The Betrothed (1842)

La madre aggiunse altri consigli dello stesso genero, e lo sposo se n'andò, col cuore in tempestà, ripetendo sempre quelle strane parole:
- A questo mondo c'è giustizia, finalmente! - Tant'é vero che un uomo sopraffatto dal dolore no sa più che si dica. ( )

Scenes of such intensity that you'll piss your pants: Unknown's fortress, the bravoes, Renzo's escape, the pestilence. Some "boring" bits and moralizing crap that are made very readable by the super good dialogue. The scale and tone of the narration is Godlike and badass. ( )

I Promessi Sposi, also known as The Betrothed, published 1825-26, was one of the first of the new genre of historical novels, and remains one of the very greatest. The story takes place in the Duchy of Milan in the years 1628-1631. It begins in a small village near the town of Lecco on the shore of Lake Como where two happy young people, Renzo and Lucia, are about to be married. But a wealthy and powerful libertine named Don Rodrigo has his eye on Lucia, and blocks the wedding. His machinations soon force the two lovers to take flight, seeking refuge in separate convents but eventually becoming caught up in the monumental and tragic events which would overtake their country.

Milan, at that time, was a possession of the Spanish Habsburgs and an active participant in the conflicts of the Thirty Years War. As the story opens it is also plunging into a desperate famine that will lead to civil unrest. No sooner does the famine begin to ease than the bubonic plague appears, brought apparently by a column of German mercenaries. By 1631 the plague will kill approximately half the population of Milan and its environs.

Manzoni was a thorough and careful historian. By the clever device of presenting the story of Renzo and Lucia as a discovered manuscript by an anonymous author, he is able to clue the reader in to which parts of his novel are fact and which fiction. On critical issues he even discusses and footnotes his sources. I Promessi Sposi is excellent history as well as being an enormously entertaining and moving novel. Its descriptions of suffering, endurance, piety and devotion are unforgettable.

It's worth noting that the events in Dumas' novel The Three Musketeers take place in France at the same time as those of I Promessi Sposi in Italy. ( )

Sometimes you stumble across a book that you really should have read many years before, but in fact had not even heard of until somebody stuck it under your nose and instructed you to read it. 'The Betrothed' is just such a book, a classic of Italian literature and rightly so, full of historical details and incredibly insightful as a result. Manzoni knows the human condition well, and he makes it easy to imagine being in the shoes of the principle characters, although the long departures from their story does tend to grate from time to time. ( )

I don't usually read historical fiction (ever since I went on a binge in 8th grade and got sick of it), but 1) my husband read it in Italian and 2) we were going to the Lake Como area, so I thought I'd try it.

It was fun reading a book that took place where we were, albeit centuries earlier. And Manzoni's digressions from the main plot and characters, both of which were compelling, were fascinating - especially the account of the plague in Milan.

I read the public domain edition on my Kindle, so I'm not sure who the translator was, but I think this version suffered in the translation - as I found when comparing notes with my husband. ( )