Book description
The Betrothed ("I Promessi Sposi") is one of the greatest European historical novels. As its title impies, it an epic love story in Lombardy on the late 1620s. It is no spoiler to say, and you will be relieved to know, that the two young lovers eventually marry.
But it…
Why read it?
1 author picked The Betrothed as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
This is a recommendation for everyone who loves big nineteenth-century novels. The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni was new to me in 2023 – and just what I needed to get me through the long winter nights.
Written in the 1820s and 30s and set two hundred years earlier, the novel opens with an act of moral cowardice. An innocent couple is torn apart at the whim of a nobleman. In the way of all the best nineteenth-century novels, we only discover whether their love is strong enough to reunite them after numerous mishaps, adventures, and digressions.
Again and again, Manzoni…
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