Alessandro Manzoni (redirected from Manzoni, Alessandro Francesco Tommaso Antonio)

Manzoni, Alessandro 

Born Mar. 7, 1785, in Milan; died there May 22, 1873. Italian writer.

Manzoni was the son of a count. He graduated from an aristocratic higher school in 1805. In his early works, the allegory “Triumph of Liberty” (1801) and the ode “On the Death of Carlo Imbonati” (1806), Manzoni was faithful to the Enlightenment tradition. In the 1820’s he joined the romantic movement (Sacred Hymns, 1812-22, published 1815-23; Letter to Mr. C[hanvert] on the Unity of Time and Place in Tragedy and On Romanticism, both in 1823). Manzoni’s odes “March 1821” and “The Fifth of May” (1821) and the historical tragedies Count Carmagnola (1820; Russian translation, 1888) and Adelchi (1822), imbued with patriotism and love of freedom, were written in the spirit of the Risorgimento.

Manzoni’s best work was the historical novel The Betrothed (1827; Russian translation, 1833). It combined romanticism with a realistic portrayal of the life and historical background of 17th-century Lombardy. Manzoni’s protagonists are ordinary peasants who pit their moral strength against the arbitrary rule of the feudal lords. The ideas of Christian humility do not dampen the novel’s democratic tendencies. The Betrothed occupies an important place in Italian realistic prose of the 19th and 20th centuries. After 1827, Manzoni wrote only theoretical articles on language and literature.

WORKS

Tutte le opere. Rome, 1965.

REFERENCES

Poluiakhtova, I. K., “A. Manzoni.” In Istoriia ital’ianskoi literatury XIX veka: Epokha Risordzhimento. Moscow, 1970.
De Sanctis, F. “Manzoni.” In Opere, vol. 10. [Turin, 1955.]
Sapegno, N. Ritratto di Manzoni ed altri saggi. Ban, 1961.
Derla, L. Il realismo storico di A. Manzoni. Milan-Varese, 1965.
Santarelli, G. I cappuccini nel romanzo manzoniano, Milan, 1970.

E. IU. SAPRYKINA