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Notes Introduction: The Historical Novel and the Dialectics of Genre 1. Throughout the text I have provided translations for titles and passages quoted in languages other than English. I used published translations when they were available, sometimes slightly altering them for accuracy. Page numbers are included in the text: the first page number refers to the work in the original language and the second to the published English translation (see bibliography for references). In all other instances, the translations are mine. English translations to the longer quotations are located in the appendix, keyed by number. In all quotations, emphasis is as in the original. 2. In Georg Lukacs's words, "Ifliterature is a particular form by means of which objective reality is reflected, then it becomes of crucial importance for it to grasp that reality as it truly is, and not merely to confine itself to reproducing whatever manifests itself immediately and on the surface. If a writer strives to represent reality as it truly is, i.e. if he is an authentic realist, then the question of totality plays a decisive role" ("Realism in the Balance" 33). 3. The years that immediately preceded and followed the definitive edition of I promessi sposi were the golden age ofItalian historical fiction. S. Agrati's Storia di Clarice Visconti, duchessa di Milano (Story ofClarice Visconti, Duchess of Milan, 1817) and Ambrogio Levati's I viaggi di Francesco Petrarca in Francia, in Germania ed in Italia (Francis Petrarch's Travels in France, Germany and Italy, 1820) may be counted among the precursors of historical fiction. In 1823, Davide Bertolotti wrote La calata degli Ungheri in Italia nel Novecento (The Hungarian Invasion of Italy in the Tenth Century). Vincenzo Lancetti's Cabrino Fondulo appeared in 1827 with Giambattista Bazzoni's Ii castello di Trezzo (The Castle of Trezzo) and Angelica Palli's Alessio 0 gli ultimi giorni di Psara (Alessio, or The Last Days ofPsara). In 1829, Giovanni Rosini published La monaca di Monza: storia del secolo XVII (The Nun ofMonza: A Story ofthe XVII Century) followed by Luisa Strozzi (1833) and Il conte Ugolino della Gherardesca e i Ghibellini di Pisa (Count Ugolino della Gherardesca and the Ghibellines ofPisa, 1843). Defendente Sacchi published I Lambertazzi e i Geremei, cronaca di un trovatore (The Lambertazzi and the Geremei, A Troubadour's Chronicle, 1830) and Teodote 0 storia del secolo VIII (Teodote, or A Story of the VIII Century, 1832). Carlo Varese's Sibilla Odaleta appeared in 1827 and I Torriani e i Visconti in 1839; Giovanni Campiglio set his novels Lafiglia d'un ghibellino (A Ghibelline's Daughter, 1830) and Lodovico il Moro (1837) in the Milanese Quattrocento, while Ii conte di Lavagna (The Count of Lavagna, 1832) is set in sixteenth-century Genoa. Massimo D'Azeglio published Ettore Fieramosca ossia la disfida di Barletta (Ettore 215 Notes to Page 2 Fieramosca, or The Challenge ofBarletta) in 1833 and Tommaso Grossi's I Lombardi alla prima crociata (The Lombards at the First Crusade) and Marco Visconti appeared, respectively, in 1826 and 1834. Niccol0 Tommaseo published Il duca d'Atene (The Duke ofAthens) in Paris in 1837. The year 1838 saw the publication of Cesare Cantu's Margherita Pusterla. Lorenzo Ercoliani's I Valvassori bresciani 0 i feudatari del secolo XI (The Vavasours ofBrescia, or The Feudatories ofthe XI Century ) and Leutelmonte were published, respectively, in 1842 and 1844. Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi wrote, among others, La battaglia di Benevento (The Battle ofBenevento) in 1827, L'assedio di Firenze (The Siege ofFlorence) in 1836, La duchessa di San Giuliano (The Duchess ofSan Giuliano, later entitled Veronica Cybo) in 1837, Isabella Orsini in 1844, and Beatrice Cenci in 1853. Giuseppe Rovani's Cento anni (One Hundred Years) was published in installments in the Gazzetta di Milano between 1857 and 1864 (Romagnoli 7-87 and Morawski 20). 4. Apart from classical and neoclassical genre theories such as those by Aristotle, Horace, Boileau, and Hugh Blair (Wellek and Warren 227-32), the most influential normative philosophy of genre is probably Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's, who, in the Westostlicher Divan, made the famous distinction between "Dichtarten" and "Naturformen der Dichtung." Theformer include heterogeneous genres such as the elegy, the sonnet, the ballad, and the ode. The latter identifies the epic, lyric, and dramatic forms as the three universal genres that are present, alone or in combination, in each and every poetic composition. More recently, Mario Fubini recalled Goethe's distinction, arguing that genres are based on certain "stylistic traditions...