From his earliest years, he was compelled to understand what a misfortune it was to be, in those times, a creature without claws or fangs, yet which feels disinclined to be devoured …Our Abbondio was neither noble nor wealthy and courageous, even less. “ Don Abbondio (our reader will have already discerned) was not born with the heart of a lion.
Don Abbondio is, as the narrative makes clear, entirely cowardly.
Manzoni presents us not only with Don Abbondio’s words and actions, but his inner life and story (as Manzoni does for many of his characters). The henchmen make clear to Don Abbondio it will cost him his life should he marry the couple. He has plotted to seduce Lucia and will stop at nothing to have her. Two “bravi”, henchmen of the arrogant and dissolute Don Rodrigo accost the priest. The action starts one evening as Don Abbondio is walking home along a country lane. A Wedding DeniedĪs the novel begins, Don Abbondio, Lucia and Renzo’s parish priest, has promised to marry Renzo and Lucia. There are other less obvious links as we shall see. During Renzo and Lucia’s life, Lombardy is a Spanish colony. When he wrote the book, Lombardy was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Lombardy is under “foreign” occupation in both the era of his characters and in Manzoni’s own lifetime. Manzoni’s time and the lives of Renzo and Lucia are linked. Manzoni wrote his book in the early 1800s, two hundred years later, so we see a more distant past from a time that is already history for us. Yet achieving this happy and unexceptional outcome turns out to be far from easy in Lombardy of the 1600s in which the historical novel is set. The novel’s main characters, Renzo and Lucia are in love and they are to be married. It is readily available as a physical, ebook or audiobook (see below) and several movie and serial versions have been made. His novel, the Betrothed ( I Promessi Sposi) has been celebrated as a gem of Italian literature ever since its publication. Alessandro Manzoni is a talented story teller and a perceptive observer of character.
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