Baron on the Tree

Set in the peaceful valley of Ombrosa during the period of intellectual and social ferment which characterized the Age of Reason, Italo Calvino’s The Baron in the Trees relates the story of Cosimo Piovasco di Rondo, heir to the immense estate of the Piovasci. Cosimo rebels against the rule-burdened atmosphere in which he is reared by climbing into the trees on his family’s estate at the age of twelve and remaining there for the rest of his life. His refusal to eat the snail soup and main course of snails prepared by his sister Battista is the issue which sends him into the trees, but he soon decides to make them his permanent home.
Cosimo’s family makes a few perfunctory attempts to get him down. His mother, nicknamed "the Generalessa" because of her Austrian military ancestry, worries at first about Cosimo’s falling. (His brother Biaggio, who becomes both observer of and commentator on Cosimo’s unusual way of life, finds this concern ironic, noting that it would not have bothered their mother in the least to see her sons under cannon fire.) Eventually, she rather enjoys catching sight of Cosimo in one tree or another through her telescope, and she sends him messages with her military signal flags.
Cosimo’s varied adventures in the trees make for enjoyable reading. At first these are boyish pranks, such as throwing a piece of bark at the boys’ pompous tutor, the Abbe Fauchelfleur, or hair-raising encounters with the "fruit thieves," neighborhood boys who steal from the lush orchards in the area. One experience, however, has a lasting effect on Cosimo: meeting Violante (Viola) Ondariva. Their families have not spoken for years, but within minutes they are fast friends, and Viola is taken with Cosimo’s unusual way of life. She even helps him escape from the fruit thieves in the guise of "Sinforosa."
Though Cosimo is a solitary figure, he does not avoid people. Indeed, as he matures, he provides useful services such as delivering messages. His agility allows him to