The Love for Three Oranges

"The Love for Three Oranges" or "The Three Citrons" is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in the Pentamerone. It is the concluding tale, and the one the heroine of the frame story uses to reveal that an imposter has taken her place.


It is Aarne-Thompson type 408, and the oldest known variant of this tale. It was the basis for Carlo Gozzi's commedia dell'arte scenario by the same name, and for Sergei Prokofiev's opera, The Love for Three Oranges. Italo Calvino included a variant The Love of the Three Pomegranates, an Abruzzese version, but noted that he could have selected from forty different Italian versions, with a wide array of fruit. Hillary DePiano's play The Love of the Three Oranges is based on Gozzi's scenario.