I Malavoglia Read online

  A drawing of Giovanni Verga

  CONTENTS

  Title

  The Translator

  Introduction

  Cast of Characters

  Author’s Preface

  1. Chapter I

  2. Chapter II

  3. Chapter III

  4. Chapter IV

  5. Chapter V

  6. Chapter VI

  7. Chapter VII

  8. Chapter VIII

  9. Chapter IX

  10. Chapter X

  11. Chapter XI

  12. Chapter XII

  13. Chapter XIII

  14. Chapter XIV

  15. Chapter XV

  In Search of Verga

  Chronology

  Copyright

  The Translator

  Judith Landry was educated at Somerville College, Oxford where she obtained a first class honours degree in Italian and French. She combines a career as a translator of fiction, art and architecture with part-time teaching at the Courtauld Institute, London.

  Her translations include The Devil in Love by Jacques Cazotte, Smarra and Trilby by Charles Nodier and The Weeping Woman on the Streets of Prague by Sylvie Germain.

  INTRODUCTION

  Luigi Capuana, the novelist and critic, hailed “I MALAVOGLIA” as the arrival of the modern novel in Italy. The rest of the critics and the Italian reading public disliked Italy’s first modern novel intensely. It was set in the back of beyond, Sicily, and was about illiterate fishermen, written in a style totally at odds with the literary style fashioned by Manzoni. It had nothing to recommend it to the bourgeoisie of the cities and was soon forgotten. The publication of Mastro Don Gesualdo and Verga’s play, “Cavalleria Rusticana”, established Verga’s reputation and fortune in Italy. By the time of his death he was the great old man of Italian letters, his reputation now based on the once despised, “I Malavoglia”.

  The preoccupation with heredity and fatalism given to Victorian society by the advent of Darwinism, the arrival of the modern world of railways, telegraphs, taxation and revolution in an enclosed, and hitherto cut off society, with the originality of the style and content makes “I Malavoglia” a powerful literary work, but any critic who dwells on these features misses the essential strength of the novel; its over-whelming emotional content. This is a book which brings the tears gushing into the eyes as the reader is drawn into the Homeric world of Aci Trezza. The elements, combine with Fate and the hubris of young ’Ntoni to bring about the down-fall of the noble Malavoglia family. Padron ’Ntoni is a hero fit for a Greek tragedy, who fights nobly against insuperable odds to keep his family afloat, only to see everything he believes in submerged as he dies in a hospital bed.

  Even today the epic qualities of ‘I Malavoglia” haunt the imagination of the reader, while the modernity of the novel has but passing interest. What Verga intended as a sincere and dispassionate study of society will live forever as a lyrical testimony to the indomitable spirit of the individual engaged in a fight he cannot win.

  * * *

  The novel is set in the Sicily of the 1860’s, shortly after its conquest by Garibaldi from the Bourbons, and its annexation to the new Kingdom of Italy. The aspirations for a better life created by the charismatic Garibaldi, and the replacement of the despotic and backward rule of the Bourbons from Naples, with the constitutional monarchy of Piedmont, were soon disappointed. The new Kingdom had as little to offer to the agrarian masses of Sicily as the dynasty it had deposed. Unification led to the bankruptcy of the protected and inefficient Southern industries, higher taxes, compulsory national service, and the arrival of an industrialized world which Sicily was not prepared for. The opportunities for self-advancement became less rather than more and the gap between the rulers, the Northern monarchy of Savoy, and the ruled Sicilians became even greater, and there were rebellions in the island in favour of the deposed Bourbons.

