Book Club Guide

The Story of a New Name

by Elena Ferrante · 2012 · Literary Fiction

Key themes

Marriage as capture — and the woman who remains trapped in it
The university as liberation — for one, but not the other
Desire, betrayal and the friendship that survives both

About this book

The second of the Neapolitan novels follows Elena and Lila into early adulthood — through Lila's catastrophic marriage, Elena's escape to university in Pisa, and the complicated attraction and rivalry that has always defined them. The novel expands the first book's world to encompass class, sex, politics and the specific violence of Naples in the 1960s.

Published in Italian in 2012, this is the second of the four Neapolitan novels. It covers the 1960s and follows Elena and Lila from adolescence into their twenties.

Discussion questions

Lila's marriage to Stefano is a catastrophe she chose in part as escape from the neighbourhood. How does Ferrante show the psychology of someone who made the wrong choice with open eyes?
Elena escapes to university in Pisa while Lila remains in Naples. How does Ferrante develop the gap between them — and what does Elena's success cost her friendship with Lila?
The Neapolitan novels are sometimes described as a story of a brilliant woman who escapes and a brilliant woman who doesn't. Is this reading adequate — and what does it miss?
Lila's body of writing — her notebooks — is central to this volume. What is Ferrante saying about female creativity and the conditions it requires to exist?
The series is narrated retrospectively by Elena. What does this retrospective framing add — the knowledge that she becomes a writer, that she escapes, but also the knowledge that something was lost?