The Betrothed - Alessandro Manzoni (1827)

 

The Betrothed

I am not accustomed to Italian novels on this list, but this one, “The Betrothed”, is apparently one of the most famous Italian novels and hence included on the List.

We follow a young couple from a village outside of Milan in the seventeenth century. He is Lorenzo, a young silk weaver, and she is Lucy, a bashful young girl. They want to get married, but the curate, Don Abbodio, refuses to wed them because he has been threatened by thugs not to do so. The thugs belong to the local noble, Don Roderick, who wants the girl for himself. An attempt to capture her by force fails but sends the young couple on the run and thus starts an adventure.

They get help from a Capuchin friar called Christopher who sends Lucy to one and Lorenzo to another monastery in Milan. Both end up in trouble, Lucy betrayed by a nun and kidnapped by a gangster and Lorenzo gets unintendedly involved in an uprising and accused of treason, causing him to hide out in Bergamo. Their adventures are many and through them we get introduced to many aspects of life in seventeenth century Italy.

There is the food shortage and ensuing riots in Milan, the havoc of war when passing soldiers of various origin plunder everything they can get their hands on and send the local population fleeing, seriously deepening the food shortage crisis into a shortage of anything but misery and finally the plague, killing left and right, high and low. Throughout, the authorities tasked with handling these crisis’s are completely inept or corrupt, deepening rather then alleviating the disasters with either lack of or self-serving actions. The only authority that effectively deal the string of disasters is the church and that is mainly driven by a few energetic characters.

While the apparent story of Lucy and Lorenzo is both interesting and touching, “The Betrothed” can be read as an allegory of Italy in the nineteenth century. I can definitely see that. In a very direct way, the author goes to great pains to describe the situation around the various crisis’s, more than is strictly necessary for the story of Lucy and Lorenzo, but in order to make us understand what is going on. This insight is interesting in itself but it also helps us to understand some social and political dynamics with relevance to the nineteenth century.

I am thinking that the allegory can be taken a lot further. Lucy and Lorenzo may represent the Italian people who wants to be united but is not allowed because out outside agents. Greedy nobles (Roderick) who stops at nothing, self-serving politicians, outside powers, in the book Spanish, German and French soldiers, in the nineteenth century, French and Austrian troops battling it out in Italy and keeping the place occupied. The role of the plague as an allegory is a bit mystifying, but may represent disasters outside human control, but to which we can respond irresponsibly or sensibly. A clear message it is that much of the trouble is unnecessary as they are created by irresponsible or self-serving people or are aggravated by the same. Probably a good picture of the fragmented Italy in 1827 and in many ways even today.

Lucy and Lorenzo do get each other, it is that kind of story, and so the author promises that also the Italians will get each other and hopefully learn by the mistakes of the past.

As a reading experience, “The Betrothed” was an interesting book to read. The adventures of Lucy and Lorenzo sometimes loses a bit of momentum when the narrative turns tangential, but these tangents may actually be the best part of the book as they provide so much insight. Especially the section about the plague in Milan was gripping and interesting. Since our own experience with the pandemic, there is so much to recognize here. The powerlessness in the face of an indiscriminate killer, the draconian steps to curtail the contagion, the strange conspiracies springing up, especially to blame somebody for the disaster or refuse to accept it for what it is. We have so recent been exactly there. When I read about the Lazaretto in Milan, the picture I saw were those of the over-crowded hospitals in Bergamo in March 2020.

“The Betrothed” is a recommended read and one I understand Italians will insist is essential.