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The Betrothed: I Promessi Sposi (Penguin Classics)

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Allesandro Manzoni's THE BETROTHED is rightfully considered one of the great novels in Italian history, if not the greatest. It is also one of the greatest historical novels ever written. Manzoni magnificently blends together a score of memorable characters with a string of vividly rendered historical events to provide an epic story of frustrated lovers in Italy during the Thirty Years Wars in the early 17th century when the state of Milan was occupied by the Spanish Habsburgs. The result is a great story placed against the background of a turbulent period in Italian history. The choice of that period of time is fascinating in itself. Instead of dealing with one of the more glorious periods of Italian history, such as the 15th or 16th centuries, Manzoni chose the relatively undistinguished 17th, during a time when much of Italy suffered under foreign rule, while many of the other city states were in a period of decline.

Few novels that I know deal with historical topics as magnificently as this one. One has to go to a writer like Tolstoy to find scenes as memorable as the tremendous scene in the Lazaretto in which Fra Cristoforo admonishes Renzo for his desire for revenge, with thousands of people dying of the plague surrounding them. Nearly as powerful is Manzoni's masterful depiction of the bread riots in Milan or the way he describes the progress of the German army in its passage through the region on its way to Mantua. Although one hardly reads the novel for the history lessons it provides, one learns an unusually large amount.

I am a bit perplexed as the criticism that the novel contains too much in the way of Christian redemption in the latter part of the novel. Of course it does. As much as an historical novel, THE BETROTHED is a religious novel, in which Manzoni in his own way tries to justify the ways of God to men. If one compares the novel to the historical works of someone like Hugo or other French historical novelists, one will be struck by the sharp divergence in the depiction of the Church and the clergy. In France, an anti-clericalism characterizes many or most of the novels. Manzoni is much more balanced. Some of his religious figures, such as the Nun of Moanza or the Lecco parish priest, are either ridiculous or treacherous, but by and large the great heroes in his book are either monks (Fra Cristoforo), clerics (the Cardinal), or converts (the Unnamed). The theme of the novel is a religious one: "All things work together for good for those that love God." Given the central theme of the novel, the religious themes are not an unwanted accretion, added on arbitrarily by an author otherwise summoning up a tremendous yarn, but integral to the novel as a whole. To dampen or eliminate the religious themes would have been to make it into another novel entirely.

Most of all, THE BETROTHED is just a flat out great story. Separated lovers, devious villains, mysterious figures: who wouldn't fall for all this? Manzoni is a masterful storyteller, and frequently one is left with a powerful impatience to know what is going to happen next. Anyone looking for a great novel could hardly hope to do better than this great masterpiece.

Twenty years ago I went through a graduate program in Comparative Literature and read literally thousands of novels, plays, poems, etc. Of all that I read then, The Betrothed (I Promessi Sposi) is one of the few works that stand out. Scott, Hugo, and other novelists were familiar, but Manzoni was a new name to me then. He has become a favorite companion in the ensuing years. I am currently reading this novel for the 7th or 8th time (lost count). Written with compassion and humor, Manzoni offers an enthralling story of a peasant couple swept up in the political, social and religious turmoil of early 17th century Italy. There are many subplots involving characters of every rank and station, all vividly portrayed. What brings me back to this novel repeatedly are: 1) the author's masterful handling of plot--everything fits and flows (super)naturally; and 2) his ability to capture the beauty, wonder and horror of life in eloquent and moving prose. It is a mystery why this novel is not better known in the U.S.

This is the most famous book in Italian literature. Most students hate it, but their opinion just doesn't count because for them it is but brutal forced reading. Manzoni's "The Betrothed" can be enjoyed on various levels. In the first place, it is packed with action: there's the good guy, the imperiled damsel, the arch-villain, the saintly friar and various comic characters like the cowardly priest and his spinster-servant. The plot is tipically Nineteenth Century: the loving couple can't get married because the arch-villain gets in their way and starts all the tribulations. On the other hand, the whole plot can be seen as a religious parable (and that is why students hate this book: they are forced to see the whole matter from this point of view ONLY.) on Providence. Thirdly, the book can be seen as an authoritative historical text about the Sixteenth Century. Unlike his colleague Walter Scott, whose Middle Ages look like a Hollywood movie starring Liz Taylor, Manzoni wrote "The Betrothed" after a serious hystorical reserach: almost every episode is historically based and he made use of Sixteenth-century chronicles and laws as a basis for his story's context. On top of this, the characters aren't mere literary creations. They are alive and pop out of every page as living creatures with all their humanity. Everything in them denounces Manzoni as a keen observer of the human heart. I highly recommend this book. Buy it and enjoy it!

