Product Description

D. H. Lawrence said that Sicily in the mid 1800s was "the poorest place in Europe. A Sicilian peasant might live through his whole life without ever possessing as much as a dollar." Giovanni Verga, one of the greatest writers Italy ever produced, grew up in the circumstances Lawrence describes. In Little Novels of Sicily, first published in 1883, he poignantly re-creates the beautiful simplicity of Sicilian village life. In this collection, Verga seasons the grim lives of fishermen and farmers with comic elements, and evokes the mystical pleasures of the landscape in which he was born and to which he returned late in life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #103531 in Books
• Published on: 2000-02-01
• Released on: 2000-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 156 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781883642549
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"The Little Novels of Sicily have that sense of the wholeness of life, the spare exuberance, the endless inflections and overtones, and the magnificent and thrilling vitality of major literature."-- The New York Times

"In these stories the whole Sicily of the 1860s lives before us . . . and whether his subject be the brutal bloodshed of an abortive revolution or the simple human comedy that can attend even deep mourning, Verga never loses his complete artistic mastery of his material."-- The Times Literary Supplement

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Italian

About the Author
GIOVANNI VERGA is one of the great writers of Italian fiction. Verga was born in Catania, Sicily, in 1840, and died in the same city in 1922. As a young man he left Sicily to work at literature and mingle with society in Florence and Milan, but eventually came back to spend his long declining years in his own place. His numerous books include the novelistic masterpiece The House of the Medlar Tree.

Customer Reviews

The whole world is a small town
The whole world is a small town is a sicilian phrase that means no matter where you travel, people will be basically the same. Reading this work by G. Verga gave this saying a whole new meaning for me. I learned that people in Sicily are basically the same today as they were 120 years ago. Giovanni Verga was born and lived in a small town in Sicily called Vizzini. This is the same town that my parents are from. I have spent many summers with my grandmother there. The distant past was always portrayed as somehow better by my grandmother. According to her, our ancestors did not succomb to petty human weaknesses. After enjoying these short stories I realize that my grandmother remembered her youth more with nostalgic fantasy than historic accuracy. This work wonderfully portrays human motivations, strenghts and weaknesses. It was a wonderful revelation to realize that the whole world is a small town, not only in the dimension of space but also in the dimension of time.

Great Libretto
This is a wonderful little collection of short stories by the Sicilian author Giovanni Verga. I had never read any Sicilian literature before Verga, and I'm so glad that I started with this book! It has further piqued my interest in Sicilian culture and the Sicilian language. Verga uses his words very carefully in order to paint the pictures of the sorrows, joys, sufferings and moments of rejoicing in eastern Sicily. This is definitely worth the money for anyone who is interesed in Sicilian or Italian literature.

The real Sicily
I am doing historical research on Italy and Sicily and this book gives a wonderful view into the lives of ordinary people of the Sicilian countryside. Very frank accounts that are not sugar-coated.