The Betrothed | |
Alessandro Manzoni | |
Renzo and Lucy are betrothed; but Don Roderick, a local | |
baron, threatens the vicar to prevent their matrimony. | |
Father Christopher, the saintly Capuchin friar at a nearby | |
convent, intervenes to assist them; but before long, the | |
couple is engulfed in events that are far above their heads. | |
Famine; food riots; flight; duplicity; kidnapping; | |
repentence; redemption; plague; and, above all, Providence. | |
All are major players in this drama of northern Italy in the | |
midst of the troubles and chaos of the Thirty Years' War. | |
More than a drama of events, however, this is a drama of | |
characters; we meet saints and sinners, repentant | |
and unrepentant. No cardboard cutouts, these characters are | |
complex and realistic, with motivations and outcomes to | |
match. This is a masterpiece of the medium, well worth a | |
close and detailed read. 283 pp., English. | |
Purchase in Print | |
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