Reading 1001 discussion

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I Malavoglia (Italian pronunciation: [i malaˈvɔʎʎa]) is the best known novel by Giovanni Verga. It was first printed in 1881. An English edition, The House by the Medlar-Tree (1890), translated by Mary A. Craig, was published in the Continental Classics series.

Characters:

Padron House by the Medlar Tree, The’Ntoni Malavoglia (N-toh-nee mah-lah-VOHL-yee-ah), head of the once-prosperous family that lives by the medlar tree.

Bastianazzo (bah-stee-ahn-NAHZ-zoh), his son. His ambition to take black beans to Riposto to sell at a huge profit ruins the family when his boat, the Provvidenza, is wrecked.

La Longa, Bastianazzo’s wife, who distrusts Uncle Crucifix, the moneylender, but signs over to his assignee her rights to the house when he repeatedly demands payment for his loan on the lost beans. She dies of cholera.

’Ntoni, their oldest son, who returns from military service and becomes a smuggler. Caught, he is sentenced to the galleys for five years.

Luca (LEW-kah), their second son, who is conscripted and killed in battle.

Alessio (ah-LEHS-see-oh), their youngest son, who earns the money to regain his house by the medlar tree.

Mena (MEH-nah), their oldest daughter.

Lia (LEE-ah), their youngest daughter, loved by Don Michele.

Uncle Crucifix Dumbbell, a local usurer who takes over the house after his loan to buy beans is not repaid.

Goosefoot, his assistant. Uncle Crucifix pretends to assign his loan to Goosefoot, hoping collection will thus be easier.

Don Michele, commander of the coast guard, who is stabbed by Ntoni.

Alfio Mosca (ahl-FEE-oh MOHS-kah), a carter who loves Mena.

Very helpful! I'm a reader that has to hear the words, not just see them. Thanks! I haven't read much of this yet, but the tone is already oozing sadness. From the character sketches I can see why.

Questions for discussion.
1. This author is Sicilian and this novel is reported to have influenced the development of the novel. Do you think this is an accurate statement?

2. The author did not like to be considered a realism or a naturalist or any other literary term. Do you think his opinion was accurate or did he fall into one of these categories?

3. Supposedly the author was influenced by Flaubert and Zola? Do you see anything that would indicate this influence.

4. Did you find the novel to be a challenge to read or were you easily engaged?

5. This is a story of a family business, Have you read any other books that this book reminded you of?

6. Any favorite quotes or comments?

I completed it today. I listened to a copy from Hoopla and is translated by Mary Craig and narrated by Jeremy Louie. I do feel it is an example of realism and reminded me of Zola’s Germinal. It looks at life of Sicilian family that owned a boat and made their living but they lose everything even their home by the Medlar tree. I found it fairly easy to listen too. Not sure how it would have been to read the book. I do think it is helpful to have a character list. I had wondered how it would be similar to Thomas Mann’s book Buddenbrook which is also about a family disintegration but this one was more hopeful and the family had more positive characteristics.

Thanks for your preparation on this book. I am looking forward to reading it now.

Wondered why that tree was mentioned so often. Seems it's fruit has some connotations that are either vulgar or have to do with destitution per Wikipedia at least. Early on the financial situation is tenuous to say the least.

I was wondering that too but Realism and Naturalist don't use symbols much. They want to tell the story in as realistic/natural way as they can.

I put this all down but now it is not here. The Medlar tree berries are considered spoiled before they ripen. The tree can represent prostitution or destitution. More likely the latter. The tree also is one found in yards of garden cottages or stately homes.

Maybe it was more old common superstition in the culture. The family name has a meaning that carries the same sort of misfortune as well. Buddenbrook? Have to finish this one first.

I also listened to the audiobook version available on Hoopla and found the character list very helpful. I found it to be an easy enough story to listen to, but it did not always fully hold my attention and I sometimes went back to listen to a chapter again when I realized I had missed part of what was happening.

I can see the comparison to the Zola's Germinal and also the family saga of Buddenbrooks. The story also reminded me somewhat of American Dust Bowl stories and the struggles of small family farms trying to keep paying a mortgage through bad years and natural disasters.

Daisey wrote: "I also listened to the audiobook version available on Hoopla and found the character list very helpful. I found it to be an easy enough story to listen to, but it did not always fully hold my atten..."

Good point Daisey comparing to small family farms.

1. This author is Sicilian and this novel is reported to have influenced the development of the novel. Do you think this is an accurate statement?

