Joseph Farrell is a scholar of Italian literature, author and translator. He is professor emeritus of Italian at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. His work includes books on Leonardo Sciascia, Dario Fo and Franca Rame, as well as translations from Italian into English. His translation of Daniele Del Giudice's Staccando l'ombra da terra, published in English as Take-Off, received the John Florio Prize in 1998, and in 2013 he received the Premio Flaiano di Italianistica for Sicily: A Cultural History.
Academic and literary work
Farrell published a study of Leonardo Sciascia with Edinburgh University Press in 1995. A later book, Leonardo Sciascia: The Man and the Writer, was published by Leo S. Olschki in 2022 and reviewed by Fabio Moliterni in the Journal of Modern Italian Studies.
Farrell has also written about Dario Fo and Franca Rame. His biography, Dario Fo and Franca Rame: Theatre, Politics, Life (2019), was reviewed by Tim Parks in The New York Review of Books. Parks discussed the biography in the context of Fo and Rame's theatrical careers and the political history of post-war Italy.
An earlier book, Dario Fo and Franca Rame: Harlequins of the Revolution (2001), was reviewed by Tom Behan in Theatre Research International.
With Paolo Puppa, Farrell edited A History of Italian Theatre, published by Cambridge University Press in 2006. Farrell also edited The Voices of Carlo Levi (2007).
Farrell's 2017 book Robert Louis Stevenson in Samoa deals with Stevenson's final years in Samoa. Reviewing the book in Literary Review, Peter Moore commented on Farrell's prose and his understanding of Stevenson's Scottish background. Moore also noted that the book is organised by theme rather than chronology, which makes some of its early discussion of politics harder to follow.
Reviewing Honour and the Sword, Tim Parks praised Farrell's short biographical accounts of individual duellists, but questioned some of his moral judgements about their behaviour.
In 2025, Cambridge Scholars Publishing published Farrell's biography The Life of Lauro de Bosis: Icarus the Anti-Fascist. Caroline Moorehead reviewed the book in The Times Literary Supplement.
Translations
Harvill published Farrell's translation of Del Giudice's Take-Off in 1996.
Farrell translated Vincenzo Consolo's The Smile of the Unknown Mariner, published by Carcanet Press in 1994, and Fo's memoir My First Seven Years (Plus a Few More). Methuen published the English edition in 2005. His translation of Valerio Varesi's River of Shadows was reviewed by Barry Forshaw in The Independent in 2010.
Selected works
Books and book-length interviews
Leonardo Sciascia. Edinburgh University Press, 1995. Dario Fo and Franca Rame: Harlequins of the Revolution. Methuen, 2001. Sicily: A Cultural History. Signal Books, 2012. Non è tempo di nostalgia. Della Porta Editori, 2013. Book-length interview with Franca Rame. La mia vita, le mie battaglie. Della Porta Editori, 2015. Book-length interview with Dacia Maraini. Robert Louis Stevenson in Samoa. MacLehose Press, 2017. Dario Fo and Franca Rame: Theatre, Politics, Life. Methuen, 2019. Honour and the Sword: The Culture of Duelling. Signal Books, 2021. Leonardo Sciascia: The Man and the Writer. Leo S. Olschki, 2022. The Life of Lauro de Bosis: Icarus the Anti-Fascist. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2025.
Edited books
A History of Italian Theatre. Cambridge University Press, 2006. With Paolo Puppa. The Voices of Carlo Levi. Peter Lang, 2007.
Selected translations
Vincenzo Consolo, The Smile of the Unknown Mariner. Carcanet, 1994. Daniele Del Giudice, Take-Off. Harvill, 1996. Dario Fo, My First Seven Years (Plus a Few More). Methuen, 2005. Valerio Varesi, River of Shadows. MacLehose Press, 2010.
Awards and honours
1998 – John Florio Prize, for the translation of Daniele Del Giudice's Take-Off. 2005 – Appointed Cavaliere of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity. 2013 – Premio Flaiano di Italianistica, for Sicily: A Cultural History. 2024 – Special recognition for translation from Italian at the Pisa Book Translation Awards.
References
External links
Joseph Farrell at the University of Strathclyde