Join us to read The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni for a half-hour each day. Below is the daily reading schedule. Michael F. Moore is the host for this APS Together, and his notes on each day's pages will be posted every morning at 10:00 am ET. We invite you to contribute your comments and questions throughout the day, and please join us on Monday, April 10 for a grand finale conversation with Michael F. Moore on Zoom.
Day 1 (February 21). Introduction and Chapter 1 (through p.13: "were still around.")
Day 2 (February 22). Chapter 1 (to end)
Day 3 (February 23). Chapter 2
Day 4 (February 24). Chapter 3
Day 5 (February 25). Chapter 4
Day 6 (February 26). Chapter 5
Day 7 (February 27). Chapter 6
Day 8 (February 28). Chapter 7 (through p.108: “respective ranks.”)
Day 9 (March 1). Chapter 7 (to end)
Day 10 (March 2). Chapter 8 (through p.130: “the others filed behind him.”)
Day 11 (March 3). Chapter 8 (to end)
Day 12 (March 4). Chapter 9 (through p.151: “are also quite capable.”)
Day 13 (March 5). Chapter 9 (to end)
Day 14 (March 6). Chapter 10 (through p.174: “her closest relatives.”)
Day 15 (March 7). Chapter 10 (to end)
Day 16 (March 8). Chapter 11 (through p.193: “keep track of it.")
Day 17 (March 9). Chapter 11 (to end)
Day 18 (March 10). Chapter 12
Day 19 (March 11). Chapter 13
Day 20 (March 12). Chapter 14
Day 21 (March 13). Chapter 15
Day 22 (March 14). Chapter 16
Day 23 (March 15). Chapter 17
Day 24 (March 16). Chapter 18
Day 25 (March 17). Chapter 19
Day 26 (March 18). Chapter 20
Day 27 (March 19). Chapter 21
Day 28 (March 20). Chapter 22
Day 29 (March 21). Chapter 23
Day 30 (March 22). Chapter 24 (through p.396: “as soon as you’re ready.”)
Day 31 (March 23). Chapter 24 (to end)
Day 32 (March 24). Chapter 25
Day 33 (March 25). Chapter 26
Day 34 (March 26). Chapter 27
Day 35 (March 27). Chapter 28 (through p.467: “their hands from hunger.”)
Day 36 (March 28). Chapter 28 (to end)
Day 37 (March 29). Chapter 29
Day 38 (March 30). Chapter 30
Day 39 (March 31). Chapter 31
Day 40 (April 1). Chapter 32 (through p.534: “purpose of the conflict.”)
Day 41 (April 2). Chapter 32 (to end)
Day 42 (April 3). Chapter 33 (through p.554: “treatise on political economy.”)
Day 43 (April 4). Chapter 33 (to end)
Day 44 (April 5). Chapter 34 (through p.574: “the living were left.”)
Day 45 (April 6). Chapter 34 (to end)
Day 46 (April 7). Chapter 35
Day 47 (April 8). Chapter 36
Day 48 (April 9). Chapter 37
Day 49 (April 10). Chapter 38
Join us on April 10 for a virtual discussion of The Betrothed with Michael F. Moore.
Michael F. Moore introduces The Betrothed
In June of last year, a group of about twenty prominent Italian writers gathered in New York for a series of panel discussions over the course of three days. Each panel was supposed to address a broad theme: destinies, combat with reality, and the definition of “Italianness” were a few. Regardless of the topic, however, many of the discussions came to center on a writer who had died one hundred and fifty years earlier: Alessandro Manzoni. Manzoni had created the modern language as well as the country’s greatest novel, I promessi sposi (The Betrothed). He was a pioneer in combining fiction and documents. He had rejected the idea of forging a hybrid national language, combining elements from all the regional dialects, in favor of a standard based on the literature and modern speech of a single region, Tuscany. And at the center of his novel, he had placed not a pair of upper-class lovers, as was the case in many of his European contemporaries' works, but two peasants. Rather than the protagonists of history, they were its victims.
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Everyone in Italy reads I promessi sposi when they are in school, sometimes two or three times. If Dante is the country’s supreme poet, Manzoni is its supreme novelist. He wrote the novel in a period when Italy had not yet become a nation. In its pages, however, he defined the national character. He also defined the national language at a time when the vast majority of Italians were illiterate, and the written language, based on the great triumvirate of the fourteenth century—Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio—was antiquated.
The novel was extremely popular when it came out, both in the earlier 1827 edition, and in the revised 1840 edition. Many of the expressions he coined have entered into everyday speech. In the twentieth century, several film adaptations were made, starting in the silent era. Two TV series have been made and a third one is reportedly in the works. In a variation on imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, a wildly popular parody can be seen on YouTube, while the Italian branch of Disney issued a comic-book version with Donald and Daisy Duck as the protagonists, titled I promessi paperi.
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The Betrothed takes place in 1628–1630 in the state of Milan, which was ruled at the time by the king of Spain. The Thirty Years’ War was raging in northern Europe. Meanwhile, a smaller but equally momentous conflict was brewing along the southern border of Milan. The duke of Mantua had died without leaving a direct male heir. Rival claims were made to the Duchy that came to involve the major powers of Europe: France, Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire. The ensuing war consumed the area, bringing with it famine and then a devastating plague.
Against this backdrop, a young couple’s wedding is prevented by a local lord. Throughout the novel the paths of these two fictional characters crosses those of actual personages, and are impacted by historical events, culminating in the great plague of 1630. Manzoni’s pages on this disaster, departing completing from the fictional realm, are among the most powerful descriptions of a contagion ever written.
The novel is at turns lyrical, philosophical, high gothic, and even comical. It is filled with wisdom but also endlessly entertaining.
Michael F. Moore
is the translator, most recently, of The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni (Modern Library). His other published translations range across genres, from modern classics to contemporary fiction and nonfiction, including, most recently: The Drowned and the Saved, by Primo Levi; Agostino, by Alberto Moravia; Quiet Chaos, by Sandro Veronesi; and Live Bait, by Fabio Genovesi. He is currently working on a new translation of Moravia’s short story collection, Rome Tales. For many years he served as the chair of the PEN Translation Committee and, subsequently, as the Chair of the Advisory Board of the PEN/Heim Translation Grant. He was also the staff interpreter and translator of the Italian Mission to the United Nations. Recognition of his work includes an NEA Translation Grant, the first translator-in-residence at Princeton University, and a fellowship at the Rockefeller Center in Bellagio, Italy. He received his PhD in Italian studies from New York University, with a thesis on Petrarch commentaries in the fifteenth century.
Alessandro Manzoni
(1785-1873) is best known for his novel The Betrothed, which ranks among the masterpieces of world literature. It was first published in 1827 and then in 1842 in a revised edition. Manzoni was also a poet, prolific essayist, and playwright. In his life and in his writing, he was committed to the cause of Italian independence and the forging of a modern Italian identity, culture, and language.