Stylistically, the book was unique in its adherence to local detail with a narrator who was telling the story from the point of view someone who lived there. If the characters went away, we did not travel with them although we might hear of them. The dialogues between the characters are charged with an emotional intensity without straying from what fisherman, or apothecaries or bartenders would say and most of our understanding of the characters is through this interaction. The narrator largely tells us what the characters are doing rather than what they are thinking...they may be trembling and cold or moaning and mumbling but we do not often hear an internal dialogue about why they may be trembling and cold. All of that is given to us through the events and interactions. There was a way in which this caused the flow of the novel to be very chopped and terse.
I can not comment on how this may have influenced others although I read that it influenced other Italian authors.
Verga was writing about the same time as Zola.

2. The author did not like to be considered a realism or a naturalist or any other literary term. Do you think his opinion was accurate or did he fall into one of these categories?

Other reviews have characterized him as a realist. Categories can help readers understand an approach but it can also set up expectations or limitations on how something is read. I can imagine that most authors would prefer not to be categorized unless they developed the label themselves.

3. Supposedly the author was influenced by Flaubert and Zola? Do you see anything that would indicate this influence.
The plot is certainly one of the middle and lower classes and their dependencies and interactions in a small town. This would not generally speaking be a setting for most novels up to this point. The fishermen struggle in their attempts to better their material situation. We are given relatively little background in terms of politics (Napoleonic wars?) other than some of our characters believe in revolution and others are conscripted to fight. The reader comes to see that it is not just the political and economic situation that keeps our cast of characters down, although that certainly contributes, but the author also gives us the impression that life itself is largely a struggle and death is a constant presence.

4. Did you find the novel to be a challenge to read or were you easily engaged?
I found it challenging largely due to not being clear at various points as to who was who and who they hated and who they were supposed to marry. The primary characters I got clearly but the secondary were more difficult. There were times when I learned that so and so had been "tricked" and I had to go back to see exactly how and by whom they were tricked.

5. This is a story of a family business, Have you read any other books that this book reminded you of?

As other have mentioned, I recently read Buddenbrooks and have read Zola and there are Russian novels that depict the struggles on farms before the revolution.

6. Any favorite quotes or comments? (Spoiler alert)
I was very sad that Mena and Cousin Alfio did not marry. It wasn't exactly a romantic novel but I did want those two to come together when they were finally able to.
Also, Lia's fate and the cause of the stroke to Padron 'Ntoni both were prompted by an allegation in court but other woman in the novel were chasing men and were not branded. I understood what happened to Lia and the Padron from a plot point of view but it didn't completely make sense to me.

I really enjoyed The House by the Medlar Tree and would probably never have come across it if not for the 1001 list so hooray for that.

It is also one of the most miserable books I have ever read. I had a break half way through! Apart from the tone, I got slightly lost with the names even though my edition had a list of characters.

Zola is mentioned in the question and I can see a similarity. Especially as this book was supposed to be the start of a series which the author was unable to complete, which was to have each novel focused on a different social class.

I agree with Gail that it would have been nice for Mena and Alfio to marry. I am not sure if they would have if Lia had not run off, and was just subject to allegations in court. As Gail points out other women were chasing men but were not branded. Maybe the raising of the issue in court made it "official" and not just gossip. I feel so sorry for the women in particular in this family as there is not a happy ending for any of them. 'Ntoni at least by his excessive honesty (ie asking his daughter-in-law to give up her dowry rights) and being responsible for the original debt, at least had some responsibility for his actions. He also heard that the house had been bought back before he died.

This type of close-knit village life sounds like utter Hell.

1. I can understand that the style of writing would have been considered innovative because the speech was in Sicilian dialect and there was little authorial input. I have to take others' opinions on this, of course. Verga was writing at the same time as Henry James, but his novel seems to have been quite neglected by English speakers, so I am unsure how influential he was. It is interesting that D.H.Lawrence rated him highly and translated this book into English.
2. I can understand why he disliked being categorised, but it WAS a realistic portrayal of life and people in a remote fishing village, constrained by limited access to the world beyond the village.
3. I think the lack of authorial comment would make Flaubert seem intrusive by comparison! The depiction of poor people struggling to better themselves does remind me of Germinal and Nana, which are the only Zola I have yet read.
4. I found this a real challenge. Although I was interested in the lives of the fisherfolk, I found the cast of characters, nearly all of them with nicknames, really confusing, and I was constantly referring to the cast of characters which made my reading disjointed.
5. It reminded me of Germinal, and in the theme of older generations being disappointed by their progeny, Turgenev's Fathers and Sons.
I did find the spouting of sometimes irrelevant proverbs quite amusing. With Gail and Karen, I did so hope that Mela and Alfio would get together, although none of the married couples seemed to have much joy in their relationships! I think Karen's remark about close-knit village life absolutely spot on!

1. This author is Sicilian and this novel is reported to have influenced the development of the novel. Do you think this is an accurate statement?

