The Siege of Rome

Guerrazzi, Francesco Domenico, 1804-1873Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.3

Word count: 1.5M words
Chapters: 152

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.Lo assedio di Roma by Francesco Domenico GuerrazziAuthor: Guerrazzi, Francesco Domenico, 1804-1873,Language: Italian, Class: DG: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Italy, Vatican City, Malta, Release Date: Dec 9, 2006

Editor's review

Lo assedio di Roma is a historical work by the Italian writer Guerrazzi, built around the crisis of Rome under siege and marked by patriotic fervor and a romanticized style of historical narrative. Guerrazzi was a man of letters in nineteenth-century Italy during the Risorgimento, and his writing often turns historical events into a stage for moral and national feeling; the book's value therefore lies not only in plot but in how it takes part, through literature, in the political imagination of its time. Readers will find ample impassioned speeches, contrasts between loyalty and betrayal, and a method that binds the fate of the city tightly to individual choices. This edition is a public-domain eBook in Italian, useful as a sample of the tradition of the Italian historical novel and of Risorgimento discourse. It is best read within the broader arc of nineteenth-century Italian national narrative, noting how the author selects details and heightens emotion rather than treating it as a modern work of history to verify facts. It is long; proceed chapter by chapter and keep brief notes.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers with Italian reading ability and an interest in historical fiction
Students and enthusiasts studying literary expressions of the Italian Risorgimento
Readers interested in the history of Rome and siege narratives
Readers who wish to understand nineteenth-century Italian literary political writing

Not a good fit for

Readers unfamiliar with Italian who need a Chinese translation
Historical readers expecting modern scholarly verification or neutral narration
Readers who prefer a concise, restrained style and dislike long lyrical passages

Reading tips

Read the preface or learn the basic background of the siege before entering the text.
Read chapter by chapter and briefly note each character's stance to avoid being swayed by emotional narration.
Note the author's rhetorical choices and consider how history is turned into national narrative.
Read alongside historical works on the same subject, distinguishing literary embellishment from fact.

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 this book in the original Italian, and what language level is suitable?

Yes, this is an Italian public-domain text released by Project Gutenberg. Nineteenth-century literary Italian differs from modern Italian, with long sentences and dense rhetoric, so good Italian reading ability is recommended; beginners can proceed with a dictionary or a parallel translation.

Is the historical narrative reliable, and can it be used as a historical source?

It should not be used as a modern historical work. Guerrazzi's writing carries strong patriotic emotion and a romanticizing tendency, aiming to shape moral and national narrative rather than neutral verification. For historical study, compare it with other historical works and distinguish literary embellishment from fact.

Can I read it without knowing about the Italian Risorgimento?

You can, but understanding will suffer. The author's concerns are closely tied to the national movement of the time; knowing the basic outline of the Risorgimento and Rome's place in it will help you grasp the book's emotions and stances and more easily see the traces of literary shaping.

Comments

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About the author

Guerrazzi, Francesco Domenico, 1804-1873 Author

Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi (1804–1873) was a nineteenth-century Italian writer, of whom twenty-seven works are held in this collection. Public information is limited, and the details of his life are difficult to establish with certainty, yet the titles available show a considerable range. He wrote works drawn from historical figures and family fortunes, such as Beatrice Cenci: A History of the Sixteenth Century, Veronica Cybo, and Isabella Orsini, Duchess of Bracciano, as well as novels including The New Tartuffes, Destiny: A Novel, and The Dying Century, and biographical writing such as The Life of Francesco Burlamacchi. His subjects generally centre on historical events, social ethics, and human fate, and his narrative bears the mark of the nineteenth-century Italian historical novel, often using the past to reflect on morality and the changes of the world. In this collection his works are grouped under inspirational and personal growth; they are not widely known in Chinese, and these titles offer readers a glimpse of his writing.