On the face of things, Mastro-Don Gesualdo is a success. Born a peasant but a man 'with an eye for everything going' , he becomes one of the
richest men in Sicily, marrying an aristocrat with his daughter destined, in time, to wed a duke.
But Gesualdo falls foul of the rigid class structure in mid - 19th - century Sicily...His title
'Mastro-Don', 'Worker-Gentleman',
, is ironic in
itself. Peasants and gentry alike resent his extraordinary success. And when the pattern of society is threatened by revolt, Gesualdo is the rebels' first target...
Published in 1888, Verga's classic was first introduced to this country in 1925 by
D. H. Lawrence in his own superb translation.
Although broad in scope, with a large cast and covering over twenty years, Mastro-Don Gesualdo is exact and concentrated: it cuts from set-piece to set-piece - from feast-day to funeral to sun-white stubble field - anticipating the narrative techniques of the cinema.