His turn to the novel followed years of writing poetry and tragedies on historical subjects. Manzoni seems to have begun The Betrothed shortly after reading Scott’s recreation of medieval England in Ivanhoe (1819). It ranks with The Charterhouse of Parma and War and Peace as a drama of life lived within the dynamics of history. Scott himself claimed that it was the best novel he did not write. That’s unfortunate, since The Betrothed is the most original and powerful of European historical novels in the tradition of Walter Scott. It was to be addressed with reverence and awe, as an edifying illustration of the workings of divine providence. By the time of Alessandro Manzoni’s death in 1873 (Giuseppe Verdi wrote his great Requiem in commemoration) the novel had become a symbol of Italian unification, something like the future Vittorio Emanuelle II Monument in Rome. They were forced to read it in school, as a kind of national treasure to be admired rather than enjoyed-to memorize its set pieces, to regurgitate its messages. I have over the years met so many Italians who can’t abide The Betrothed ( I promessi sposi).
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