Book description
Set in Lombardy during the Spanish occupation of the late 1620s, The
Betrothed tells the story of two young lovers, Renzo and Lucia,
prevented from marrying by the petty tyrant Don Rodrigo, who desires
Lucia for himself. Forced to flee, they are then cruelly separated, and
must face many dangers including plague, famine and imprisonment, and
confront a variety of strange characters ? the mysterious Nun of Monza,
the fiery Father Cristoforo and the sinister ?Unnamed? ? in their
struggle to be reunited. A vigorous portrayal of enduring passion, The
Betrothed's exploration of love, power and faith presents a whirling
panorama of seventeenth-century Italian life and is one of the greatest
European historical novels.
Alessandro Manzoni was born in 1785 near Lake Como, Italy. Sent to
boarding school at the age of five, he felt estranged from his family,
particularly when his mother left his father. As a young man Manzoni
subscribed to the ideas of the French Revolution, joining his mother
in Paris, where he married Henriette Blondel in 1808. He wrote
throughout his life, but suffered from a nervous disorder which grew
progressively worse through his lifetime. He died in 1873.
Bruce Penman was a versatile linguist fluent in four languages,
knowledgeable of ten. In 1984 his translation of China by Gildo
Fossati won the John Florio Prize for best translation from the
Italian. He died in 1986.