I read somewhere that Verga is seen as a pioneer of contemporary or modern Italian literature. This novel is written in the realist style, echoing the movement led by Zola in French, and has also in turn influenced other artistic streams, like cinema (neorealism e.g. Visconti) and theatre (e.g. Pirandello).

2. The author did not like to be considered a realism or a naturalist or any other literary term. Do you think his opinion was accurate or did he fall into one of these categories?
Unfortunately for Verga, he has to live with these labels, as the novel clearly espouses the realist/naturalist genres: very little authorial involvement; "authentic" depiction of the characters, their behaviour and their language (e.g. the Sicilian dialects, the proverbs).

3. Supposedly the author was influenced by Flaubert and Zola? Do you see anything that would indicate this influence.

I think my previous answers kind of cover that.

4. Did you find the novel to be a challenge to read or were you easily engaged?

In normal circumstances, I would have enjoyed this novel more than I did. What took away my enjoyment is the impact of the translation. I read a French translation of the novel and, considering it had to deal with Sicilian dialect and colloqualisms, it was not that bad; however, through its limitations, it confirmed what I initially thought about this novel: that it was best read and best appreicated in its original language. The other challenge was to track and follow the high number of characters involved in such a short novel; it almost felt like Verga wanted to cram the whole of the Rougon-Macquart within 300 pages!

5. This is a story of a family business, Have you read any other books that this book reminded you of?

Pick any of the Rougon-Macquart novels by Zola and you will find the same family degeneracy. The Sound and the Fury is another one I can think of. On a more aristocratic level, The Foryste Saga by Galsworthy.

6. Any favorite quotes or comments?

I'm surprised that nobody so far picked up on the fact that Malavoglia means bad faith in Italian; in fact, a lot of the characters' names and nicknames contain some symbolism, sometimes providing a clue to their ultimate fate in the novel.

I finished this book over the weekend, I liked it but was not a favorite.

1. This author is Sicilian and this novel is reported to have influenced the development of the novel. Do you think this is an accurate statement?

I suppose the dialogue contributed to the development of the novel, although it was hard to invest in any particular character.

2. The author did not like to be considered a realism or a naturalist or any other literary term. Do you think his opinion was accurate or did he fall into one of these categories?

I am curious as to why he did not want to fall into a category, I would select realist given the close attention to detail of the village and its surrounding areas.

3. Supposedly the author was influenced by Flaubert and Zola? Do you see anything that would indicate this influence.

I don't notice any influence in particular.

4. Did you find the novel to be a challenge to read or were you easily engaged?

This was a challenge for me as I did not find the characters to be that compelling.

5. This is a story of a family business, Have you read any other books that this book reminded you of?

I agree with the Turgenev Fathers and Sons comparison.

6. Any favorite quotes or comments?

Well, I read this book weeks ago but productivity has been…bad lol, so here’s my thoughts with just 3 grace days left.

1. This author is Sicilian and this novel is reported to have influenced the development of the novel. Do you think this is an accurate statement?

I think this book was a good example of realism, even if the author rejected that categorization, although I’m not sure how much innovation of the form this book involves. I didn’t know that D.H Lawrence was such a huge fan and a translator (thanks for tidbit Pip!) but I can definitely see the interest and kind of romanticizing of the working class that appears in some of his work and personal letters.

2. The author did not like to be considered a realism or a naturalist or any other literary term. Do you think his opinion was accurate or did he fall into one of these categories?

Like stated above, I think the comparison to intentionally realist literature is valid. There is a clear stylistic difference- I found- between this book and the more arch style or melodramatic plotting of the more dramatic and epic books of the 19th century and before.


3. Supposedly the author was influenced by Flaubert and Zola? Do you see anything that would indicate this influence.

….and to extend the answer for questions 2 Zola seems like an obvious influence for me. More realist style, working class family life and struggles. I guess I can see the Flaubert influence in moreso the plot arena. I remember Madame Bovary being in this more arch classic style but it has been years since I read it.

4. Did you find the novel to be a challenge to read or were you easily engaged?

It was a little bit of a challenge in the beginning getting to know everyone and distinguish them, but I found the writing style and plot very accessible. I did quite enjoy reading this one.

5. This is a story of a family business, Have you read any other books that this book reminded you of?

Buddenbrooks came to mind for sure (already mentioned by Daisey). Although, while I liked both books and they were trying to get across different angles, I did find the family in this book more sympathetic (as I’m pretty sure they are expected to be), which I why I felt like the relatively happier ending to this book was warranted and satisfying.

6. Any favorite quotes or comments?

I did like the cheeky naming in this book- I did miss the Malavoglia bit that Patrick pointed out. Also that Bastianazzo’s name implies he is tall when he isn’t. Also Uncle Crucifix sounds like a great Christian rapper name lol.