The Saint

Fogazzaro, Antonio, 1842-1911Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.7

Word count: 674K words
Chapters: 68

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Saint by Antonio FogazzaroAuthor: Fogazzaro, Antonio, 1842-1911,Language: English, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Jul 1, 2005

Editor's review

Fogazzaro's The Saint is a novel centered on religion and questions of faith, unfolding around the tension between its characters' spiritual pursuits and their real circumstances. Its readability comes from the interweaving of psychological description and intellectual debate: the characters are not simple symbols of good and evil but repeatedly weigh faith, reason, and emotion. For Chinese readers, the book serves as an entry point to modern Italian fiction and the context of Catholic thought, and it offers a narrative rhythm different from that of British and American novels. While reading, note how the author handles the relationship between "saint" and "ordinary" and how religious experience is presented in everyday details. The English translation is relatively elegant with long sentences; slow down, proceed chapter by chapter, sort out character relationships and core debates after reading, then revisit key passages to grasp the thematic layers more clearly.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literary readers interested in religious themes and questions of faith
Readers who want to understand the tradition of modern Italian fiction
Readers who enjoy psychological description and debate-driven narrative
Learners with good English reading ability willing to read a long novel

Not a good fit for

Readers of popular fiction who prefer fast plots and strong conflict
Readers uninterested in religious issues who may find it dull
Beginners with little experience reading long English sentences

Reading tips

Clarify the main character relationships before reading chapters to avoid confusion from the large cast.
After each section, summarize the core debate in a few sentences to keep track of the intellectual thread.
Mark and skip long discursive passages at first, then return to them after finishing the plot.
Use reference materials on modern Italian history and Catholicism to understand the characters' faith situations.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is the book heavily religious?

Religion and faith are the core issues of the whole book, and the characters discuss spiritual pursuit and real choices. If you are not interested in religious themes, reading may be difficult; otherwise you can find nuanced psychological and intellectual layers.

Is the English translation difficult to read?

The translation is relatively elegant, with long sentences and dense discursive passages. Readers with some experience of long English novels will enter more easily; beginners should slow down and take character notes.

Is it suitable as an introduction to Italian literature?

It can serve as supplementary reading for understanding modern Italian fiction and the context of religious thought, but if you know nothing of the Italian literary tradition, start with shorter works with more concentrated narrative before this book.

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About the author

Fogazzaro, Antonio, 1842-1911 Author

Antonio Fogazzaro (1842-1911) was an Italian novelist and poet whose work spans novels, short stories and essays on art and literature. Five of his works are included here: the story collection Fedele ed altri racconti, the novels The Saint, The Patriot and Il mistero del poeta, and the lecture Il dolore nell'arte: discorso. These works show his concern with the conflict between faith and conscience, patriotic feeling and individual moral choice, and his delicate psychological portrayal of spiritual crisis, combining realistic detail with a lyrical temper. His writing holds a place in the transition of Italian literature from realism toward the modern psychological novel and influenced Italian readers in the early twentieth century. Because the available material is limited, details of his life and education cannot be given here; the sketch above rests on the themes and style of his works.