Revolt in Aspromonte

By Corrado Alvaro

This short but powerful novel of peasant life in Calabria is recognized by Italians as one of the classics of their modern literature. Alvaro, who died in 1956, is frequently compared to Verga, and Revolt in Aspromonte is as moving, as touchingly human as Verga's Under the Medlar Tree . Revolt in Aspromonte is the story of the shepherd Argiro and his family--of their struggle for survival, and some shred of dignity, against the degrading oppression of the feudal family which controls their village. In his despair, Argiro believes that if only he can educate his youngest son, Benedetto, to be a priest he will achieve status and revenge on those who have wronged him. To this end, he sacrifices himself and the gentle older brother, Antonello.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811200027
• ISBN13: 9780811200028
• Release Date: December 1988
• Publisher: New Directions
• Length: 120 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.1" x 0.5" x 4.2"

Customer Reviews

Injustice in Italy

Corrado Alvaro was born in Calabria (one of the provinces of the Italian south) in 1895, was an infantry officer in WWI, a journalist and writer of novels, poems, short stories and travel books. He died in 1956. His novel, GENTE IN ASPROMONTE, published in 1932, was translated by Frances Frenaye and published as REVOLT IN ASPROMONTE by New Directions Press in 1962. Alvaro was one of a generation of Italian writers who attempted to explain modern Italy, few of whom are known in the U.S. Modern Italian literature is ignored in America. There is a prejudice against things Italian with the U.S. media and in the education system. The prejudice isolates persons of Italian descent from a true perspective of the country of their heritage. Italy is thus viewed in a nostalgic haze. The assimilated Italian community in America, now in its fourth and fifth generation, assumes that Italy was a place of sweetness and light, a conflicted by noble nation. That Southern Italy, in particular, was a poor but picturesque region suffused with warmth and "amore." The reality is much different. That community has not considered the historical fact that twenty-six million Italians emigrated from Italy in the one hundred years from approximately 1860 to 1960. Most of them were from the South. This is more by far than emigrated from any other country. There has never been an organized revolt in Southern Italy. The title of the book, thus, translating "GENTE" (people) of Italian to "REVOLT" in English is disingenuous; it makes an active case out of something that was intended by its author to be passive. I assume it was done to appease an Anglo readership, as indicative of hope. There was no hope in Italy. The peasants were severely suppressed. There have instead been muddled insurrections led by illiterate bandits. Rather, the Italians of the "Mezzogiorno," when they got the chance, revolted with their feet, and abandoned their region. This is a condemnation of Italy. The truth is that Italy was and remains the most violent, corrupt and unjust country in Europe. There are no people who understand injustice as thoroughly as do Italians. It is an integral but despicable part of their heritage. Southern Italians, most especially, have lived with the curse of injustice, spawned by violence, corruption and inherited privilege, for millennia. Some of them, and as they appear in those books of the mafia gangster cult in America, have internalized such pathology, and perpetuate it in the New World. (That literary cult, by the way, which deals in glamorous fantasy and disgraceful stereotyping, is contemptible.) There is an old proverb from the south of Italy that clarifies the issue: "He who has money and friends ***** justice in the ***." This is rough but pertinent to the discussion. Alvaro comprehended the societal pathology endemic to Italy. His novel is a study of injustice as it works its tragic way through a region, a village