Giovanni Verga, I Malavoglia [The House by the Medlar Tree]

Susan Amatangelo (College of the Holy Cross)

Ed. by Jo Ann Cavallo, Columbia University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.6.1: Italian Writing and Culture, 453-present.
Vol. editors: Carla Bregman (Independent Scholar - North America), Jo Ann Cavallo (Columbia University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1881

Places

Italy (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Though initially not a critical success, I Malavoglia [The House by the Medlar Tree], Giovanni Verga’s 1881 novel, came to be considered a canonical work of Italian literature and firmly established its author as the father of verismo (Italian Realism). The story of a family of Sicilian fishermen who struggle to improve their economic and social standing, it was the first in a proposed series of novels called I Vinti [The Vanquished], an homage to French Naturalist authors like Emile Zola and Gustave Flaubert. As described in his preface to I Malavoglia, through these novels Verga set out to trace the “ricercar del meglio” (I Malavoglia, 41) [search for betterment (…

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3227 words

Citation: Amatangelo, Susan. "I Malavoglia". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 September 2020 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=11303, accessed 23 April 2024.]

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