And like most humans, their indefatigable resilience ultimately wins out allowing them to achieve their goals. They struggle with human foibles, self-doubts, and questions about faith and God. You will love the multi-dimensional characters Manzoni creates, each so distinctive and realistic that you are likely to recognize people you know. And I cannot think of another historical novel which so graphically and emotionally presents the devastation of both famine and plague. The novel is ambitious, nuanced, and truly brilliant. The prose is beautiful and seasoned with lots of humor.

And as Manzoni follows their stories, he takes readers off on many, MANY tangents, which, taken together, present rich portraits of universal human nature, Italian social and class structure, the dominance of religious practice, and Italy’s notoriously dysfunctional governing bodies.

Alessandro Manzoni, authorĬircumstances force Renzo and Lucia to separate. Manzoni shows he is as adept at creating the kind of drama out of everyday life that Jane Austen is famous for. From a self-absorbed priest determined to save his own skin to a powerful member of the local nobility intent on winning a bet - no matter what the cost for others. What follows however is 704 pages of human errors and obstacles which postpose the event. Even though I still feel it is a remarkable book.Īs the title suggests, the book begins around a scheduled wedding of two simple peasants living in the Lombardy province of Italy in 1628, Renzo and Lucia. And he has skillfully accomplished BOTH!įor most of the book I recognized I was reading a literary masterpiece and expected to easily award it five stars. Moore, from the book’s forward, his multi-year effort aimed at capturing the original poetry of Manzoni’s prose as well as updating the language to make this classic more accessible to modern readers.

Awarded four stars on Goodreads.Īccording to translator Michael F. (I admit I had not heard of it.) What’s new is that this edition is the first NEW translation of the book in 50 years. THE BETROTHED by Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1873) (originally title I promessi sposi and first published in 1827), is widely regarded as the seminal and most widely read novel in Italy.

Novel the betrothed