"I feel no nostalgia for our childhood: it was full of violence. Every sort of thing happened, at home and outside, every day, but I don't recall having ever thought that the life we had there was particularly bad. Life was like that, that's all, we grew up with the duty to make it difficult for others before they made it difficult for us."
— Elena "Lenù" Greco, My Brilliant Friend
The Neapolitan Novels is a four novel series by Italian writer Elena Ferrante.note It's a Coming of Age story of two young girls, Lenù and Lila (short names for Elena and Raffaella), their friendship in their poor Neapolitan neighbourhood. The history covers a lifetime, from when they met in school in The '50s to their old age during the The 2000s.
Elena is the Character Narrator, while Lila is arguably as much as the protagonist, but filtered through Elena's eyes sometimes with admiration, sometimes with jealousy. The two girls are the most brilliant of their neighbourhood and the most perceptive, but Elena feels Always Second Best. Ironically, it will be Elena who is able to complete her education and become a successfull writer, while Lila is forced by her family to stop at primary school.
The first novel, My Brilliant Friend, starts in 2010 with the mysterious disappereance of Lila, now in her sixties, from Neaples, leaving no message or personal effects. Elena acknowledges that is something Lila would do, and in attempt to reach out to her, she begins to put on paper everything she can remember about Lila and their friendship.
The Neapolitan Novels is composed by four novels:
- My Brilliant Friend (2010)
- The Story of a New Name (2013)
- Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (2014)
- The Story of the Lost Child (2015)
The saga is an international best-seller, and the first three books in the series have also been adapted into an HBO television series entitled My Brilliant Friend. The series was officially renewed for a fourth season, based on the fourth and last book as well.
The Neapolitan Novels features the following tropes:
- Adaptational Attractiveness: Eleonora, a minor character and Nino's wife in later books. In the book, when Elena meets her for the first time, she's surprised that Eleonora is actually a homely, overweight, obnoxious, and ignorant woman with a shrill voice (it's implied that Nino married her only because of her rich and powerful family). The Eleonora of the TV series is beautiful, graceful, and nothing like her book counterpart.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Resident bad boys Marcello and Michele Solara are considered attractive by girls. The problem is that they both want Lila (at different times) but she hates them.
- Amicable Exes: In the last book, Elena is on friendly terms with both her-boyfriend Antonio and her ex-husband Pietro.
- Always Second Best : Interestingly enough, how Elena and Lila both feel about each other. Lila because Elena had the chance to make long studies whereas she did not, and Elena because Lila was the most beautiful and ultimately the autodidact prodigy of the two, who could have made it very far in the academic field if she had had the chance.
- Ancestral Name: Very common in these books is to name children after grandparents.
- Elena and Pietro's first daughter is named after Pietro's mother Adele, though little Adele is Only Known by Their Nickname Dede. Elena's third daughter is named after Elena's mother Immacolata, but she's also Only Known by Their Nickname Imma.
- Lila's daughter and later Missing Child Tina is named after Lila's mother Nunzia (Tina is short for "Annunziatina").
- Rino and Pinuccia's child "Dino" is named after Rino's father Fernando (Dino being short for "Fernandino").
- Stefano and Ada's daughter Maria is named after Stefano's mother.
- Averted with Lila and Stefano's son. Stefano absolutely wanted to name him "Achille", after Stefano's late father, and fought with Lila about it. But Lila told him that "she would rather kill herself", since she has hated Stefano's evil father since she was a child, and at that point she still believed Nino was the baby's real father, and not Stefano. She ends up naming the baby Gennaro, after her older brother Rino.
- Awful Wedded Life: Lila's marriage with Stefano is a complete disaster, as she despises him and he beats her. They are also both unfaithful. And he raped her on their wedding night.
