The working and merchant classes belittled in Padre Cristoforo's father's circle. We saw this classism in Villette. What would become of the world if it were made up only of leisurely nobles, their servants and clergy? Perhaps this explains why Western Europe was a poor backwater for so long.
Padre Cristoforo's backstory. Is this one of what has been called the "Catholic" elements of the story? It did not feel to me to be a religious story per se. Rather, a parable about the power of redemption and recovering contentment through taking personal responsibility for misfortune--your own and others' that resulted from your actions. Indeed, even erring on the side of personal responsibility where the story is more complicated than that. It really does not abridge the theme that he may have had no choice.
Loving Padre Cristoforo as embodying the opposite ideals of Don Abbondio - committed to protecting the weak. Yet his suggestion to Lucia may have also led to this difficult situation. Kind of reminds me of the green myths where some things were just fated to happen, regardless of purity of character.
Also agree that it has been very difficult to not read ahead …so entertaining
More poetry… “The sky was perfectly clear that morning, and as the sun rose behind the mountains, its rays first struck the peaks opposite, and then the brightness traveled down the slopes, spreading rapidly out, and lit up the valley.“ And then more, the autumnal breeze, the vineyards, the strips of freshly plowed land, all contrasted against “every human figure that appeared in [this scene, saddening] the eye and the heart.” Beautiful and heart wrenching at the same time.
without knowing I think we might easily guess so -- early 19th C. through mid 19th -- although a few decades earlier, it's still coming out of the post-Napoleonic/pre-revolutionary era in European history & politics that surrounds Villette (and even Moby-Dick), and the period Tolstoy looks back on in War and Peace -- each with its own idiosyncratic awareness of class injustice and although from different angles, contrasting the implication of various religious individuals and institutions in those systems with a cosmic or at least uncompromised dimension of the religious (no matter how tainted by the patriotic prejudices, unconscious or intentional, of the writer).
"With this mixture of eagerness and resentment, unable to frequent them as friends yet wanting to associate with them in some fashion, he began competing with the town's aristocrats in ostentation and grandiosity, thus purchasing wholesale their hostility, envy and ridicule." Such an astute observer of the human condition.
I am getting such great pleasure out of this novel, and this is my favorite chapter yet. The wonderful, psychological description of Padre Cristoforo’s appearance (e.g., the facial features “to which a long habit of abstinence had lent gravity rather than removed passion”). The Padre’s entire story, which again is psychologically rich and subtle. The freshness and concision of “an attitude of forced cordiality and compressed rage” to describe the murdered nobleman’s brother. And I was knocked out by the comparison of the Padre to “words that are overly colorful in their natural form, which some people, even the educated, utter when passion overflows, but in a fractured form, with a couple of letters changed for the sake of propriety. Words that, despite this disguise, maintain their original energy.”
I have not read other translations of The Betrothed, but the language in this one feels so fluid and vital.
I loved the moral circularity of “For a moment he was beset by the suspicion that he was only acting out of fear. But he was immediately consoled by the thought that even an unjust opinion was a form of punishment and a means of atonement.”
“And the freshly tilled soil, brown and distinctive, stood out in the fields of bleached stubble glistening with dew.” What a lovely description--nature is beautiful. Yet every human figure is the opposite.
Yes, true. But I was referring to the people the frai encounters as he walks towards Lucia’s cottage: “It was a happy scene, but every human figure that appeared cast a pall on Padre Cristoforos’s gaze and his thoughts.” p. 55
“ but while I’ve been telling you the story of Padre Cristoforo, he has in the meantime, arrived and appeared at the door.”
What a wonderful bit of immediacy of the reading experience. As if I put my book down I’ll miss something.
Exactly. I am fighting every impulse to read ahead.
about as perfect a way to end a backstory and return us to the present!
this struck me too -- so clever and direct
The working and merchant classes belittled in Padre Cristoforo's father's circle. We saw this classism in Villette. What would become of the world if it were made up only of leisurely nobles, their servants and clergy? Perhaps this explains why Western Europe was a poor backwater for so long.
