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.
