Under the Jaguar Sun is a collection of short stories

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 by Italo Calvino

Italo Calvino

Italo Calvino was an Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy , the Cosmicomics collection of short stories , and the novels Invisible Cities and If on a winter's night a traveler .Lionised in Britain and the United States,...

. The stories were to have been in a book entitled I cinque sensi (The Five Senses). Calvino died before writing the stories dedicated to vision and touch. In the Italian edition (Garzanti, 1986) the stories are ordered as follows: Il nome, il naso; Sotto il sole giaguaro; and Un re in ascolto. The story Sotto il sole giaguaro was originally published as Sapore sapere ("learning to taste") in the June 1982 edition of FMR, an Italian magazine.

In the 1992 English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 translation

Translation

Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...

 by William Weaver

William Weaver

William Fense Weaver is an English language translator of modern Italian literature.-Biography:William Weaver is perhaps best known for his translations of the work of Umberto Eco and Italo Calvino, and has translated many other Italian authors over the course of a career spanning more than fifty...

, the works are arranged by length, beginning with "Under the Jaguar Sun" followed by "A King Listens" and "The Name, The Nose."

Under the Jaguar Sun

This short story involves a couple on vacation in Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

, experiencing difficulties in their relationship. Mexico is presented as a country characterised by its bloody history, both in the indigenous past and in its colonised period, which includes the present.

A King Listens

This short story focuses on the sense of hearing. It is designed to be read in different ways, as it is written in the second-person. In the story, a palace

Palace

A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word itself is derived from the Latin name Palātium, for Palatine Hill, one of the seven hills in Rome. In many parts of Europe, the...

 becomes a giant ear and a King is obsessed by fears of rebellion which send him toward a state of restless aural surveillance. This paranoia

Paranoia

Paranoia [] is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself...

 only seems to halt when he hears the sincere love song of a woman. The story was made into an opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 by the composer Luciano Berio

Luciano Berio

Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian composer. He is noted for his experimental work and also for his pioneering work in electronic music.-Biography:Berio was born at Oneglia Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (October 24, 1925 – May 27, 2003) was an Italian...

, and served as basis for Myriorama (2004), a telematic dance piece by ambientTV.NET in collaboration with kondition pluriel, which questioned surveillance of dailylife through networked telecommunication technologies.

The Name, The Nose

This short story is from the perspective of three different characters: a French sensualist, a prehistoric entity on the verge of becoming human, and a drug-addled musician. They are united in their quest of a captivating female scent, which is revealed in the last instance to be death.