The Prodigious Friend: France 3 Broadcasts the Third Season of Elena Ferrante’s Literary Saga

From Thursday July 27, France 3 broadcasts the third season of The prodigious friendinspired by the literary saga of Elena Ferrante.

It is one of the most famous friendships in literature. And now also from the world of series. In 2011, Elena Ferrante published The prodigious friendan autobiographical story that depicts the childhood and adolescence of Elena Greco (Lenù) and her friendship with Raffaella Cerullo (Lila) in a popular district of Naples in the 1950s. After the success of this first volume, the Italian author decides to continue the adventures of the two friends through three other novels, including The new name, The one who flees and the one who staysThen The lost child. While the fourth and final season is currently in preparationthe third is broadcast from Thursday July 27 on France 3.

Inspired by the novel The one who flees and the one who stays, this new season follows Lenù and Lila in the 1970s. We find the first, author of a fairly successful book, approaching her marriage to Pietro Airota. And as she returns to Naples, she meets Enzo and Pasquale who inform her that Lila is not well and wants to see her. She then discovers the terrible conditions in which her friend works, exploited in a factory and more than ever tempted to join the Communist Party to fight against poor working conditions. The opportunity for Lila to make Lenù promise that, if something happens to her, she will take care of her son Gennaro…

A saga inspired by a true story?

A story that oozes authenticity, both in its description of Italy, of Naples at the time, but also in the facts mentioned that coincide with real historical events, the question has often arisen as to whether the saga The prodigious friend is inspired by a true story. Officially inspired by autobiography, nothing has ever allowed anyone to attest to the veracity of the facts mentioned, and this, in particular because the identity of Elena Ferrante remains very mysterious. Indeed, while she writes under a pseudonym, the author has never appeared in the media, and has been the subject of numerous rumors concerning her identity, almost all subsequently denied, or never attested. The only things that we know, more or less officially, about Elena Ferrante are that she was born in the region of Naples, that she would be married, a mother and currently lives in Greece. Few elements that finally make us understand that her characters and her stories are surely the ones that say the most about her.