Elena Ferrante for new readers: your essential syllabus

The unofficial Elena Ferrante reading guide nobody asked for but you'll be glad you have

It has recently been brought to my attention that I am an Elena Ferrante author completionist. I’ve always known I’d read all of her work, but I didn’t have the terminology until reading this post from

Natalie McGlocklin

(emphasis my own):

I find it deeply satisfying that I might be able to write or think or talk with someone (you dear readers) deeply about an individual author - their prose style, the way their writing has changed or deepened over time, how their storylines have matured, how a later book is in conversation with a previous one. It provides a richness of context and understanding that is lost when we hop from author to author. These are the motivations for author completionism.

The consideration that someone else is out there with whom I could chat on a near molecular level about Queen Ferrante sets my heart on fire.

But where are my fellow Ferrante Completionists?

I was asking myself this question when I realized that maybe I could help create them. Ferrante is one of those authors whose work can be intimidating. Not every book is for every reader, and I can’t even recommend reading every single one of Ferrante’s books unless you really, really like her.

Enter the Elena Ferrante Syllabus, an unofficial, unaffiliated reading guide for those interested in the queen of literature (another unofficial title).

If Ferrante’s work is something you’d like to dip your toes into, or if you’d like to read more of her, I’ve created a reading list with one-sentence descriptions of each book in order of how I recommend reading her work.

Elena Ferrante had established a name for herself with the publication of her first three novels, but it wasn’t until the Neapolitan Quartet was published that she became the icon she is today. Because of this, I recommend starting with the Quartet.

I should note: each of these books were originally published in Italian and later published in English, translated by the great Ann Goldstein.

I pulled out all my Ferrante books to write this reading guide.

The Neapolitan Quartet

1. My Brilliant Friend (2008)

1950s - 1960s: This is the beginning of the decades-long complex and competitive friendship between Elena Greco and Lila Cerullo, two young girls growing up in a working-class neighborhood in Naples amidst post-war political complexities and societal and gender pressures.

2. The Story of a New Name (2012)

1960s- 1970s: The best friends’ chosen paths diverge as Elena pursues academics in Pisa (uncommon for girls during this time) and Lila settles for the domestic life.

3. Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (2013)

1970s - 1980s: Elena is now married, lives in Florence, and finds herself pulled between familial obligations and her scholastic ambitions while Lila is in a constant fight for survival in violent Naples (and with a violent partner).

4. The Story of the Lost Child (2014)

1980s - 2010s: The final book in the quartet concludes the 60-year relationship between the successful Elena and uncontainable Lila in an explosive reckoning.

I personally waited a while to read the final novel in the series, in the same way I waited to read Coco Mellors’s Cleopatra and Frankenstein after reading and loving Blue Sisters. You may want to do as I did and space these four out, but for the purposes of recommendation, this is the order I suggest reading in.

Standalone books (fiction & nonfiction)

5. Incidental Inventions (2018)

A collection of Ferrante’s year-long column originally published in The Guardian about writing and creativity.

After the heft of the Quartet, this is a breezy read that includes pretty pictures and short essays.

6. The Days of Abandonment (2002)

A brutal telling of a woman’s unraveling after her husband of 15 years casually announces over dinner one night that he wants a divorce.

This is my favorite Ferrante novel.

7. The Lost Daughter (2006)

A detached mother takes a solo vacation to the sea (as Italians do), where she becomes interested in a mother and child at the beach, compelling her to take something that’s not hers.

8. In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing (2021)

A collection of four personal essays about Ferrante’s literary influences and the blurred lines between life and fiction.

Here I have you take another break from her fiction to read these four short essays.

9. The Lying Life of Adults (2020)

A classic bildungsroman reminiscent of Naples in the Neapolitan Quartet, but it takes place in the 90s and follows a teenage girl.

I could never speak ill of Ferrante, but her latest novel was my least favorite of all her fiction. That said, it’s still a good read. Also, I love the first sentence:

“Two years before leaving home my father said to my mother that I was very ugly.”
The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante

10. Troubling Love (1992)

An adult daughter reconciles what she thought she knew about herself and her family after her mother’s surprising death.

This is Ferrante’s debut and it’s every bit as good as the rest of her work.

For the over-achievers

Truthfully, I think you could call yourself a Ferrante Completionist (if you wanted to) by reading the books above. She has two more books to her name, however, both of which are in conversation with the rest of her books, but act as stand-alone reads for those who used to seek extra credit in high school.

11. Frantumaglia (2016)

A collection of letters, interviews, and personal writings from the distant and decidedly not personal Elena Ferrante about her creative process, why she wishes to be anonymous, and the recurring themes in her work.

Frantumaglia is a term Ferrante’s mother used to describe a feeling of inner fragmentation, which she discusses at length in the book.

12. The Beach at Night (2007)

A dark and slightly scary children’s book about about a doll who is lost at the beach, told from the doll’s point-of-view.

My kids do not love this book.

Extra extra credit

13. Elena Ferrante’s Key Words (2018) by Tiziana de Rogatis

Translated by Will Schutt, this book digs deep — very, very deep — into Ferrante’s language and themes throughout her many books.

It could be considered superfluous, but if you love Ferrante in the same obscure way I do, it may interest you.

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I threw a lot at you! I hope this helps you confidently approach Elena Ferrante and her impressive selection of books. If you ever need someone to chat about Ferrante with, now you know who to reach out to.

Have you read Ferrante? What’s your favorite book of hers? What are you reading?

What I’m reading: All the Other Mothers Hate Me by Sarah Harmon (it’s so juicy and funny. Comes out next month!)

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