Anthologie

by Elisa Chimenti

Elisa Chimenti lived in Tangier for sixty years. Daughter of the personal doctor of Sultan Hassan I, she has been a teacher as founder of the first Italian school in Tangier, a journalist and a writer. She is considered to have been a pioneer among “Francophone women writers of the Maghreb”. Her literary work, which includes the most varied genres, shows how deep was her understanding and love for the Tangerine society of her time, a fascinating melting pot of Muslim Arabic, Berber, Christian and Jewish cultures. In her collection of tales and legends and of poetic songs, as well as in her novels and stories, she shows a passionate care for the life of people coming from a modest background. She paints living pictures of them, and today these portraits acquire a remarkable socio-historical dimension. On the fortieth anniversary of her death, Elisa Chimenti’s works are gathered together for the first time and reissued in this Anthology, which pays homage to the moving humanism of this “donna mediterranea”.

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