The night before they are to be married, the parish priest, Don Abbondio, is walking home on his way, he encounters two men who tell him not to oversee the marriage as it has been forbidden by Don Rodrigo, the local baron. The novel opens as Renzo and Lucia, a couple who lives in Lombardy are planning to get married. It is recognized for its vivid description of the plague that afflicted Milan around 1630, as well as its criticism of the Austrian Empire, which had power over the region at the time. The book is set in northern Italy in 1628, at a time when the country was under Spanish rule. Moore’s dynamic new translation of The Betrothed brings to life Manzoni’s timeless literary masterpiece.Alessandro Manzoni’s 1827 historical novel The Betrothed is widely considered the most important and widely read Italian novel. But within Manzoni’s epic tale, readers will also hear powerful echoes of our own day. In this greatest of historical novels, he takes the reader on a journey through the Spanish occupation of Milan, the ravages of war, class tensions, social injustice, religious faith, and a plague that devastates northern Italy. Manzoni draws on actual people and events to create an unforgettable fresco of Italian life and society. In the fall of 1628, two young lovers are forced to flee their village on the shores of Lake Como after a powerful lord prevents their marriage, plunging them into the maelstrom of history. But, until now, it has remained relatively unknown to English readers.
Italo Calvino called the novel “a classic that has never ceased shaping reality in Italy” while Umberto Eco praised its author as a “most subtle critic and analyst of languages.” The Betrothed has been celebrated by Primo Levi and Natalia Ginzburg, and is one of Pope Francis’s favorite books.
Giuseppe Verdi composed his majestic Requiem Mass in honor of Manzoni. Published in its final form in 1842, The Betrothed has inspired generations of Italian readers and writers. The Betrothed is a cornerstone of Italian culture, language, and literature. ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker “An exemplary historical novel” ( The New Yorker) from the father of modern Italian literature, The Betrothed receives its first new English-language translation in fifty years, hailed as “a landmark literary occasion” by Jhumpa Lahiri. “The first English translation in more than fifty years of Alessandro Manzoni’s masterpiece, a work of foundational Italian literature on par with the Divine Comedy and the Decameron.”- The Wall Street Journal
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