The House by the Medlar Tree: I Malavoglia (Dedalus European Classics Series) [Paperback]

Giovanni Verga (Author), Eric Lane (Editor), Judith Landry (Translator)

Product Details

• Paperback: 268 pages
• Publisher: Dedalus,; Revised edition (1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1873982135
• ISBN-13: 978-1873982136
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,681,446 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A family's misfortunes in a small fishermen's village, August 23, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The House by the Medlar Tree: I Malavoglia (Dedalus European Classics Series) (Paperback)

The book is about a family's misfortunes in a small fishermen's village in Sicily at the beginning of the XX century. The book opens with a tragedy that undermines the financial stability of this big family of poor people. It is about their struggle to cope with it, and their failure because of misfortune. The original title "I malavolgia" could be translated as "the indolent family"; the title is a pun because the family is not indolent at all (well, maybe except for one component), rather they work very hard to solve pay their debts, but when destiny is against you there is nothing to do. This moral of the story and the feeling of sorrow that pervades the book are the reasons why I did not like it and I give it only two stars. But the book received much praise as one of the highest examples of Italian realism.