- Beautiful All Along: As an adolescent Elena has quite a bit of angst over not being as attractive as Lila. Once she moves away to college, gets better clothes and loses the acne, however, everyone in Naples and elsewhere seems to agree she's very pretty. Remarkably subverted, however, in that rather than the narrative dwelling on how her looks have improved, she seems to simply stop being so concerned about her appearance, except when she's trying to impress Nino.
- Beta Couple: In later books, Carmela and the gas station attendant are the only stable and conflict-free relationship in the entire series, and we barely know anything about Carmela's husband. Otherwise averted, all the secondary couples (the ones not involving Elena and Lila) are just as dysfunctional and toxic as the main ones.
- Better as Friends: Lila feels this way about Pasquale and Enzo, who are both in love with her. Eventually subverted for Enzo, as she comes to reciprocate his feelings and live with him for many years.
- Betty and Veronica:
- Timid Elena being the Betty, and fiery, unpredictable Lila being the Veronica to Nino's Archie.
- In the third book, Elena is the Archie to her safe, boring husband Pietro (Betty) and the hot, exciting but untrustworthy Nino (Veronica). She chooses the latter...
- Bittersweet Ending: While Lila gets a 100% Downer Ending, Elena's final life is more bittersweet: At 60 years old, she a rich, accomplished writer with many successful books, she gets appreciation for her works everywhere, and her three daughters grew up to be smart students with a good life. But all her family lives far away, and she has lost the two people she loved the most, as her dream man Nino turned out to be a complete jerk and her best friend Lila disappeared without a trace.
- Bookworm:
- Elena and Nino read a lot, although it's hard to tell if they really enjoy reading, or if they just do it to impress other people with their knowledge of history and literature. Probably a bit of both.
- Lila is also a voracious reader during her childhood and early teens, and later intermittently throughout her life. In the first novel Elena finds out that Lila has secretly been reading every single book in the library even after she wasn't allowed to attend middle school. Lila starts professing disinterest in books and reading once she marries Stefano at sixteen, but she picks the habit back up several times throughout her life such as when she has an affair with Nino and when she develops an interest in the history of Naples after her daughter's disappearance. It is also implied at different points in the novels that she's better-read and better-informed than she's willing to let on even as an adult.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Elena's two older daughters with Pietro definitely have shades of this as teenagers. They come from quite a privileged background and have a pretty decent life by the standards of "the neighborhood", but often act entitled and disrespectful, fight each other, and eventually fight over a man.
- Butt-Monkey: Gigliola. Goes to middle school only to end up failing, often gets passed over in favor of Lila in many instances, girlfriend then wife to a cruel man who cheats on her and abuses her, and kicks her and their children out.. Eventually becomes very bitter because of it all.
- The Casanova:
- Nino, bordering on Sex Addiction. In the last book, he cheats on Elena with multiple different women, including the middle-aged cleaning lady.
- Michele Solara, who tells his wife Gigliola that he has slept with 122 women in the third book (some of them paid, others for free). He also tells his wife that she's just "one of them" and not even among the best.
- Childhood Friends: The two protagonists are friends since elementary school. The four novels revolve around their growing into womanhood.
- Comic-Book Time: Elena's youngest sibling Elisa already exists (and is implied to be older than an infant) around the time Elena starts elementary school in 1950. And yet she's apparently still in school in 1968 when Elena is back home in the months before her marriage. And when she hooks up with Marcello several years after that, Elena talks about her as if she's a very young girl and compares her to her own adolescence, when chronologically Elisa should be in her mid-twenties at least.
- Domestic Abuse: Very common in the books, to the point where Elena has no childhood nostalgia due to it. In the protagonist's neighbourhood, it is seen as normal that a husband beats his wife and the kids: Elena is given a severe thrashing when she skips school with Lila, and Lila is thrown bodily out of the window and breaks an arm when she says she will go to middle school despite his father being adamantly against it. Stefano is abusive to Lila and Gigliola is also the victim of cruel verbal and emotional abuse by her husband Michele.
