Giovanni Verga

Tullio Pagano (Dickinson College)
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Giovanni Verga was the most important Italian novelist of the second half of the nineteenth century and one of the masters of modern European literature. However, despite his contribution to the development of the novel, he is still relatively unknown to the English-speaking world.Italian critics generally associate Verga with

verismo

, a movement similar to French Naturalism, even though the Sicilian author always refused to be identified with any particular literary trend. In a letter to his friend and critic Felice Cameroni, written in 1878, Verga explains his poetics in a simple but convincing way: “Ho cercato sempre di essere vero, senza essere né realista, né idealista, né romantico, né altro, e se ho sbagliato, o non sono riuscito, mio danno, ma ne ho avuto sempre…

3458 words

Citation: Pagano, Tullio. "Giovanni Verga". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 February 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4535, accessed 19 March 2024.]

4535 Giovanni Verga 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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