Subject
French fiction -- Translations into Italian Books
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Honoré de Balzac
La pace domestica; L'elisir di lunga vita; La borsa: Racconti scelti
"La pace domestica; L'elisir di lunga vita; La borsa: Racconti scelti" by Honoré de Balzac is a collection of selected short stories written in the late 19th century. The book explores the complex relationships and societal dynamics of its characters, delving into themes of love, ambition, and morality within the backdrop of early 19th century France, primarily during the Napoleonic era. The characters, including the elegant countess de Soulanges and the ambitious baron Marziale, find themselves entangled in romantic intrigues and societal expectations. The opening of the collection sets the stage for "La pace domestica," where the reader is introduced to a vibrant ballroom scene during the height of Napoleon's rule. Descriptions of opulence and social maneuvering highlight the fervor of the time, as various characters navigate their desires amidst themes of rivalry and attraction. Central to this narrative is the interaction of a mysterious young woman and powerful male figures who vie for her attention, hinting at the tension between societal norms and personal desires. Through lively dialogue and keen observations, Balzac illustrates the intricacies of human relationships, foreshadowing the conflicts and emotional turmoil that will unfold throughout the story.
Alexandre Dumas
Memorie di Emma Lyonna, vol. 1/8
"Memorie di Emma Lyonna, vol. 1/8" by Alexandre Dumas is a historical novel written in the mid-19th century. It fictionalizes the confessions and rise-and-fall of Emma Lyon (Lady Hamilton), shifting from poverty and beauty to influence and remorse. Framed as a priest discovering her deathbed memoir, the story foregrounds Emma’s voice amid admirals, queens, and scandal. It will appeal to readers who enjoy intimate portraits of famous figures and the perilous currents of ambition. The opening of the narrative sets a wintry scene in northern France, where a priest is led to a seaside hut to console a dying Englishwoman attended by her daughter. Surrounded by the contrasting signs of luxury and want—including portraits of a decorated one-eyed naval hero and a radiant young woman—the invalid begs for divine mercy, reveals herself as Lady Hamilton, and gives the priest a key to her manuscript, “My Life.” He returns with the sacraments, baptizes her, and she dies peacefully; the text then shifts to her memoir. Emma recalls a childhood of hardship in Wales, tending sheep with her dog Black, a brief lift into a girls’ school through a patron’s gift, and the shame of being cast out when he dies. As a nursery governess in a rigid Puritan household, she discovers the sea and meets the painter Romney and the worldly Arabella, who both dangle London’s promise—money for posing and a companion’s post. Torn between warnings and desire, encouraged by her bold friend Amy and a lad named Dick, Emma resolves to flee: she writes farewell letters and, at midnight, slips toward the garden gate to begin her escape.
Alexandre Dumas
Memorie di Emma Lyonna, vol. 3/8
"Memorie di Emma Lyonna, vol. 3/8" by Alexandre Dumas is a historical novel written in the mid-19th century. It presents a first-person, novelized memoir of Emma Hamilton as she moves through Rome and Naples, observing clerical power, courtly intrigue, and high society. The focus rests on Emma and Sir William Hamilton, with vivid cameos of Pius VI, Cardinal Ruffo, and the flamboyant Lord Bristol, blending travel narrative, salon life, and scandal. The likely arc is the making of Emma’s public persona within the volatile Italian world just before great European upheavals. The opening of the volume follows Emma’s journey to Rome, where she portrays Pope Pius VI’s self-regard, circles of gossip around the Braschi and Rezzonico families, and the rigid, fearful etiquette of Roman salons. She attends a disputation that the Pope abruptly quits, meets the witty cardinal de Bernis, and relays sharp anecdotes: the melting of Spanish coin for papal profit, a notorious inheritance case, and the fevered adoration of the castrato Veluti backstage. A street robbery leads to a papally sanctioned act of self-defense; then the narrative shifts into travel scenes along the Appian Way and across the Pontine Marshes, where Monsignor Ruffo appears doing a humane deed, before arrival in Naples. There Emma introduces the eccentric Lord Bristol as her “cavalier servente,” sketches the local diplomatic cast (the indolent Portuguese envoy, the forthright Austrian ambassador, and a Tuscan gossip-monger), contrasts doctors Cotugno and Gatti, and opens onto Neapolitan court politics around Queen Maria Carolina, Acton, and King Ferdinand.
