I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)

1909. This is in form an historical novel. It is rather psychological and sentimental. The scene is laid in Lombardy between 1628-1631, and the plot deals with the thwarting of the love of two peasants by a local tyrant. The manners of the time are presented with great vividness and picturesqueness. The novel has taken a place as the most distinguished novel of modern Italy.

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Portraying plague-ravaged 17th century Lombardy, through the lives of two lovers, The Betrothed explores the corrupt and oppressive rule of Lombardy's Spanish oppressors and also, by implication, of the later Austrians.

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Set in Lombardy during the Spanish occupation of the late 1620s, The Betrothed tells the story of two young lovers, Renzo and Lucia, prevented from marrying by the petty tyrant Don Rodrigo, who desires Lucia for himself. Forced to flee, they are then cruelly separated, and must face many dangers including plague, famine and imprisonment, and confront a variety of strange characters - the mysterious Nun of Monza, the fiery Father Cristoforo and the sinister 'Unnamed' - in their struggle to be reunited. A vigorous portrayal of enduring passion, The Betrothed's exploration of love, power and faith presents a whirling panorama of seventeenth-century Italian life and is one of the greatest European historical novels.