- The Dreaded: Don Achille Carracci whom the children are warned not even to talk to, and the whole Solara family who are deep in crime (especially sons Michele and Marcello, and their mother, Manuela the moneylender).
- Driven to Suicide: The fate of Giuseppina Peluso, broken by her husband's long imprisonment and death in prison, and Franco Mari, broken by the violent aggression he was a victim of, and his subsequent handicapped state.
- First Girl Wins: Enzo is the very first to guy shown to have special feelings for Lila while they're still in grade school. He becomes her final and longest-lasting romantic companion in the end. It doesn't end well, though, because of other reasons.
- First Love : Elena has been deeply in love with Nino since they were both children.
- For Want Of A Nail: Lila's shoes end up being a catalyst for a lot of important plot points, having repercussions all throughout the books - starting with signalling the end of the idea of a happy marriage.
- Good Adultery, Bad Adultery:
- The narrative doesn't really demonize any characters for the various cases of infidelity that occur throughout the four books, but Lila's affair with Nino is arguably portrayed in the most sympathetic light, because she's a teenager stuck in a terrible marriage with a physically and sexually abusive man, looking for a way out.
- Donato and his son Nino's infidelities, on the other hand, are arguably portrayed in the most negative light as they are habitual and involve taking advantage of/harassing vulnerable women and girls.
- Grief-Induced Split: The relationship between Enzo and Lila crumbles, as the disappearance of their four-year-old daughter Tina proves an insurmountable tragedy.
- Hates Their Parent:
- Elena admits in the first book that she really hated her abusive mother Immacolata when she was younger. Subverted in the last book, where Immacolata is sick and Elena realizes how much she actually loves her mother. She also learns that part of her mother's abuse was Tough Love.
- Nino hates his (seemingly friendly) father for being a hypocritical liar who cheats on Nino's mother. Ironically, Nino ends up becoming exactly life his father as he grows up.
- In the third book, Pietro can't stand his mother and is always trying to avoid her.
- Karma Houdini: After all of the lies, the betrayals, the cheating, and his cowardly exits, nothing truly bad ever happens to Nino, and he ends up having a successful political career. One of the very few characters who achieves an happy ending.
- Karmic Death: A life a crime finally ends up catching up the Solara brothers as they are both shot in front of their families by unknown gangsters in the last book.
- Kavorka Man:
- Donato Sarratore is by no means a handsome man, but with his facade of a gallant and cultured gentleman, he manages to seduce many women.
- Lila's son Gennaro grows up to be an ugly, overweight, and unintelligent loser. Elena's two older daughters Dede and Elsa are madly in love with him as teenagers, despite being both much smarter than him. Neither Elena nor Lila can understand why.
- Law of Inverse Fertility:
- Averted with Lila. Early in her marriage to Stefano, who she despises with all her heart and is repulsed by the idea of getting pregnant with, she doesn't conceive for a long time and eventually has a miscarriage. This is actually discussed in-universe as his family seem to attribute to her a supernatural ability to kill embryos in her uterus. She only gets pregnant again a couple of years later when she's very much in love with Nino, her lover and elated at the idea of having his child. The child turns out to be her husband's, however.
- Played straight with Elena, who doesn't want to have a child with her soon-to-be husband until after she has written a second book, and even goes with Lila to a gynecologist to obtain birth control pills for both of them. She falls pregnant immediately after the wedding.
- Later averted with both of them as both decide to have another child in their late thirties and proceed to do so.
- Law of Inverse Paternity: Played with, in that for the first few years of her son's life Lila desperately wants to believe he is her former lover's child, and not her husband's. Eventually played straight in that the child turns out to be her husband's.
- Love Triangle: Many, the most obvious being Elena, Nino and Lila. We also have: Melina/Donato/Lidia, Nino/Lila/Stefano, Nino/Elena/Pietro, Alfonso/Marisa/Michele... to name a few.