Alexandre Dumas
Memorie di Emma Lyonna, vol. 6/8
"Memorie di Emma Lyonna, vol. 6/8" by Alexandre Dumas is a historical novel written in the mid-19th century. Told as the first-person recollections of Emma, Lady Hamilton, it immerses readers in the political and emotional dramas surrounding the court of Naples during the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon. The narrative centers on Emma’s entanglements with Queen Maria Carolina, Sir William Hamilton, and Admiral Horatio Nelson amid war and diplomacy. Expect an intimate, highly partisan view of sweeping European events filtered through a bold, self-aware heroine. The opening of the work charts a rapid survey of French Republican victories after Robespierre, Bonaparte’s meteoric ascent and triumphs in Italy, and the mounting alarm at Naples that spurs fierce royalist proclamations, clerical mobilization, and repression. A detailed account of General Duphot’s killing in Rome—relayed via Joseph Bonaparte’s report—triggers French intervention, the proclamation of the Roman Republic, and Pope Pius VI’s departure. The focus then shifts to the sea: Nelson’s pursuit of the French fleet, his anxious letters to Emma, his covert resupply at Syracuse made possible through her influence, and the crushing victory at the Nile that sends Naples into raptures and showers Nelson with honors. It closes with preparations for his triumphal reception and Emma’s frank admission that the queen is enlisting her personal sway over Nelson for reasons of state, signaling how private passion will intersect with high politics.
Alexandre Dumas
Memorie di Emma Lyonna, vol. 8/8
"Memorie di Emma Lyonna, vol. 8/8" by Alexandre Dumas is a historical novel written in the mid-19th century. Cast as the first-person memoir of Emma Hamilton, it traces her intimate entanglement with Admiral Horatio Nelson and the Bourbon court of Naples amid war, diplomacy, and scandal at the dawn of the Napoleonic era. The focus is on power, loyalty, and reputation as Emma navigates sieges, royal favor, British command politics, and her fraught private life alongside Nelson. The opening of this volume places Emma on board with Nelson during the brutal reckoning that follows the fall of the Neapolitan Republic: Nelson breaks with Cardinal Ruffo over honoring capitulations, the king arrives in the bay, and prisoners are held despite Ruffo’s protests. Emma then humanizes the chaos by saving a condemned sailor tied to her childhood, even as executions continue ashore. The narrative shifts to Palermo—royal gratitude, Nelson’s birthday praise from Queen Carolina, and a violent anti-Turkish riot that Nelson contains—before widening to Bonaparte’s return, the reshuffling of British command (Lord Keith), and Nelson’s capture of a French ship off Malta amid orders meant to separate him from Emma. Court favors, snubs over orders and decorations, and travel with the queen through Livorno during the shock of Marengo lead to a hard overland flight (Firenze–Ancona–Trieste) and refuge with a Russian squadron, then Vienna’s salons (Esterházy, Haydn) and the queen’s successful appeal to Russia that yields a Franco-Neapolitan armistice with amnesty. The section closes with Emma’s northward journey, vivid vignettes in Hamburg (a centuries-old wine, a meeting with Dumouriez), a roaring English welcome, and a raw, revealing scene of jealousy as she edges Lady Nelson aside at the moment of Nelson’s homecoming.
Alexandre Dumas
Memorie di Emma Lyonna, vol. 4/8
"Memorie di Emma Lyonna, vol. 4/8" by Alexandre Dumas is a historical novel written in the mid-19th century. Told in the voice of Emma, Lady Hamilton, it traces her intimacy with Queen Maria Carolina of Naples and her entanglement in court intrigue as the French Revolution gathers force. The cast includes King Ferdinand, the minister Acton, and Prince Caramanico, as private passions collide with political maneuvering. Expect a blend of confession, seduction, and statecraft in the Neapolitan court. The opening of the narrative follows Emma’s summons to the royal apartments, where Queen Maria Carolina treats her with startling familiarity: they dress alike, share confidences, and the queen reveals a fervent, jealous attachment to Emma alongside memories of her true love, Prince Caramanico, and disdain for both husband and current favorite, Acton. Emma witnesses the queen’s secret cache of tokens and letters, then dazzles a select salon with performances—first a Sapphic hymn, then a haunting, mimed Ophelia—deepening the queen’s possessive affection. News of the Bastille’s fall intrudes, and the focus shifts to politics: Acton’s anti-French stance, freemasonic currents in Naples, and the growing revolutionary contagion. The queen coordinates with Vienna, plots dynastic marriages, and supports plans akin to the later Varennes flight, while Emma becomes her trusted confidante. After a Vienna–Rome journey, the queen returns buoyed by hopes of a coalition against France, and the court moves toward war preparations and tighter surveillance at home, even as King Ferdinand’s character is sketched as impulsive and unmartial.
