The Betrothed / From the Italian of Alessandro Manzoni

An engaged couple have their marriage plans thwarted by a powerful local figure, forcing them apart and sending each into a series of hardships that reveal the social and moral landscape of their time. Their separate journeys pass through exile, deprivation, acts of charity, and encounters with self-serving officials and sincere clergy, while a larger epidemic and civic disorder heighten the stakes. The narrative combines close personal episodes with broader historical and moral digressions to examine providence, injustice, the abuse of power, and the endurance of ordinary people and communal bonds under extreme adversity.