Giovanni Verga

Giovanni Verga (1840–1922) was one of Italy’s leading nineteenth-century novelists, particularly famous for his novels Mastro don Gesualdo and I Malavoglia, and his short story collection, Vita dei campi. Born in Catania, Sicily, he lived much of his adult life on the mainland in Florence for a few years and in Milan for two decades. 

He was the leading figure in the Italian realist movement called verismo, and was eventually made a Senator for Life in the Kingdom of Italy, though he wasn’t that interested and never went to take his seat in parliament. Apart from a brief service in Garibaldi’s National Guard, he devoted his entire life to literature and was a prolific writer.

His works are still to be found in almost all Italian bookshops and I Malavoglia is currently a set text in secondary schools.