FICTION

THE MAN WHO SOLD HIS SHADOW by Adelbert von Chamisso. (Fromm: $16.95; 87 pp.) When Peter Schlemiel sells his shadow to the devil for a bottomless purse of gold, he has no idea that society will completely reject a shadowless man. “ . . . and she saw that only her shadow was cast on the lawn. Aghast, she looked up at me in horror, then down at the ground again . . . and her train of thought was so legible in her troubled look that I would have burst out in loud laughter had a cold chill not then and there run down my spine.”

According to the jacket copy of “Peter Schlemiel,” Italo Calvino once said that this is the book by another author he would most like to claim as his own work. Hmm. Written in 1814, “Peter Schlemiel,” considered a classic, is a friendly, interesting read. It has a slightly muffled style that’s no problem once you get acclimated. But if Calvino really felt that way, then there’s two possibilities, both of which are disconcerting, at least to me.

The first is that “Peter Schlemiel” has hidden clockwork of incredible beauty that went right over my head. I remember in eighth grade reading “Animal Farm,” and asking the teacher, in pissed-off insecurity, “What do you mean these animals are really Russian people? Where does it say that?” The other possibility is that Italo Calvino was having a strange day.