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The Betrothed (1842; Penguin translation, 1972)
Long regarded in Europe as a work close to
Shakespearean in its characterization, this historical novel is only
now gaining an appreciative audience in America. Two 17th-century
Italian peasants are prevented from marrying by powerful persons in
the political and ecclesiastical hierarchy. Miller shows that while
the novel is a faithful in-depth documentation of one time and
place, it is also a timeless and universal study of the problems of
oppression, exploitation and individual freedom. He sees Manzoni as
not only surpassing Walter Scott, "father of the historical novel,"
but also as anticipating the techniques of both Zola and
Proust. |
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