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Le confessioni di un italiano

Le condessioni di un italiano

Un bel paesino guarda nel mezzano Friuli lo sbocco d¿una di quelle forre, che dividono il parlare italico dallo slavo; ma quanto le montagne gli si radunano da tergo aspre e aggrottate, altrettanto esso ride tutto aperto e pampinoso incontro al sole che lo vagheggia dall¿alba al tramonto anche nelle giornate piú avare del verno. Pronunciare cosi di botto le tre dolci sillabe del suo nome, sarebbe come innamorarvene addirittura, e togliere a me scrittore il merito di un tal trionfo; onde, lettori garbati, accontentatevi di sapere per ora, come lo divida per mezzo il torrente Cornapo, nato poche miglia piú sopra tra le prime vedette del grande accampamento slavo. A destra si digrada per p...

This long novel is a curiosity. Written in 1858, it was published posthumously and now newly translated from the Italian by Lovett F. Edwards, it makes its first appearance in the United States. Italian critics have praised it as one of the few great Italian novels. Whether the modern reader will agree is another question. It tells of the decay and death of the Italian aristocracy (personified in the family of the castle of Fratta) and of Venice as a political, economic and cultural unit. And against this is set the first abortive struggles for liberty, fostered and then smothered by Napoleon in his sweep across Europe- and finally Italy's emergence as a modern unit. More importantly and interestingly, it tells of numerous people and what happened to them in all of the turmoil; Carlo, the narrator, who loved the Plsana, the younger daughter of the Count of Fratta; Lucilio, patterned on Mazzini, who loved Clara, the spiritual, older daughter. All around these four swirl the aristocrats, the peasants, the priests, the smugglers, revolutionaries, turncoats, heroes and cowards- and perhaps Nievo's greatest gift is his ability to bring all of these to vivid life. If the book were all on this immediate level, it would indeed be a great one. As it is, there are also long passages on love, on religion, on morality, which are dated in content and character. Nevertheless, the novel is noteworthy for its vigorous characters and its lively and witty social history and satire. (Kirkus Reviews)

An overlooked classic of Italian literature, this epic and unforgettable novel recounts one man's long and turbulent life in revolutionary Italy.At the age of eighty-three and nearing death, Carlo Altoviti has decided to write down the confessions of his long life. He remembers everything: his unhappy childhood in the kitchens of the Castle of Fratta; romantic entanglements during the siege of Genoa; revolutionary fighting in Naples; and so much more. Throughout, Carlo lives only for his twin passions in life: his dream of a unified, free Italy and his undying love for the magnificent but inconstant Pisana. Peopled by a host of unforgettable characters - including drunken smugglers, saintly nuns, scheming priests, Napoleon and Lord Byron - this is an epic historical novel that tells the remarkable and inseparable stories of one man's life and the history of Italy's unification.Ippolito Nievo was born in 1831 in Padua. Confessions of an Italian, written in 1858 and published posthumously in 1867, is his best known work. A patriot and a republican, he took part with Garibaldi and his Thousand in the momentous 1860 landing in Sicily to free the south from Bourbon rule. Nievo died before he reached the age of thirty, when his ship, en route from Palermo to Naples, went down in the Tyrrhenian Sea in early 1861. He was, Italo Calvino once said, the sole Italian novelist of the nineteenth century in the 'daredevil, swashbuckler, rambler' mould so dear to other European literatures. Frederika Randall has worked as a cultural journalist for many years. Her previous translations include Luigi Meneghello's Deliver Us and Ottavio Cappellani's Sicilian Tragedee and Sergio Luzzatto's Padre Pio: Miracles and Politics in a Secular Age.Lucy Riall is Professor of Comparative History at the European University Institute. Her many books include Garibaldi. Invention of a Hero. 'Of all the furore that came out of the Risorgimento, only Manzoni and Nievo really matter today' - Umberto Eco 'The one 19th century Italian novel which has [for an Italian reader] that charm and fascination so abundant in foreign literatures' - Italo Calvino 'Perhaps the greatest Italian novel of the nineteenth century' - Roberto Carnero 'A spirited appeal for libert , galit and fraternit , the novel is also an astute, scathing and amusing human comedy, a tale of love, sex and betrayal, of great wealth and grinding poverty, of absolute power and scheming submission, of idealism and cynicism, courage and villainy' - The Literary Encyclopedia