The stories collected in Under the Shadow of Etna are drawn from the Sicily of Giovanni Verga's childhood, reported at the time to be the poorest place in Europe. Verga's style is swift, sure, and implacable; he plunges into his stories almost in midbreath, and tells them with a stark economy of words. There's something dark and tightly coiled at the heart of each story, an ironic, bitter resolution that is belied by the deceptive simplicity of Verga's prose, and Verga strikes just when the reader's not expecting it.
The stories collected in Under the Shadow of Etna are drawn from the Sicily of Giovanni Verga's childhood, reported at the time to be the poorest plac...
Giovanni Verga is the most important of the Italian Realist School of novelists. The House by the Medlar-Tree is the story of the Malavoglia, a family of poor Sicilian fisherman, is Verga's moving rendering of the theme of mankind's struggle for self-betterment, the dignity of the struggle in the face of poverty and hardship, and the tragedy that the struggle inevitably incurs.
Giovanni Verga is the most important of the Italian Realist School of novelists. The House by the Medlar-Tree is the story of the Malavoglia, a family...
