Biography

Giovanni Carmelo Verga (1840–1922) was an Italian realist (verista) writer, best known for his depictions of life in his native Sicily, especially the short story (and later play) Cavalleria rusticana and the novel often considered his masterpiece, I Malavoglia (The House by the Medlar Tree). Starting with historical and patriotic novels, Verga went on to write novels in which psychological observation was combined with romantic elements, as in Eva (1873), Tigre reale (1873; “Royal Tigress”), and Eros (1875). These sentimental works were later referred to by Verga as novels “of elegance and adultery.” Eventually he developed the powers that ...Read More