Sansevero I - Quartet Encounters Author:Andrea Giovene Sansevero is a monumental novel in five parts, published here in two volumes. The first comprises the first three parts, the second the remaining two. In this edition the final part appears in English for the first time. — The novel is narrated by Giuliano Sansevero himself, the younger son of a Neapolitan ducal family. The era of the great arist... more »ocratic families has passed and the Sansevero family, besides having lost its role in society, has lost its fortune: Giuliano is destined to revive the family finances. He is unable to shore up the ruins of his dynasty and leaves in order to discover more of the world. He goes to Milan, Ferrara (where he is stationed while serving in a cavalry regiment), Rome and Paris. In the third part he attempts to find the peace he has sought in a remote village in Calabria. Here life continues as it has done for centuries, but the twentieth centruy is pressing in: the villagers want a road to connect them to civilization, and Mussolini has come to power in Italy. The first volume ends with Giuliano's departure from this idyllic life. The second volume opens and war has come. Having found that he cannot retreat from the world, Giuliano rejoins the army. When the Republic of Salo is established, he refuses to serve under the German command and is taken as a prisoner of war to Germany, where he witnesses the destruction of the Reich. The novel describes modern European experience but, as Paul Scott has observed, 'the book's drive is inward to an elusive centre of private martyrdom'. The final part sees Italy rise from its ashes and Giuliano resume his search, travelling within Italy and to England, then returning to accept his fate in Sicily.« less