Cardinal Federico Borromeo, the archbishop of Milan during those years, reminds the priesthood of their duty to serve the poor and needy. The portrait he gives of the Capuchin brothers, to whom the municipal government assigned the responsibility for tending to the sick, the dying, and the dead from the bubonic plague, highlights both their Christian vocation and their practical know-how. In two chapters of the novel, 31 and 32, Manzoni describes the outbreak of the bubonic plague in Milan in 1630, in a report that mirrors, eerily, the moment we have just been through. First and foremost, the Covid-19 pandemic. I felt that it was underappreciated in the United States because the existing translations were inadequate failing to capture the energy, eloquence and range of Manzoni’s prose.īut while I started translating with the ambition to restore this novel to its rightful place in world literature, as I got closer to publication, circumstances in the world lent the novel a renewed importance. Manzoni forged the modern Italian language, and his novel-yes, he wrote only one-is still the greatest novel in the Italian language. Tradition weighs heavily on Italian artists, and when they create, they have to contend with that glorious tradition.

While I’ve translated many contemporary authors (including Pope Benedict XVI), I have always wanted English readers to have a deeper sense of Italian literature and culture. Moore: I promessi sposi (the original Italian title of The Betrothed) is a beautiful, sweeping novel that every Italian has read.

Keane: This book was a commitment to read I can only imagine what it was like to read in a different language, then translate.

'Manzoni forged the modern Italian language, and his novel-yes, he wrote only one-is still the greatest novel in the Italian language.' Moore has been edited for length, clarity and style. For many years, he was also an interpreter at the United Nations and a full-time staff member of the Permanent Mission of Italy to the United Nations. He is the former chair of the PEN/Heim Translation Fund and has a doctorate in Italian from New York University. Moore’s published translations range from 20th-century classics to contemporary novels. The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni (Author) and Michael F.

The betrothed 2022 by michael f moore