Founder connections
- Brunello CucinelliRecommended for reading and rereadingIn the complete original Air Mail list, Cucinelli strongly praises The Betrothed and explicitly recommends reading and rereading it, including beyond its place in school examinations. His personal edition and extent of reading are unknown.Source
Summary
Alessandro Manzoni sets the story of Renzo and Lucia in Lombardy under Spanish occupation in the late 1620s. Don Rodrigo prevents their marriage because he wants Lucia for himself, forcing the lovers to flee and then face separation.
Their struggle to reunite passes through famine, imprisonment and plague, and through encounters with powerful, fearful and compassionate people. The novel places the couple’s private hopes within a wider account of love, faith and the use of power in seventeenth-century Italy.
Why read it Our view
For founders reading fiction to examine conduct and power, follow how the characters respond when force blocks an ordinary personal aim. Consider how the wider social crises change the choices available to the lovers and those around them.