and Giovanni Luzzi's 1924 'Riveduta' (revised) translation is exactly that: lyrical, faithful and clear. These twenty-one familiar narratives let you experience that prose while your attention stays on the language, not the plot.
A strictly literal, word-for-word gloss beneath the Italian preserves the original word order and favours English cognates, exposing the mechanics of the language as you read. Doré's engravings accompany the stories, and each chapter closes with an epilogue of linguistic and historical context.
- 01The Creationand The Great Flood
- 02The Burning Bushand Crossing the Red Sea
- 03David and Goliathand Daniel in the Lions' Den
- 04The Sermon on the Mountand The Empty Tomb
- 05EpiloguesLinguistic and historical context after every chapter
Why this edition.
Classic Italian prose
Luzzi's Riveduta is admired for its lyricism and fidelity: literary Italian at its most graceful, made readable by the gloss.
Stories you can't get lost in
Familiar plots keep you oriented, so unfamiliar vocabulary never stalls the reading.
Cognate-first glossing
English words sharing roots with the Italian anchor new vocabulary in memory as you go.
An epilogue after every chapter
Each chapter closes with linguistic and historical context, so you read the Italian with its background in view.
Doré's engravings
Gustave Doré's engravings accompany the stories, giving the volume its classic character.
Genesis 1:1–2 in Luzzi's Riveduta, glossed as in the book
The details.
- Series
- The Italian Reader
- Language pair
- Italian–English interlinear
- Format
- Paperback & Kindle
- Print length
- 210 pages
- Source text
- Giovanni Luzzi, Riveduta (1924)
- Illustrations
- Gustave Doré
- Level
- Beginner–intermediate (A2–B1)
- Published
- May 2026
- ASIN
- B0GZHMN6YN
More from the press.
Every edition is glossed by hand, word by word, and printed on demand by Amazon.
Read Italian Reader with every word translated beneath the original.
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