Review of Alessandro Manzoni's 'The Betrothed'

Alessandro Manzoni’s novel, I promessi sposi (The Betrothed) dates first to 1825–1827, when it appeared serially in three volumes, and then to 1840–1842, during which a revised version came out in 96 installments. Manzoni—the sesquicentennial of his death is in May—not only painstakingly polished his own words for the revised edition but also put up his own money to publish it. As with many of his entrepreneurial ventures (he was a passionate botanist and agriculturist, undertaking experiments in his countryside mansion), the revised version was not a financial success, and he recovered only half of the invested capital. He did, however, succeed in putting his stamp on the history of literature and of the Italian language.