- Love Martyr: Despite the lying, the betrayals and the cheating, Elena stays madly in love with Nino throughout the books. She eventually, after many years, one child and four books, leaves him for good.
- Love Hurts: And how! Elena and dozen of other characters experience painful heartaches.
- Lower-Class Lout: The protagonist's neighbourhood is mostly inhabited by ignorant, vulgar, and violent people. Crimes and murders are very common.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Lila adamantly maintains that Rinuccio isn't Stefano's child but Nino's. Subverted as Stefano's never believes the child isn't his, and that the growing resemblance throughout the child's growing up proves that Rinuccio really is Stefano's and not Nino's.
- Marital Rape License: Unfortunately what happens between Stefano and Lila. She doesn't feel attracted to him anymore after his betrayal and he retaliates by raping her during their wedding night and taunting her on how much of a man he is.
- Mirror Character: Nino despises his father for taking advantage of a vulnerable woman and repeatedly cheating on his mother with multiple women. Fast forward a couple of decades and his own conduct is scarcely better.
- Missing Child: The fate of Tina, Lila and Enzo's daughter. Her mysterious and tragic disappearance is what ultimately breaks Lila's psyche and her relationship with Enzo.
- No Name Given: Lila has younger siblings but their names are never mentioned, as they are not really part of the story. We only know that they exist and that Lila has a big family. On the other hand, Lila's older brother Rino is a prominent character in the first two books.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Many characters are often referred by their nicknames, but Elena and Lila stand out:
- Elena is most often referred as Lenù, and it's extremely rare for her family and old friends to actually call her Elena. Though she's often called Elena when she's outside her neighborhood, and when people speak Italian rather than Neapolitan (or "dialect", as Elena calls it).
- Lila's real name Raffaella is used only once, and that's in Elena's narration as she explains nobody ever uses it: everyone else calls her Lina, while Elena uses the exclusive nickname Lila and would only ever switch to Lina if they were over for good. In the TV series, this was changed in that everyone calls her Lila, never Lina.
- Two of Elena's three daughters are only known by their nicknames. The first daughter Adele was initially nicknamed "Ade" by Elena, until her husband Pietro reminds her what Ade means (it's the Italian name of the god "Hades"), so she quickly switches to "Dede".
- Pair the Smart Ones: Many couples involving the main characters are this:
- Elena and Nino, the main (toxic) Will They or Won't They? couple. Nino's intelligence is one of the reasons why Elena remains in love with him for a long time. They were also the two best students in their high school.
- Elena and her husband Pietro, the latter being a Gentleman and a Scholar from a famous and wealthy family of intellectuals. While Elena is just as smart as him, she's a bit embarrassed about her Neapolitan background and her poor, ignorant family.
- Lila and Nino, as it's revealed during the holiday in Ischia that Nino is attracted to Lila because he still remembers her as the Child Prodigy from primary school, even if she dropped out after that.
- Lila and Enzo. Both were Good with Numbers compared to all the other kids in elementary school. When they move in together, they learn electronics and start their own computer company.
- Pseudo-Romantic Friendship: The most important relationship Elena and Lila have is with each other, and not even this is free from drama, rivalry or clashes. It's heavily implied it's simply friendship and not a full lesbian relationship only because of the extremely conservative culture of Italy at the time the early parts of the series are set (the protagonists having been born in 1944).
- Rags to Riches: Lila and Elena's biggest childhood dream, and big distinct story arcs for the both of them. Lila achieves it (and then loses it) several times through the books, through marriage with Stefano and then talent with her informatics company and Enzo's help. Elena both through her marriage with Pietro and her career as an author.
- Retargeted Lust: Michele Solara lusts after Lila. She never reciprocates. He then starts an homosexual relationship with Alfonso, who models himself after Lila. It doesn't end well.
- Sex with the Ex: Elena with Antonio, her first boyfriend and Pietro, her ex-husband at different points in the story.
