Author: alessandromanzonijhumpalahiri

Considered the first historical novel, this timeless masterpiece from the father of modern Italian literature is a sweeping portrait of foreign occupation, plague, famine, and war—now in the first new English-language translation in fifty years, featuring a preface by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jhumpa Lahiri. The Betrothed is an inextricable thread in the fabric of Italian culture, one of the most influential works in the Italian literary canon, and required reading in Italian schools. Published in 1827 but set two hundred years earlier, it is considered the first iteration of the historical novel; Edgar Allen Poe declared it “a work which…