UNDER THE SHADOW
OF ETNA

"UNDER THE SHADOW OF ETNA."

UNDER THE SHADOW
OF ETNA

SICILIAN STORIES FROM THE ITALIAN OF

GIOVANNI VERGA

BY

NATHAN HASKELL DOLE

ILLUSTRATED

BOSTON
JOSEPH KNIGHT COMPANY
1896

Copyright, 1895,
By Joseph Knight Company.

Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co.
Boston, U.S.A.

CONTENTS.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

INTRODUCTION.

Giovanni Verga was born at Catania, inSicily, in 1840. His youth was spent inFlorence and Milan. He afterwards livedin Catania again, where he had an opportunityof studying those types of the Sicilianpeasantry which he introduces so effectively,and with such dramatic suggestion, into manyof his stories and sketches. After experiencinggrievous family losses he returned toMilan, where he now resides.

In "L'Amante di Gramigna" Verga gives,in the form of a letter to his friend, the novelist,S. Farina, a sort of brief exposition of hisliterary Creed. Much of the drama is leftto the imagination of the reader, who seesthrough the lines the action hinted at in aword or a phrase.