  This aspiration for betterment caused by the arrival of the railways, the telegraphy system, the opportunity given by national service to see how others lived in the city is at the heart of the novel. ’Ntoni of padron ’Ntoni is conscripted, and after a spell in Naples returns a new man — life has to be different, even if he is not sure in what way. In Visconti’s 1947 film of the novel, “La Terra Trema”, it is clear what the solution is, increased class consciousness but in the Sicily of 1860’s there is no solution. You must accept your lot, as not to do so, will lead only to despair. Life might be hard, but least it is clear, and the novel lays great stress in belonging, whether to a village, a family, or a trade. To go outside your environment as ’Ntoni does cannot bring anything better, and will only make it impossible to return, as he and Alfio Mosca learn. As in Hardy and the French Naturalist novels heredity, fate, social determinism, which had penetrated into literature from the works of Darwin, provide the structure of the novel. People might go to Alexandria, in Egypt, or Naples in search of their fortune, but there is no mass exodus to America as a solution to poverty and centuries of neglect. Verga wrote “I Malavoglia” during 1878-81 while thousands went in search of a better life to America, but he deliberately set it in the pre-emigration period, providing his characters with no escape.

  The Malavoglias are victims of progress, and the restoration of the house by the Medlar Tree and their boat is only possible by turning against progress and returning to the time honoured values of the grandfather, the family pulling together, each one helping the other, like the five fingers of the hand, with the interests of the family greater than those of any individual member. The religion of the family is vindicated at the end, when the worldy wise ’Ntoni wants nothing better than to stay, now that he knows everything, but cannot, his example having brought shame on his family.

  Although it is young ’Ntoni’s inability to do his share which leads to the collapse of the Malavoglia family it is aided and abetted by the grandfather’s moral code. It is the grandfather who speculates in the cargo of lupins, which brings about the death of Bastianazzo, and the debt to zio Crocifisso. It is also the grandfather who accepts to pay when he doesn’t have to, because despite what the law says, it is clear to him and Maruzza what is right and wrong. The spectacle of the Malavoglia scrimping and saving to pay the usurer, zio Crocifisso, for a cargo of lupins which were rotten when he sold them to the Malvoglia family, and losing everything while they do this is at the heart of the novel. There is no criticism of the usurer, as his values are those of the village and of society, while the Malavoglia lose their house and possessions, and must leave at night in shame. This is very much the survival of the fittest, with evolution feeling no compassion for the defeated, however noble. It is this which gives the novel its epic intensity.

  * * *

  Verga intended “I Malavoglia” to be the first in a cycle of five novels in which he would study society and man’s innate aspirations for something more. The second novel, “Mastro Don Gesualdo”, gives us the self-made man whose social pretentions brings about his downfall as his money is insufficient to bring about his acceptance in the rigid structure of 19th c Sicily. The next novel, “La Duchessa di Leyra” was begun but never finished, so Verga’s study of society was limited to the fishermen of Aci Trezza and an enriched peasant. It is in the small enclosed world of Aci Trezza that Verga is most eloquent. Although ostensibly a narrow canvas, the whole of the world is found within its pages, with a penetration and insight and harmony not to be found anywhere else in Verga’s work. We are taken inside the mind and the soul of the characters, so that we believe that we are there watching as a bystander, and not the beneficiaries of the author’s narration.

  The language of the book is strange, whether in the original Italian or the English of the translation. It is not there to be transposed elsewhere,
it is unique and fashioned to represent the enclosed world of Aci Trezza and nowhere else. It is literary, but distorted to reflect the dialect and speech patterns of the fishermen, with the expressions and proverbs restricted to the elements, the sea, the land and the everyday objects of the peasant and the fishermen. There is a lot of direct speech, the character speaking for themselves, and even more indirect speech, with statements seemingly coming from someone, but no one in particular. This is what a lot of the critics refer to as the mystic village chorus. What in Joyce becomes interior monologue is supplied externally by comments which sound like a villager speaking. This degree of dialogue, whether direct and indirect, gives the novel great freshness and vividness, and makes us feel we are one of the mystic chorus, abiding our turn to have our say. It is this feeling of being part, if only as a bystander which pulls at the heartstrings of the reader, and makes “I Malavoglia” so unforgettable. It is a world where everyone knows everyone else, where people are referred to as uncle, neighbour or cousin, and the sight of a strange face is a cause for suspicion. But it is a world where the stranger is entering, and there is nostalgia for the past. The social order is changing and even in Aci Trezza, people can be conscripted to fight in unknown wars and new taxes be imposed.

