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A review by jasonfurman
The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni
5.0
I'm thrilled I finally got around to reading The Betrothed. An early nineteenth century Italian novel set in the early 1600s it tells an epic story of two lovers, Renzo and Lucia, whose marriage is blocked by an evil lord in connivance with a cowardly priest. This sets them both off on epic journeys, with Renzo going through Milan's famines and then its plague and Lucia ending up in a nunnery before being abducted. Against this rich historical background are a number of other characters that range from the saintly to the wicked and everything in between.
The Betrothed has none of the psychological depth of Tolstoy. Nor does it have the finely honed plot and adventure of Dumas (although it shares something in common with him). But it still has an epic scope, very memorable characters, and some powerful themes--including the problems of corruption and some very powerful and moving depictions of Christian forgiveness and charity.
The book also has a lot of historical digressions, either telling the backstory of a particular character or going into more depth about a particular historical event. Some of these discussions are among the best economics lessons I've ever read in literature. I particularly liked the extended discussions of the problems of price controls for bread in the midst of the famine and how it made it worse by both inhibiting supply and attracting more people to the city to get price-controlled bread. It also had a brief discussion of the problem with "maximum wages" which, evidently, were instituted to keep labor costs from rising too high following the plague's dramatic reduction in labor supply.
The Betrothed has none of the psychological depth of Tolstoy. Nor does it have the finely honed plot and adventure of Dumas (although it shares something in common with him). But it still has an epic scope, very memorable characters, and some powerful themes--including the problems of corruption and some very powerful and moving depictions of Christian forgiveness and charity.
The book also has a lot of historical digressions, either telling the backstory of a particular character or going into more depth about a particular historical event. Some of these discussions are among the best economics lessons I've ever read in literature. I particularly liked the extended discussions of the problems of price controls for bread in the midst of the famine and how it made it worse by both inhibiting supply and attracting more people to the city to get price-controlled bread. It also had a brief discussion of the problem with "maximum wages" which, evidently, were instituted to keep labor costs from rising too high following the plague's dramatic reduction in labor supply.