Mastro-Don Gesualdo

Mastro-don Gesualdo by Giovanni Verga is a masterpiece of Italian verismo, offering a poignant exploration of ambition, social mobility, and personal tragedy in 19th-century Sicily. As the second novel in Verga’s ambitious cycle, I vinti ("The Doomed"), it examines humanity’s relentless pursuit of material success and the profound costs it exacts. Gesualdo Motta, a self-made man of humble origins, rises through sheer determination to become a wealthy landowner and marries into the local aristocracy. However, his newfound status isolates him from both his working-class roots and the aristocracy he strives to join. The marriage, driven by ambition rather than love, fails to bring him personal happiness or lasting legacy, as his wealth ultimately returns to the very social class he sought to surpass.

Verga’s verismo style captures the intricate social dynamics of Sicilian life with unflinching realism, blending the voices of its characters with the narrator’s restrained perspective. Gesualdo’s relentless drive for wealth and power, while initially triumphant, leads to alienation and tragedy, reflecting the novel’s broader fatalistic critique of social mobility and human ambition. Through its vivid portrayal of class struggles and the emotional toll of relentless aspiration, Mastro-don Gesualdo offers a timeless reflection on the tension between individual desires and the rigid structures of society. Verga’s meticulous attention to language and social nuance ensures the novel remains a landmark of European literary realism.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1979.