Padre Cristoforo's backstory. Is this one of what has been called the "Catholic" elements of the story? It did not feel to me to be a religious story per se. Rather, a parable about the power of redemption and recovering contentment through taking personal responsibility for misfortune--your own and others' that resulted from your actions. Indeed, even erring on the side of personal responsibility where the story is more complicated than that. It really does not abridge the theme that he may have had no choice.
Loving Padre Cristoforo as embodying the opposite ideals of Don Abbondio - committed to protecting the weak. Yet his suggestion to Lucia may have also led to this difficult situation. Kind of reminds me of the green myths where some things were just fated to happen, regardless of purity of character.
Also agree that it has been very difficult to not read ahead …so entertaining
More poetry… “The sky was perfectly clear that morning, and as the sun rose behind the mountains, its rays first struck the peaks opposite, and then the brightness traveled down the slopes, spreading rapidly out, and lit up the valley.“ And then more, the autumnal breeze, the vineyards, the strips of freshly plowed land, all contrasted against “every human figure that appeared in [this scene, saddening] the eye and the heart.” Beautiful and heart wrenching at the same time.
“...one of the benefits of this world is for complete strangers to hate and be hated in turn.” Sounds like polarized life today.
I wonder if such scathing criticism of society, legal system and clergy for their hypocrisy and corruption was common at that time?
I've been thinking the same thing. Was there any outrage at the time of publication especially with regard to the church?
without knowing I think we might easily guess so -- early 19th C. through mid 19th -- although a few decades earlier, it's still coming out of the post-Napoleonic/pre-revolutionary era in European history & politics that surrounds Villette (and even Moby-Dick), and the period Tolstoy looks back on in War and Peace -- each with its own idiosyncratic awareness of class injustice and although from different angles, contrasting the implication of various religious individuals and institutions in those systems with a cosmic or at least uncompromised dimension of the religious (no matter how tainted by the patriotic prejudices, unconscious or intentional, of the writer).
"With this mixture of eagerness and resentment, unable to frequent them as friends yet wanting to associate with them in some fashion, he began competing with the town's aristocrats in ostentation and grandiosity, thus purchasing wholesale their hostility, envy and ridicule." Such an astute observer of the human condition.
I am getting such great pleasure out of this novel, and this is my favorite chapter yet. The wonderful, psychological description of Padre Cristoforo’s appearance (e.g., the facial features “to which a long habit of abstinence had lent gravity rather than removed passion”). The Padre’s entire story, which again is psychologically rich and subtle. The freshness and concision of “an attitude of forced cordiality and compressed rage” to describe the murdered nobleman’s brother. And I was knocked out by the comparison of the Padre to “words that are overly colorful in their natural form, which some people, even the educated, utter when passion overflows, but in a fractured form, with a couple of letters changed for the sake of propriety. Words that, despite this disguise, maintain their original energy.”
I have not read other translations of The Betrothed, but the language in this one feels so fluid and vital.
love a tidy entertaining backstory!
I loved the moral circularity of “For a moment he was beset by the suspicion that he was only acting out of fear. But he was immediately consoled by the thought that even an unjust opinion was a form of punishment and a means of atonement.”
“And the freshly tilled soil, brown and distinctive, stood out in the fields of bleached stubble glistening with dew.” What a lovely description--nature is beautiful. Yet every human figure is the opposite.
not quite every human figure ... in the scene seen? ... because Lucia, Cristoforo, Renzo, Agnese all seem quite lovely to me
Yes, true. But I was referring to the people the frai encounters as he walks towards Lucia’s cottage: “It was a happy scene, but every human figure that appeared cast a pall on Padre Cristoforos’s gaze and his thoughts.” p. 55
yes, that's what I wondered -- the people seen within the scene -- 💙
Ludovico’s decision (Padre Cristoforo) is today what we might think of as “restorative justice”
I do love Padre Cristoforo and I hope he is never ethically undone by the world he's living to protect and assist