- She Is All Grown Up: The first book explores the squicky side of this trope, as the girls of the neighborhood start being sexualized by older men almost as soon as they hit puberty. This is especially egregious and becomes a major plot point in Lila's case, as she goes from being considered an ugly duckling to being the object of infatuation of several legal adults at only fourteen, which ultimately ends up having disastrous consequences for her.
- Stay in the Kitchen: Many, many instances that shape a sad amount of the intersex relationships of the books and end up holding back a lot of the female characters, starting with Lila being denied middle school education due in part to being a girl. It is specifically the big first straw against Elena and Pietro's marriage, as the latter, who had first led Elena to believe he saw her as his equal, does not participate in the raising of their children or the house tasks to focus on his own research (which he views as more important than Elena's), forcing her to put her career as an author on hold. Alfonso is one of the few notable exceptions, as he mentions to Elena in a heartwarming moment that he could never mistreat or look at a woman with contempt because he knows her and what she is capable of.
- Title Drop: "You're my brilliant friend" near the end of the first book ("My Brilliant Friend" is the title of the first novel, and also how the entire series is generelly referred to). It's Lila who says that to Elena, while for most of the book Lila was implied to be the titular "brilliant friend" because of Elena's narration. That line reveals that both friends see each other this way.
- Tough Love: Imma towards her daughter Elena. She almost borders on Abusive Parents (but for the social and historical setting she was all but normal) but she eventual reveals tha Elena was the person she loved the most in her life and doesn't really know how to be tender.
- Unreliable Narrator: Elena's narration seems to leave a lot of people feeling like Lila is the worse friend and the worse person between the two main characters. This is despite the fact that, once you look past her more outwardly bitter and confrontational personality, Lila does very little that is objectively bad, especially once she grows fully into an adult. When you look into it a lot of Lila's "worst moments" come from Elena's representation of herself as a wronged and/or neglected friend, but her perspective is clearly subjective. We don't have direct access to Lila's thoughts and feelings the way we do with Elena, meanwhile the text is littered with Elena constantly and casually second guessing Lila's intentions based on her own emotional needs and expectations. As a result Elena often suspects malicious intent from Lila's words and actions when a more charitable interpretation is possible. Elena herself occasionally admits to this.
- Villainous Crush: Marcello Solara, and then Michele Solara, towards Lila.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The final volume introduces Doriana, the young woman Pietro hooks up with after he and Elena split up. They live together for many years, without any reports of any sort of conflict between them, until one day we are suddenly informed their relationship is over, with him claiming that she turned out to be "an untrustworthy person, completely without ethics". We never find out what she did to deserve such strong condemnation.
- Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: When Lila is about to finish elementary school, she wants to continue study into middle school, but her father disagrees as they are poor, she is a girl and they need the extra hands in the shoeshop. A fight ensues, Lila is picked up by her father and thrown bodily out the window and onto the court (breaking an arm in the fall), while her father looks out and says basically "Look at what you made me do!"
- Will They or Won't They?: Elena and Nino. Elena has been in love with Nino since childhood, all their interactions have Unresolved Sexual Tension, but Nino's feelings for her are not clear. They get together by the end of the third book... but their relationship in the fourth/last book is a disaster, with Nino being even more of a jerk than in the previous books. Elena finally gets over her love for him.
- With Friends Like These...: Lila gets Elena into a fair amount of trouble. Throwing their dolls down into the basement of the house where the dreaded don Achille lives and talking Elena into skipping school specifically so Elena's parents will be mad at Elena (so that, since Lila is denied middle school, Elena will be as well) is only the start.
- Working-Class Hero: What Lila ends up unwillingly becoming during her time at the factory.
- World of Jerkass: Almost all the characters, regardless of their wealth, gender, background, education, or political opinions, are shown to be selfish and immoral people to some degree (including the two protagonists Elena and Lila). One of the rare exceptions is Enzo.