Don't let the fact that The Betrothed has been labeled a classic, nor its length, stop you from picking it up. It's a darn good read, with very believable characters: good, evil, and mixed. The narrator is lucid, witty, and erudite: a joy to spend time with. The translation I read flowed like a delicious cool stream. The story has both intimate moments and scenes of baroque insanity that seem somehow the progeny of the Barber of Seville and the Keystone Cops.

The third quarter of the book leaves the story entirely to follow the development of the second plague in Milan from the famine years when it began to its demise--leaving 2/3rds of the population dead. Though this is quite a large detour, the descriptions of the world reduced to this hell and the understanding Manzoni brings to bear on it, are no less engrossing than the story, which he does tie in and resolve before the end of the book. The courage and faith of some of the characters burns all the more brightly when plunged into the darkness of the pestilence. Some are transformed for the good. Others, just hardened.

It's too bad Manzoni wasn't as prolific as Dickens. He wrote a second novel, only, which apparently has been published very rarely since the time of its writing. So, The Betrothed is our one chance to be exposed to his great mind and heart. Don't miss it.

This book is a wierd mutation that was allowed to escape from a robot-publisher warehouse when it should have been thrown back into the pulp mill instead. All copies should be rounded up and re-sold as kindling.
To begin with, the subtitle - "a new translation" - is misleading. This translation dates back to the mid-1800's; there exist at least two competent English-language translations from the mid and late 20th century (Colquhoun and Penman, respectively). What's more, this volume omits a sizeable part of the book and, oddly enough, begins at chapter 19! (The publishing company itself offers a disingenuous sort of apology for any possible "typos" or misspellings in the text, explaining that these are due to the fact that the plates for the printers were produced by photocopy in an automated process wherein robots turn the pages for the scanner, but fails to account for the fact that the first third of the book was left out!)
It is bizarre that Amazon should continue to market this hilarious contrivance while representing it as Manzoni's much honored book.
- g.ramos

My Italian wife "demanded" that I read this book. Then she was amazed that I found the story so exciting and the history so interesting. Most Italians are required to read it in school as it is the book which established "Italian" as the official language of Italy and it is extremely well written in Italian. This translation makes the story seem like a modern adventure.

Manzoni is the preeminent figure of Italian fiction - akin to Cervantes in Spain, Twain in the USA and Hugo in France. Not only was he a fabulous writer, Manzoni was also looked upon as a kind of beloved father figure for the shapers of modern Italy. (Verdi wrote his Requiem to mark the first anniversary of Manzoni's death).

Certainly, with this work, he shaped the Italian language, in much the same way that Martin Luther shaped German with his translation of the Bible.

Although he was also a poet, his well-deserved international reputation rests chiefly upon this book. It is an episodic tale, in a Don Quixote sense, of love between two delighful people, Lucia Mondella and Renzo Tramaglino. Their love persists and prevails, in spite of their separation and nearly every kind of challenge imaginable.

There are religious themes in the book, of course, since it is a faithful rendering of its epoch. These serve to heighten the drama. As the author says in Chapter 38:

"Troubles certainly often arise from occasion afforded by ourselves; but the most cautious and blameless conduct cannot secure us from them; and, when they come confidence in God alleviates them."

Amid the themes of patriotism in the face of Spanish rule and faithfulness that overcomes tyrants, riots and plague, there is no better depiction of leave taking than in this novel. And surely, every Italian immigrant to America must have felt the same stirrings. Indeed, if you have an Italian ancestry, this is your "Roots". Read this book and soak up your heritage, in ways that you cannot elsewhere.

The sad thing is that this is Manzoni's only novel; it is as if Twain had written only Tom Sawyer, or Dickens, only Great Expectations.

If you find this review helpful you might want to read some of my other reviews, including those on subjects ranging from biography to architecture, as well as religion and fiction.

As a Brit I am often baffled by the American obsession with the idea of the "Great American Novel". Surely American writers have produced so many great novels that it would be invidious to single any one of them out as "The Great". And what is the "Great British Novel?" Or the "Great French Novel?"

One nation, however, which does seem to have its own Great Novel is Italy; Long before I read it, I had frequently heard Manzoni's "I Promessi Sposi" (known in English as "The Betrothed") cited as The Great Italian Novel - so frequently, in fact, that it gave rise to the suspicion that the phrase might actually mean "The Only Great Novel Ever Written By An Italian". Although it is less widely known abroad, in Italy the book virtually has the status of a national institution, far more so than does any single British or French novel. (The closest comparison is perhaps with Cervantes' "Don Quixote" in Spain).

This was the only novel which Manzoni wrote, although he lived for nearly fifty years after completing it in 1827. It is a historical novel, possibly influenced by Walter Scott, and set in the Duchy of Milan between 1628 and 1630, a time when that territory was still under Spanish rule. The main characters are a young betrothed couple, Lorenzo Tramaglino and Lucia Mondella, whose plans to marry are frustrated by the intervention of a powerful nobleman, Don Rodrigo, who has taken a fancy to Lucia. Rodrigo forbids the local priest, Don Abbondio, to carry out the marriage, and sends a gang of "bravoes" (hired thugs) to kidnap Lucia. She manages to escape, but is forced to go on the run, and the book follows their subsequent adventures, through famine, riot, and war, until their final reunion in a plague-stricken Milan.