  What represents the past are the proverbs which give the wisdom of the ancients, tried and trusted statements which do not lie, and have withstood the test of time. There is no need to think, as the proverb has done it for you, with the neighbours exchanging proverbs of an evening. It is only the new men like the apothecary who need to think and argue, as they wish for a different world. For padron ’Ntoni it has all been said before, and it is just a case of finding the right proverb or saying. When padron ’Ntoni loses his wits after an accident at sea, his proverbs become meaningless. The wisdom of the past has no function now, with ’Ntoni in prison and Lia living immorally in the city.

  * * *

  Italian literature, which was during the Renaissance the world’s greatest literature, declined during the Counter Reformation, and by the 19th c was very second rate. Verga had very little of a narrative tradition to follow. There was Foscolo’s “Le Ultime Lettere di Jacopo Ortis”, written in the romantic style of the early Goethe. A generation later Manzoni produced “I Promessi Sposi”, a historical novel in the grand manner, full of, for the time, realism, psychological perception, with two peasants for its heroes. Idealized and over didactic as it is, it ranks as one of the great achievements of Italian literature, and gave a model which many followed.

  Verga began as a romantic novelist, writing novels of passion set in the city. His main influence were the Bohemian poets whom he frequented in Milan. These earlier novels are not read today. It was when Verga forsook the decadence of the town for the struggle for existence going on in his native Sicily that he found his voice as a writer. His florid prose style became shaped into an economical and sharply tuned tool. In 1874 he wrote “Nedda”, his first attempt at a realist story set in Sicily. Other short stories followed, including “Fantasticheria”, which became the model for “I Malavoglia”. Influenced by French Naturalism, and Flaubert’s ideas of impersonalness of the author, and the novels of Zola, Verga produced Italy’s first modern novel.

  Eric Lane

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  The Malavoglia family:

  Padron ’Ntoni

  Bastianazzo (Bastiano), his son

  Comare Maruzza, called La Longa, wife of Bastianazzo

  Bastianazzo & Maruzza’s children

  Padron ’Ntoni’s ’Ntoni

  Comare Mena(Filomena), called Saint Agatha

  Luca

  Alessi (Alessio)

  Lia (Rosalia)

  Other inhabitants of Aci Trezza

  Uncle Crocifìsso (Crucifix), also called Dumbell, the money lender Comare La Vespa(Wasp), his niece

  Don Silvestro, town clerk

  Don Franco, pharmacist

  La Signora (The Lady), his wife

  Don Giammaria, the priest

  Donna Rosalina, his sister

  Don Michele, customs sergeant

  Don Ciccio, the doctor

  Dr. Scipioni, the lawyer

  Mastro Croce Calla, called Silkworm and Giufa (puppet), mayor and mason

  Betta ,his daughter

  Padron Fortunato Cipolla, owner of vineyards, olive groves and boats

  Brasi Cipolla, his son

  Comare Sister Mariangela, called Santuzza, tavern keeper

  Uncle Santoro, her father

  Nunziata, later Alessi’s wife

  Compare Alfio Mosca, carter

  Mastro Turi Zuppido(Lame), caulker

  Comare Venera, called La Zuppidda, his wife

  Comare Barbara, their daughter

  Compare Tino (Agostino ) Piedipapera (Duckfoot), middleman

  Comare Grazia Piedipapera, his wife

  La Locca (The Madwoman), sister of Uncle Crocifisso

  Menico, her elder son

  “La Locca’s son”, her younger son

  Cousin Anna

  Rocco Spatu, her son

  Mara, one of her daughters

  Comare Tudda (Agatuzza )

  Comare Sara (Rosaria), her daughter

  Compare Mangiacarrube, his daughter

  Mastro Vanni Pizzuto, barber

  Massaro Filippo, farmer

  Mastro Cirino, sexton and shoemaker

  Peppi Naso, butcher

  Uncle Col, fisherman

  Barabba, fisherman

  Compare Cinghialenta, carter

  Explanation of Italian terms

  padron - self employed man

  mastro - master craftsman

  compare(male) - close neighbour

  comare (female) - close neighbour

  Note: In the small enclosed world of Aci Trezza, neighbours are often referred to as uncle or cousin.

