'The Betrothed' ("I Promessi Sposi"-1827), by Alessandro Manzoni, Greatest Italian Novel of Modern Times 

'The Betrothed' is considered the greatest Italian novel of modern times and its author, Alessandro Manzoni, the principal novelist of 19th-century Italy and leader of the nation's romantic movement. "With the exception of Dante's Comedy, no other book has been the object of more intense scrutiny or more intense scholarship."

'THE BETROTHED' by Alessandro Manzoni has been adapted to many arts, including opera, ballet, film, theater and television. Above, a scene from Mario Camerini's 'The Spirit and the Flesh' (1941), which was based on Manzoni's novel.

"The Betrothed" ("I Promessi Sposi"), Italy's national literary classic, is many fine things. But above all it is a love story. 

This long, involved love story explores the heart, history and the human condition. It is considered the greatest Italian novel of modern times and its author, Alessandro Manzoni, the principal novelist of 19th-century Italy and leader of the nation's romantic movement. "With the exception of Dante's Comedy," in the words of Italian scholar Sergio Pacifici, "no other book has been the object of more intense scrutiny or more intense scholarship."

Literary historians like to say that Manzoni (1785-1873) was influenced by Sir Walter Scott, particularly "Ivanhoe." This influence is perhaps overemphasized. When the writers met, as the legend has it, they traded literary compliments, with Sir Walter ranking "The Betrothed" as the greatest romance of modern times. Clearly, it is the "Great Italian Novel," running through hundreds of editions and translated into every major language, including Chinese. Students study it, people from all walks of life quote from it widely. Giorgio Bassani used a powerful Manzonian passage on love as an epigraph in his famous novel, "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis." Yet many Italians believe Manzoni's work is not fully appreciated abroad.

Begun in 1821 and published in three volumes in 1827 when Manzoni was 42, "The Betrothed" was an immediate success and introduced a new genre, the historical novel. This was noted by Edgar Allan Poe, writing in the Southern Literary Messenger in 1835, when he hailed the novel, then translated into English, as "a work which promises to be the commencement of a new style in novel-writing." 

The novel became the most widely read work in the Italian language, and its clear, expressive prose became a model for subsequent Italian novels. But Manzoni continued to revise his novel and to form in it a standard and style for the Italian language, settling on the use of the Tuscan dialect for all of Italy. These revisions required 13 years to complete, and the greatly improved now-standard edition was published in 1840. 

The tale is set in Lombardy in 1628 during the oppressive Spanish occupation and the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). There is simplicity to the story, but that's deceptive. Manzoni's larger theme is the complex triumph of divine justice on earth, for the novel is religious as well as historical. In his study of history, Manzoni always felt himself drawn to the millions whom historical records utterly ignore?in his words the "gente di nessuno," "nobody's people."

The betrothed of Manzoni's title are Lorenzo Tramaligno (known as Renzo) and Lucia Mondella, two young peasants who share an undying love in their desperate attempts to marry against near-insurmountable odds. Renzo and Lucia, who live near Milan, plan to be wed by the local priest, Don Abbondio. But thugs of the local baron, the villainous Don Rodrigo, who himself desires Lucia, threaten Don Abbondio, and the weak, intimidated cleric tells the lovers that the wedding cannot be performed. The story follows the travails of the two lovers amid wars, famine, bread riots and plague. It is a journey that reveals religious hypocrisy, sainthood and such memorable historical characters as the Nun of Monza, a feared criminal known as the Unnamed, and the virtuous Cardinal Federigo Borromeo?a virtual political and social tapestry of 17th-century Italy. 

Manzoni's vivid account of the 1630 outbreak of bubonic plague in pestilence-stricken Milan, amid ravages, chaos and hysteria, is superbly drawn. Discussing Manzoni's description of the Milan bread riots, a modern-day writer in a literary blog touched on the author's eye for the larger picture and the timeliness of the novel's content. "Replace," the blogger wrote, "flour with oil and bread with gasoline and Manzoni's chapter is a story for today."

Manzoni's advocacy of a united Italy made him a hero "some called him the saint"of the Risorgimento, the surge for Italian unification. Garibaldi, the leader of the movement, and Cavour paid him homage. His death at age 88 was a cause of general mourning throughout Italy. He received a magnificent state funeral with princes, ministers and nobles in the cortege. Verdi honored this patriarch of Italian literature with his great memorial, the "Manzoni" requiem.

Born into an aristocratic, liberal and literary family, Manzoni was a mild and reserved figure with a poetic sensitivity. A lapsed Catholic and a sometime skeptic, he married Henriette Blondel, a Swiss Protestant, in a drawing-room ceremony performed by a parson. When their first child was born, he returned to the church he abandoned, Henriette converted and they remained fervent Catholics. Interestingly, religious conversions occur in his novel. 

"The Betrothed" was at the creative center of Manzoni's life. The novel can be found in many of the arts. At last count, two operas, three films, a ballet, television productions and at least seven plays have been based on it. While it is Manzoni's masterwork, he is also remembered as a poet. The death of Napoleon in 1821 stirred Europe and apparently Manzoni, who celebrated it in a popular and widely translated ode, "The Fifth of May."

For this essay I have relied on two translations: Bruce Penman's in the Penguin Classics edition and Archibald Colquoun's in the Dutton edition. I also benefited from and recommend Natalia Ginzburg's innovative biography "The Manzoni Family." Ginzburg, a true light of modern Italian literature who wrote deeply of family relationships, suggested that the biography be read "without demanding more or less of it than a novel can give." 

Mr. Amelia, an essayist and short fiction writer, lives in Dagsboro, Del. 
 
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