Mastro Don Gesualdo (European Classics) - Softcover

On the face of things, Mastro Don Gesualdo is a success. Born a peasant but a man 'with an eye for everything going', he becomes one of the richest men in Sicily, marrying an aristocrat with his daughter destined, in time, to wed a duke. But Gesualdo falls foul of the rigid class structure of mid-19th century Sicily. His title Mastro Don, 'Worker Gentleman', is ironic in itself. Peasants and gentry alike resent his extraordinary success. And when the pattern of society is threatened by revolt, Gesualdo is the rebels' first target.

Giovanni Carmelo Verga was an Italian realist writer, best known for his depictions of life in his native Sicily, especially the short story "Cavalleria rusticana" and the novel I Malavoglia.

novelist, short-story writer, poet, and essayist, was born in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, England, on September 11, 1885. Though better known as a novelist, Lawrence's first-published works (in 1909) were poems, and his work has since had a significant influence on many poets on both sides of the Atlantic.