  AUTHOR’S PREFACE

  This story is the honest and dispassionate study of the way in which the first strivings after well-being might possibly be born, and develop, among the humblest people in society; it is an account of the sort of disquiet visited upon a family (which had lived relatively happily until that time) by the vague desire for the unknown, the realization that they are not well-off, or could be better.

  The mainspring for the human activity which produces the stream of progress is here viewed at its source, at its humblest and most down-to-earth. The mechanism of the passions which are vital to such progress in these low realms is less complicated, and can thus be observed with greater accuracy. One has simply to allow the picture its pure, peaceful tones, and its simple design. This search for betterment eats into the heart of man, and as it spreads and grows, it also tends to rise, and follows its upward movement through the social classes. In I Malavoglia we still have merely the struggle to fulfil material needs. When these are satisfied, the search becomes a desire for riches, and is to be embodied in a middle-class character, Mastro-don Gesualdo, set within the still restricted framework of a small provincial town, but whose colours are beginning to be more vivid, and whose design is broader and more varied. It then becomes aristocratic vanity in La Duchessa de Leyra; and ambition in L’Onorevole Scipioni, culminating in L’Uomo di Lusso (The Man of Luxury) who combines all these yearnings, all these vanities, all these ambitions, to embrace and suffer them, to feel them in his blood and to be consumed by them. As the sphere of human actions broadens out, the mechanism of the passions becomes more complicated; the various characters do indeed emerge as less genuine but more eccentric, because of the subtle influence which upbringing exerts on them as well as the considerable component of artificiality to be found in civilized society. Language too tends to become more individual, to be embellished with all the half-tones which express half-feelings, with all the devices of the word which may give emphasis to the idea, in an era which, as a rule of good taste, insists on a pervasive formalism to mask a uniformity of feelings and ideas. In order for the artistic reproduction of these settings to
be accurate, the norms of this analysis have to be scrupulously observed: one has to be sincere in order to show forth the truth, since form is as inherent in subject-matter as any part of the subject-matter itself is necessary to the explanation of the general argument.

  The fateful, endless and often wearisome and agitated path trod by humanity to achieve progress is majestic in its end result, seen as a whole and from afar. In the glorious light which clothes it, striving, greed and egoism fade away, as do all the weaknesses which go into the huge work, all the contradictions from whose friction the light of truth emerges. The result, for mankind, conceals all that is petty in the individual interests which produce it; it justifies them virtually as necessary means to the stimulating of the activity of the individual who is unconsciously co-operating to the benefit of all. Every impulse towards this intense universal activity, from the search for material well-being to the loftiest ambitions, is justified by the mere fact that it works towards the goal of this ceaseless process; and when one knows where this immense current of human activity is tending, one certainly does not ask how it gets there. Only the observer, himself borne along by the current, as he looks around him, has the right to concern himself with the weak who fall by the wayside, with the feeble who let themselves be overtaken by the wave and thus finish the sooner, the vanquished who raise their arms in desperation, and bow their heads beneath the brutal heel of those who suddenly appear behind, to-day’s victors, equally hurried, equally eager to arrive, and equally certain themselves to be overtaken to-morrow.

  I Malavoglia, Mastro-don Gesualdo, L’Onorevole Scipioni and L’Uomo di lusso are so many vanquished whom the current has deposited, drowned, on the river bank, after having dragged them along, each with the stigmata of his sin, which should have been the blazing of his virtue. Each, from the humblest to the highest, has played his part in the struggle for existence, for prosperity, for ambition — from the humble fisherman to the parvenu, to the intruder into the upper-classes and to the man of genius and firm will, who feels strong enough to dominate other men, to seize for himself that portion of public consideration which social prejudice denies him because of his illegitimate birth and who makes the law, despite himself being born outside the law; and to the artist who thinks he is following his ideal when he is in fact following another form of ambition. The person observing this spectacle has no right to judge it; he has already achieved much if he manages to draw himself outside the field of struggle for a moment to study it dispassionately, and to render the scene clearly, in its true colours, so as to give a representation of reality as it was, or as it should have been.