The Betrothed - A Book Review
A Historical Novel about Two Young Lovers During a Time of Plague
My interest in Alessandro Manzoni’s book The Betrothed came from it being mentioned several times by several different dissidents during the COVID Pandemic — our own time of plague. Only the very last section of the book describes the events and reactions of the people of Milan, Italy and the various smaller, surrounding villages during the Great Plague of Milan. During that time, a new strain of plague bacterium brought to Italy by German troops during the Thirty Years War wrecked havoc on the city of Milan and Northern and Central Italy. It is estimated that the plague caused some 280,000 deaths or roughly 35% of the population.
The novel is set in the late 1620s in Lombardy, Italy during the Spanish occupation. The Spanish Habsburgs ruled Spain and a good portion of Italy from 1516 to 1700. The Habsburg family is more well known for its rule over the Holy Roman Empire, but, due to marriage, they ruled over Spain during the “Age of Expansion” and the height of the Spanish Empire. This epoch was full of newly discovered lands and some of the world’s most outstanding writers and painters. It led to the Spanish Golden Age of arts. Miguel de Cervantes published Don Quixote, and painters like Diego Velázquez and El Greco were active in this era.
The central events of the story are centered around a love triangle between two passionately enamored lovers who desire to marry, but are prevented by the bravoe, Don Rodrigo. Don Rodrigo is a wealthy man who controls the area in which Renzo and Lucia — the two lovers — live. He desires the woman Lucia for himself and sends his ruffians to threaten the town’s curate, or parish priest, with the goal of preventing the marriage.
The threats are successful, and Renzo and Lucia are forced to resort to trickery in an attempt to have the priest marry them so they can gain the protection of the marriage. Once the two lovers are married, Don Rodrigo would be unable to force the girl’s hand and would suffer his own consequences with the church and the Spanish overlords were he to interfere with the marriage. Unfortunately, the priest detects the trick and in the meantime Don Rodrigo’s ruffians had invaded Lucia’s house. The two lovers cannot return home, and so they flee to a monastery for protection.
The monk — Father Cristoforo — is a central character in the novel. He serves as a foundation of spiritual guidance to both of the lovers throughout the novel and has his own scandalous past. His immediate purpose, however, is to provide protection for both Renzo and Lucia, but by necessity, he must split them up. Lucia is to go a nearby convent, and Renzo to Milan. The two lovers resign themselves to a future where they are no longer lovers and must forget each other.
This causes Renzo to fall into legal trouble by participating in a mob in famine stricken Milan where he is arrested. Lucia is sent to a convent. The Abbess, who was forced into Nunnery by her family, doesn’t like being a Nun and conspires with Don Rodrigo and her own secret lover — a bravoe for one of the worst barons of that time, the Innominato (the “Unnamed”) — to abduct Lucia and transport her back to the clutches of Don Rodrigo where he can marry her.
The plot is successful and Lucia is captured. She makes a vow to the Virgin Mary that if she is saved from her predicament, she will renounce Renzo and maintain perpetual virginity. Her vow works, and in some of the most poignant passages of the book, the Innominato has an epiphany — his Saul on the road to Damascus moment — where he renounces his past, tells his men that his reign of terror is over, and takes Lucia under his protection and back to her native land. Maybe his transformation is his accumulated guilt finally overwhelming him, and maybe it is the effect a good woman can have on changing a man. Nonetheless, his conversion is a major turning point in the novel.
Then the bubonic plague hits. People lose their minds. Everything we witnessed during the COVID Pandemic happens to the villages and cities surrounding Milan, only it is worse: large amounts of people are dying, the monatti — men who have recovered from the plague — are tasked with doing the brunt work of carrying and disposing the dead bodies. They are greatly feared. Several of them take advantage of the situation to plunder, and rumors spread that they are often responsible for the spread of the plague, and oftentimes do it on purpose.
One thing that stood out to me in this section was the unquestioned concept of natural immunity. Once someone recovered from the plague, they no longer feared it, and had no problem working in the lazarettos where people sick with plague were sent, working as a monatti, or going about their business as usual. In our own time of plague, many of us forgot the concept of natural immunity, but the idea remains a fact, both against strains of viruses and bacterium.
Another thing that stood out was when we find Father Cristoforo working in one of the lazarettos to bring spiritual comfort and whatever physical respite he can to the dying. We learn his selfless actions are also selfish. He has not recovered from the plague and is still at risk of catching it. He hopes to catch the plague and die from it in order to pay penance for his scandalous past that led to him becoming a monk. His contradictions force all of the characters to reconsider the nature of love, forgiveness, and our relationships to each other.
The author, Manzoni, also has an interesting connection to classical music. Upon his death in 1833, his funeral was celebrated in Milan with pomp and circumstance that would border a royal funeral. His remains lay in state for several days and a vast procession of royalty and officers of the state accompanied him to his final resting place in the cemetery Cimitero Monumentale. Music was written by the composer Giuseppe Verdi to honor his memory in a Requiem.
One may not know that composer, nor his Requiem, but nonetheless, you have heard movements from it. The Dies Irae movement from it has been prominently featured in several instances of popular culture.
Often used to add a sense of foreboding and dread, it has been featured in movies like Star Wars, The Lion King, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Lord of the Rings, Jurassic Park, 300, and again in the Disney Movie Frozen 2. It was played by the New York Metropolitan Opera in 2021 to mark the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and that is just a sampling of films and usages for it and not at all an exhaustive list.
We have all celebrated the life of Alessandro Manzoni whether we knew about it or not. I will remember him for what is probably the most understated and interesting ending to a novel that I have ever read. Without any spoilers, I can quote it directly below, and end my review with his words as well:
If the story has given you any pleasure, think kindly of the man who wrote it, and also try to find a little kindness for the man who has rearranged it for you.
But if on the other hand we have succeeded in boring you, please believe that we did not do so on purpose.
— Alessandro Manzoni, The Betrothed
Plagues in Milan during this era are notorious. Someone who shares your first name -- Charles Borromeo -- famously ministered to plague victims in 1576-78: https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-charles-borromeo/