About FDU Press

Verga’s reputation has suffered in recent years from the widespread perception that his work – already sadly neglected by non-Italian admirers of 19th century fiction – gives voice to attitudes considered uncongenial in the contemporary academy: a deeply pessimistic, even fatalistic, social and political conservatism and a disenchanted view of women and their role that is easily – perhaps too easily – interpreted as misogyny. This thorough, thoughtful volume suggests that a more nuanced critical verdict may be appropriate. Amatangelo (College of the Holy Cross) undertakes a detailed thematic study, based on wide reading in criticism, history, and gender theory, of female characters in a broad range of Verga’s fictional texts. Successive chapters deal with adolescence, marriage, motherhood, sisterhood, and “fatal womanhood,” showing through close, intelligent reading that Verga’s presentation of women is less schematic that often assumed and leading to the plausible conclusion that his writing deserves to be revisited with a more attentive, sympathetic eye. Amatangelo’s concise, penetrating study is a step in the right direction, one that will be useful to collections in Italian and comparative literature, prose fiction, and women’s studies.