House by the Medlar Tree     by Giovanni Verga, Translated by R Rosenthal Original title: I Malavoglia Original language: Italian Published by University of California Press Pub. Date: 1983 Format: Textbook Binding Dimensions: (in inches): 0.72 x 8.23 x 5.50 ISBN: 0520048504 List Price: $18.95, £13.95 Buy online from Amazon.co.uk for £13.95 Buy online from Amazon.com for $18.95 Published by Dedalus, Sawtry Pub. Place: UK Format: Paperback, 250 pages List Price: £7.99 Not available for ordering Published by Greenwood Pub. Place: UK Format: Hardcover Not available for ordering Published by California U P Pub. Date: 1984 Pub. Place: UK Format: Hardcover List Price: £30.00 Not available for ordering Published by California U P Pub. Date: 1984 Pub. Place: UK Format: Paperback List Price: £10.50 Not available for ordering Published by California U P Pub. Date: 1984 Pub. Place: USA Format: Paperback Not available for ordering Published by California U P Pub. Date: 1984 Pub. Place: USA Format: Hardcover Not available for ordering

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First published in 1881, this bitter novel is the first part of a narrative cycle intended to foreground the life of the humble, the disinherited, the perennially defeated. The painful story of the Malavoglias, a fishing family, unwinds against the backdrop of a Sicilian village, Aci-Trezza. An honest, hardworking family who live under the authority of Old ‘Ntoni, the Malavoglias are ruined by the ambitious yearnings of the grandson, Young ‘Ntoni. A failed investment and the subsequent loss of their only material wealth — their boat Provvidenza — plunge them into a chain of mishaps, on top of which come debts they cannot honour. Their economic ruin unleashes a moral decline on the part of Young ‘Ntoni, who refuses to bow to the fate that his namesake has always accepted. Incapable of joining in with the family’s resigned passivity, the young man slides into a dissolute and idle lifestyle and after a wild binge ends up in prison, dragging everyone into dishonour with him. This seals the family’s descent into the underworld. Only the youngest, Alessi, manages to climb out and rebuild his life.

Verga’s pessimistic vision focuses on an existence ruled by the iron laws of seemingly inescapable poverty and a social oppressiveness that lends its burdensome tone to the whole novel. The world of the Malavoglias is a small one and its damnation lies in its relationship with the larger world that towers over it and suffocates it, represented by the higher social spheres; the law and the state.

‘Padron Cipolla personally knew why it never rained now as it used to do. «It never rains nowadays because they’ve put up that dratted telegraph wire, which attracts all the rain and draws it away... it did this because there was a sort of juice inside the wire like the sap in a vine tendril, and in the same way it drew water from the clouds and carried it away, to where it was needed more... and that was why they had passed a law saying that anyone breaking a telegraph wire should go to prison.»’ p38