Rosso Malpelo

The She-Wolf and Other Stories

The View from Vesuvius

This book shows that the Southern Question is far from just an Italian issue, for its origins are deeply connected to the formation of European cultural identity between the mid-eighteenth and late-nineteenth centuries."--Jacket.

Figuring Women

"The fact that Verga's most rebellious heroines die violently at the hands of men has led to accusations of misogyny or, at the very least, of excessive social and artistic conventionality. Yet it is precisely Verga's awareness of convention that enriches his portrayal of women. The reaction of his female characters to social custom at a particular moment in their lives defines them as individuals. With rare insight, Verga depicts the female experience as both personal and universal, showing that different kinds of women are linked by the experience of being female in a male-centered culture. At the same time, however, he reveals the isolation in which women grow and live, separated from men and other women by social and cultural barriers."--BOOK JACKET.