Verga, Giovanni

Verga, Giovanni
(1840–1922)
   The greatest exponent of verismo (naturalism) in Italian literature, Giovanni Verga’s exceptional powers of realistic description have led to comparisons with such writers as Emile Zola and D. H. Lawrence. Verga was born in Catania, Sicily, but spent much of his life in Florenceand Milan. Between 1866 and 1881, Verga produced several novels and plays, but with I Malavoglia (The House of the Medlar Tree, 1881) he established himself as a writer of international repute. I Malavoglia is the story of a family of Sicilian fishermen who tempt fate by foolishly speculating on a cargo of lupins. This act of vainglory is the harbinger of a series of disasters that lead the family into misery and dishonor. Verga’s theme, in short, is the pessimistic one of determinism: the inability of human beings to escape the circumstances of their birth. The book inspired Luchino Visconti’s classic neorealist film La terra trema (The Earth Trembles, 1948).
   In 1886, Verga published a second novel with a similarly fatalistic theme, Mastro Don Gesualdo, which is the story of a man who is determined to acquire possessions at all costs. He succeeds, but at the end of the novel, despite his daughter’s brilliant marriage, he dies without the family love and affection, which, Verga seems to imply, alone give meaning to life. In the mid-1890s, Verga returned to Catania and worked half-heartedly at a third book, this time set in high society, portraying “the defeated,” but never finished it. Nominated to the Senate in 1920, he died in his ancestral home in Catania in 1922.

Historical Dictionary of Modern Italy. . 2007.

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  • Verga, Giovanni — born Sept. 2, 1840, Catania, Sicily died Jan. 27, 1922, Catania Italian writer, the most important of the verismo (realist) school of novelists. Born to a family of landowners, Verga left Sicily for the mainland, where he remained until 1893.… …   Universalium

  • Verga, Giovanni — ► (1840 1922) Novelista y autor dramático italiano. Describe la vida del pueblo siciliano. Autor de Caballería rusticana. * * * (2 sep. 1840, Catania, Sicilia–27 ene. 1922, Catania, Italia). Escritor italiano, el más importante novelista en la… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Verga, Giovanni — (Catania 1840 1922) scrittore, maestro del verismo collab./opere: “La Lettura”, “La Nuova Antologia” …   Dizionario biografico elementare del Novecento letterario italiano

  • Giovanni Verga — Giovanni Carmelo Verga (Catania, 2 de septiembre 1840 – Catania, 27 de enero 1922) fue un escritor italiano, considerado el mayor exponente de la corriente literaria verista. Giovanni Carmelo Verga …   Wikipedia Español

  • Verga — Giovanni Verga Giovanni Verga (* 2. September 1840 in Catania (Sizilien); † 27. Januar 1922 ebenda) war ein italienischer Schriftsteller und einer der Hauptvertreter des Verismus, des italienischen Naturalismus …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Giovanni Verga — (* 2. September 1840 in Catania (Sizilien); † 27. Januar 1922 ebenda) war ein italienischer Schriftsteller und einer der Hauptvertreter des Verismus, des italienischen Naturalismus. Inhaltsverzeichnis …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Verga — (izg. vȇrga), Giovanni (1840 1922) DEFINICIJA talijanski književnik verizma; uvodi motive seljačkog života, patrijarhata, elementarnih emocija, osjećaja časti i tradicije iz kojih gradi sadržaje djela; prikazao cijelu galeriju narodskih likova sa …   Hrvatski jezični portal

  • Verga — Verga, Giovanni, ital. Dichter, geb. 1840 zu Catania in Sizilien, machte sich zuerst durch einige Romane bekannt, die von scharfer Beobachtung zeugten und durch künstlerisch besonnene Ausführung befriedigten, zum Teil aber auch an die Vorbilder… …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Verga — Verga, Giovanni ital. Dichter, geb. 1840 in Catania (Sizilien), Hauptvertreter des Verismus in Italien; schrieb die Romane und Novellen »Eros« (deutsch 1898), »Tigre reale« (deutsch 1897), »Malavoglia«, »Novelle rusticana« (deutsch 1895),… …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

  • Verga — (Giovanni) (1840 1922) romancier italien; le princ. représentant du vérisme: les Malavoglia (1881), Maître Don Gesualdo (1889) …   Encyclopédie Universelle

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