The reasons why this book has acquired the status of a national treasure in Italy are partly historical. It came out during the early years of the Risorgimento, the period of Italian history which saw the struggle to create a unified nation-state free from foreign domination. The first edition was published in Manzoni's native Milanese dialect but he later, significantly, produced a version in standard literary Italian. The novel therefore became a symbol not only of a united Italy but also of a united Italian language.

Manzoni's use of a historical setting may have been due to a desire to avoid political censorship. His criticisms of the Spanish Hapsburgs, who ruled northern Italy in the seventeenth century, were widely interpreted as veiled criticisms of the Austrian Hapsburgs, who ruled northern Italy in the nineteenth, but because these criticisms were veiled they did not attract the attentions of the censor in the same way as a direct attack on Austrian rule would have done. In the early part of the book he demonstrates how the absolutist rule of the Spanish authorities was unable to secure law and order. However many impressive-sounding decrees the Spanish governor might issue, effective control of much of the territory lay not with the Spaniards but with the powerful aristocracy who, backed up by their hired bravoes and corrupt local officials, were effectively a law unto themselves. There was an obvious lesson here for Manzoni's compatriots who, whether they lived under the rule of Austria, of the Papacy or of native-born Italian princes, generally lived under absolutist systems of government.

Unlike many Italian liberals of his day, however, Manzoni was not, except in his youth, a freethinker but a devout Catholic, and "The Betrothed" is not only a political novel but also a religious one. The second half of the book is deeply Christian, specifically Catholic, in tone, and this emphasis on Catholic spirituality may account for the book's comparative neglect in Protestant English-speaking countries, where the Catholicism of the Counter-Reformation period has generally been seen in a negative light. Edgar Allen Poe, although his review of the book was generally a favourable one, suspected that "something of a zeal for the honour of the Romish (sic) Church had mingled itself in the rich colouring of this picture".

Poe, however, also admitted that Manzoni was aware of the faults of his church, and there are negative portrayals of some religious figures, such as the self-seeking Don Abbondio, who is too cowardly to stand up to Rodrigo's bluster, and the treacherous nun Gertrude. Both these characters, however, are portrayed as having no true religious vocation, and in contrast to them there are the heroic, saintly figures of the Capuchin friar Father Cristoforo and of Federigo Borromeo, the Cardinal-Archbishop of Milan. Borromeo was a real historical figure, the cousin of Saint Charles Borromeo; if Manzoni's description of his character is an accurate one I am surprised that he too has not been canonised. A key moment in the story comes when the Cardinal brings about the religious conversion of "the Unnamed", a powerful robber-baron and ally of Rodrigo who, once Lucia's persecutor, henceforth becomes her protector. It is these characters, both saints and sinners, who are the most powerfully drawn in the book, often eclipsing the nominal protagonists. Although Lorenzo- generous, impulsive, occasionally hotheaded- is well-drawn, the simple, pious Lucia often seems a rather weak figure.

"The Betrothed", however, is not simply either a political or a religious tract. It is also a picture of a period of Italian history which will probably be unfamiliar to most English speakers. Manzoni excels in his vivid descriptions of the catastrophes (all real historical events) through which his characters lived- the Thirty Years War, the famine which affected Northern Italy in the late 1620s and the ensuing Milanese bread riots of 1628, the plague of 1630. in addition, the work is also a fast-moving, page-turning adventure story. A Great Italian Novel indeed.

As an italian reader I was compelled to read the book during my school classes and, quite naturally, did not come to appreciate it at that time. Since then I have read the book quite a few times and I am going to read it once again soon. The plot is the universal one of the difficulty of the poor and weak to resist the rich and evil, and of the powerful force - be it faith, God, hope, kamma or whatever - that helps in this apparently impossible task. In the drama that force takes the part of war, plague, a saint, a restless villain, a corrupted nun and much more. The story takes all these characters all around seventeen century norther Italy but presents a methaphor for what happens in all part of the world at any time.

Manzoni's The Betrothed (I Promessi Sposi) is generally considered to be the greatest Italian novel of all time. I read it aloud to my 9-year-old daughter and we were both enthralled. It is set in the environs of Milan in the early 17th century (it was written in the 18th century). The framing story concerns young lovers whose marriage is thwarted by a local nobelman/ petty tyrant in order to win a bet. Subordinate stories range from political, economic and biographical analyses of the times to a vivid, eye-opening description of a plague outbreak and the official denial that exacerbated it. Penman's English translation is superb.