First edition in English. 8vo. 358 pp. Black cloth boards, stamped in gilt to spine. Genealogy table and map of Italy in the Risorgimento at rear. Jacket design by Stephen Raw.
Translated from the Italian by Marie Evans. Originally published as La famiglia Manzoni by Giulio Einaudi Editore, Torino, 1983.
Winner of the 1984 Bagutta Prize. An epic biography of Alessandro Manzoni (1785–1873), celebrated Milanese nobleman, man of letters, and author of the masterpiece of 19th-century Italian literature I promessi sposi (The Betrothed). Ginzburg insists that The Manzoni Family should be read as a novel – "without demanding more or less of it than a novel can give". "A glowing light of modern Italian literature.... As direct and clean as if it were carved in stone, it yet speaks thoughts of the heart." –The New York Times Book Review