"The great plague novel." --The New Yorker
Set in Lombardy during the Spanish occupation of the late 1620s, The
Betrothed tells the story of two young lovers, Renzo and Lucia,
prevented from marrying by the petty tyrant Don Rodrigo, who desires
Lucia for himself. Forced to flee, they are then cruelly separated, and
must face many dangers including plague, famine and imprisonment, and
confront a variety of strange characters--the mysterious Nun of Monza,
the fiery Father Cristoforo and the sinister Unnamed--in their struggle
to be reunited. A vigorous portrayal of enduring passion, The
Betrothed's exploration of love, power, and faith presents a whirling
panorama of seventeenth-century Italian life and is one of the greatest
European historical novels.
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