The Betrothed is an Italian historical novel by Alessandro Manzoni, first published in 1827, in three volumes. It has been called the most famous and widely read novel in the Italian language.
Set in northern Italy in 1628, during the oppressive years of direct Spanish rule, it is seen as a veiled attack on the Austrian Empire, which controlled the region at the time the novel was written. It is also noted for the extraordinary description of the plague that struck Milan around 1630.
It deals with a variety of themes, from the cowardly, hypocritical nature of one prelate (the parish priest don Abbondio) and the heroic sainthood of other priests (the friar Padre Cristoforo, the cardinal Federico Borromeo), to the unwavering strength of love (the relationship between Renzo and Lucia, and their struggle to finally meet again and be married), and offers some keen insights into the meanderings of the human mind.
Manzoni hatched the basis for his novel in 1821 when he read a 1627 Italian edict that specified penalties for any priest who refused to perform a marriage when requested to do so. The first version, Fermo e Lucia, was written between 1821 and 1823. He then heavily revised it, finishing in August 1825; it was published on 15 June 1827, after two years of corrections.
Manzoni, still uncertain about the language of the novel, decided to "wash his clothes on the banks of the Arno" and republished it in the dialect of Florence in 1842.
