Little Ancient World (Antonio Fogazzaro) E-Book

Luca Nava

• Herausgeber: Booksprint
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Set on the eve of the Italian Risorgimento, the novel describes a world of complex politics and mixed loyalties. The Lombard lake region is occupied by the Austrians, while Italian patriots plot in secret for the liberation of their homeland. The political drama is the framework for a second plot line: the story of Franco Maironi and Luisa Rigey. The story of two different souls.

Leseprobe

Antonio Fogazzaro

LITTLE ANCIENT WORLD

Intermediate English

Adaptation in English: Luca Nava

Language consultant:

Antonio Fogazzaro

Fogazzaro was born in Vicenza to a rich family. Among his teachers was the fellow citizen Giacomo Zanella. In 1864 he got a law degree in Turin. After his marriage (1866) he moved to Milan. In 1869 he was back in Vicenza to work as lawyer, but he left this profession very early to write books permanently.

He began with a short poem Miranda (1874) and then a collection of poems Valsolda (1876), but he had a greater passion for writing novels: Malombra (1881), Daniele Cortis (1885), The Mystery of a Poet (1888).

For some aspects his narrative is connected with verism, and further interested in working out certain spiritual problems. Topics of his main works are the aristocratic setting, the conflict between sense of duty and passions, the attempt to conciliate faith and science. In some cases this brings the tormented soul of characters into mystic experiences.

His masterpiece is Little Ancient World. The novel is set in his beloved Valsolda on the Lake Lugano, in the 1850s. It has delightful evocations of the landscape, and strong characterizations which reveal the inner psychological conflicts of the characters. It is an impassioned story of lovers struggling to break the barriers of aristocratic prejudice that oppose their marriage. It is also a story of patriotism - of the freeing of Italy from the Austrian yoke.

The story is continued with Little Modern World (1900) and The Saint (1905).

The second book of this trilogy tells the dramatic story of the son of the hero of Little Ancient World, and of his love for the beautiful Jeanne Dessalle, - a story that presents a vivid picture of the Italian world of rank and fashion, and involves, too, a study of political and ecclesiastical life. The Saint is full of religious zeal that finds a double outlet - in asceticism and works of mercy and in an attempt to reform the Church of Rome from within.

Fogazzaro was a deeply religious man but supported reform in the Catholic Church and toured Italy proposing to reconcile Darwin’s theory of evolution with Christianity. He found new interpretations in positivist and evolutionist theories, and because of this the Church of Rome banned the novels The Saint and Leila (1911) for modernism.

After that he made an act of submission to the Catholic Church. He died in his birthplace, in Vicenza, in 1911.