Tuscan peasants quote pages of it by heart.” Curious as to whether it deserved the high praise given it by such illustrious writers as Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Walter Scott and Goethe, and why it became a national classic in Italy, I decided to read it sooner rather than later. … Children in Italian Government schools now begin studying it at the age of nine. … It has gone into over 500 editions, and been translated into every major language, including Chinese. It is not only the first modern Italian novel for Italy it is all Scott, Dickens and Thackery rolled into one volume. Finally, I received a copy as a gift from my brother, who had found it in a second-hand book store it had been discarded by the New York Public Library.Īrchbald Colquhoun, translator of this 1951 American edition, writes in a biographical note about Manzoni: “Few novelists have tried to concentrate as much into one book as Manzoni has in I Promessi Sposi. Although my old Catholic Encyclopedia referred to it as a great work by the greatest Italian novelist, I had a difficult time tracking down a copy. On the recommendation of an acquaintance, I had some time ago put on my mental list of books to read, The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni.
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