Mastro-don Gesualdo
Mastro-don Gesualdo
AuthorGiovanni Verga
Original titleMastro-don Gesualdo
TranslatorMary A. Craig
CountryItaly
LanguageItalian
Publication date
1889
Published in English
1893
Original text
Mastro-don Gesualdo at Italian Wikisource

Mastro-don Gesualdo is an Italian novel written by Giovanni Verga, published in 1889. The first English edition, Master Don Gesualdo (1893), was translated by Mary A. Craig and was published in London by J. P. Osgood, McIlvaine publishers.[1] Giovanni Cecchetti, in the introduction to his translation of the 1979 edition, writes that it "is generally regarded as a masterpiece".[2]

This work belongs to the Ciclo dei vinti, together with I Malavoglia, La Duchessa di Leyra, L'Onorevole Scipioni and L'uomo di lusso, works which deal with the problem of social and economical advancement. La Duchessa de Leyra remained only a draft, while the last two novels planned for the Ciclo, L'Onorevole Scipioni and L'Uomo di Lusso, were not even started.

The novel is divided into four parts, each of which is made up of several chapters.[3]

Mastro-don Gesualdo deals with Gesualdo Motta, a man who focuses his life on his economic assets instead of personal relationships, ending up crushed by the empty life he has created. Gesualdo lives in Vizzini (Sicily) during the Italian unification.[4][5]

Mastro-don Gesualdo was subsequently translated into English by D.H. Lawrence in 1925-28. Lawrence's translation was published by Dedalus European Classics, first in 1984, then with a new edition in 2000.

D. H. Lawrence also wrote an introduction to Mastro-don Gesualdo, published in Phoenix II.[6] Lawrence also wrote an essay on Mastro-don Gesualdo, published in Phoenix[7] and in Selected Literary Criticism.[8]

References

  1. ↑ Marrone, Gaetana; Puppa, Paolo (2006). Encyclopedia of Italian literary studies. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-57958-390-3.
  2. ↑ Cecchetti, Giovanni (1979). Introduction. Mastro-don Gesualdo. By Verga, Giovanni. Berkeley (Cal.): University of California Press. p. x. ISBN 978-0-520-03598-0.
  3. ↑ Verga, Giovanni. "Mastro-don Gesualdo". Italian Wikisource.
  4. ↑ "Mastro-don Gesualdo | novel by Verga". Encyclopædia Britannica.
  5. ↑ Ellis, David (1998). The Cambridge Biography of D. H. Lawrence (1. publ. ed.). Cambridge: Univ. Press. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-521-25421-2.
  6. ↑ Phoenix II: Uncollected, Unpublished, and Other Prose Works by D. H. Lawrence, New York: The Viking Press, Inc., 1970, pp. 279-288.
  7. ↑ Phoenix: The Posthumous Papers of D. H. Lawrence 1936, New York: The Viking Press, Inc., 1936, pp. 223-231.
  8. ↑ Lawrence, D. H., Selected Literary Criticism, New York: The Viking Press, Inc., 1956, pp. 270-279.
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