Alexandre Dumas
Memorie di Emma Lyonna, vol. 5/8
"Memorie di Emma Lyonna, vol. 5/8" by Alexandre Dumas is a historical novel written in the mid-19th century. Told in the first person by Emma Lyonna (Lady Hamilton), it interweaves romance, politics, and war as she recounts her connection with Admiral Nelson and her entanglement in the Neapolitan court during the French Revolutionary upheavals. The story centers on Emma, Nelson, Queen Maria Carolina, King Ferdinand, and Sir William Hamilton, moving between royal favor, espionage, and crackdowns on revolutionaries. The opening of the book frames Emma’s fascination with Nelson, then swiftly recounts his rough, ambitious rise at sea and his triumphant reception in Naples. As news of the French Revolution darkens the court—especially after Marie Antoinette’s execution—Maria Carolina vows vengeance; reports arrive of Toulon’s fall, attributed to a young officer named Bonaparte, and Captain Caracciolo brings grim details. The king postures and evades responsibility, while the regime seizes church goods and bank funds, and a sacrilegious incident at the Carmine leads to the execution of a likely madman, inflaming tensions. Amid this, Nelson loses an eye at Calvi; a spectacular Vesuvian eruption strikes terror in Naples, and a mysterious stranger saves the queen and Emma from a runaway carriage. The section closes with the State Junta condemning three very young “Jacobins,” Emma pleading for mercy, and the queen quietly setting a plan in motion—arming Emma with a prison order and the address of a condemned youth’s father—just as Emma is sent out into the night to begin.
Alexandre Dumas
Memorie di Emma Lyonna, vol. 2/8
"Memorie di Emma Lyonna, vol. 2/8" by Alexandre Dumas is a fictionalized memoir written in the mid-19th century. It follows Emma Lyonna’s self-told ascent from humble beginnings into the glittering yet precarious world of London and Paris, driven by beauty, mimic talent, and romances with influential men. Early on, the narrative centers on her ties to the courteous naval officer Sir John Payne and the passionate aristocrat Harry Featherson, as she tests her power over hearts through poetry, theater, and charm. The opening of this memoir presents Emma’s candid confession of being Sir John Payne’s mistress, her life of luxury in Piccadilly, and her discovery of a compelling stage persona through Shakespeare—especially her spellbinding Ophelia and later the balcony and dawn scenes of Romeo and Juliet. A private performance brings Harry Featherson into her orbit; Emma recognizes in his voice the mysterious “Romeo” who once spoke to her unseen, and their chemistry is immediate. When Admiralty orders summon Sir John away, he magnanimously steps aside, and Emma and Harry become lovers. They plunge into a high-burnished life of salons, gambling, and Epsom races, culminating in an insult from Emma’s former schoolmates and a duel in which Harry wounds Lord Camberwell. Installed at Up-Park, they spend lavishly until creditors close in; Harry’s family forces him to India and to leave Emma, who receives only a farewell letter. Retreating to a modest cottage under an alias, she regains composure and resolves to return to London to reclaim what she can—arriving at the Piccadilly house just as she unexpectedly meets her old ally Amy Strong at the door.
Alexandre Dumas
Memorie di Emma Lyonna, vol. 7/8
"Memorie di Emma Lyonna, vol. 7/8" by Alexandre Dumas is a historical novel written in the mid-19th century. Told in the first person by Emma Hamilton, it dramatizes the Neapolitan court’s crisis during the revolutionary wars, intertwining state intrigue with her bond to Lord Nelson. The story centers on Queen Maria Carolina, King Ferdinand, Nelson, Sir William Hamilton, Cardinal Ruffo, and Admiral Caracciolo as monarchy, revolution, and counter-revolution collide. Expect a blend of intimate confession, political maneuvering, and sea-and-court drama. The opening of the book follows Emma as she helps the queen secretly prepare the royal family’s flight from Naples, while Nelson organizes covert boat lifts and even a rediscovered sea tunnel to move treasure. After a tense, chaotic escape to HMS Vanguard and Nelson’s harsh orders to deny ships to the enemy, deputations beg the king to return in vain, and a brutal storm at sea claims the life of young Prince Alberto in Emma’s arms before the party reaches Palermo. There, amid the prince’s funeral, Dumas contrasts the gravity of events with Ferdinand’s trivial passions for hunting and cards, including comic scenes with the fiery President Cardillo. A grand council empowers Cardinal Ruffo as vicario generale with sweeping authority, and he raises a Sanfedista force in Calabria while Emma’s life in Palermo mixes fêtes, gambling, and a near-scandalous masquerade with Nelson. Reports of Ruffo’s advance—along with royal letters endorsing severe reprisals—and news from Troubridge’s naval operations close this initial section.
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