Novel
Elias Portolu
Grazia Deledda · 1903
Opening lines
Giorni lieti s’avvicinavano per la famiglia Portolu, di Nuoro. Agli ultimi di aprile doveva ritornare il figlio Elias, che scontava una condanna in un penitenziario del continente; poi doveva sposarsi Pietro, il maggiore dei tre giovani Portolu.
Happy days were drawing near for the Portolu family of Nuoro. At the end of April their son Elias was to come home, having served a sentence in a penitentiary on the mainland; then Pietro, the eldest of the three young Portolus, was to be married.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from it.wikisource.org
Synopsis
Elias Portolu returns to his village in Sardinia after serving a prison sentence on the mainland, and tries to take up his place among his own people again. He then falls in love with Maddalena, his brother Pietro's fiancée, and she shares the passion. The years pass, and the forbidden love grows between them, while Elias struggles between his desire, the respect owed to his brother and the morality of his community.
Context
The novel first appeared as a serial in the review “Nuova Antologia”, then in volume form in Turin, from Roux e Viarengo, in 1903. It was, according to the Nobel Foundation, the author's first real success, and the book was soon translated into several European languages. In French, Georges Hérelle first translated it under the title “Élias Portolu”, then Léa Fazer in 2019; in English, Martha King translated it under the title “Elias Portolu”.
Who it is for
A novel of passion and conscience, in which the life of a Sardinian village weighs on every choice the characters make.
Prizes and reception
According to Cambourakis, the publisher, the novel is regarded as its author's masterpiece.
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