Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi

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Having a book by Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi (1804-1873) at home meant being arrested. Yet his novels, animated by patriotic Risorgimento tension and pessimistic spirit, experienced an enormous success among the people.

Guerrazzi was born in 1804, in old Livorno, while in the city the epidemic of yellow fever was spreading, his birth was not well received by his parents and this helped to forge his sad, lonely, vindictive, brawler character. He studied with the Barnabites but did not love school, considering it bleak, he quarrelled with his father and fled from home. He was involved in fights with Jews and expelled from university

Throughout his existence, he went back and forth from prison, again for political reasons, underwent trials, convictions and confinement. Fervent Mazzinian, affiliated with Giovane Italia, and ardent republican, he had a large part in the uprisings of 48, even becoming dictator for fifteen days, during the Tuscan revolution. He was imprisoned in the Forte della Stella together with Carlo Bini, with whom he founded the Indicatore Livornese, then suppressed by the regime. Theorist of the revolution, but also rather realistic in politics, he always saw his aspirations disregarded, developing a growing bitterness and disillusionment. Only the education of his grandchildren distracted him, in part, from his commitment.

In addition to active politics, he also dedicated himself to writing, always seen as a vehicle for Risorgimento and civil ideas. He met Byron and his poetics, especially that of the beginning, and was influenced by it.

His most famous texts are The Siege of Florence,  Beatrice Cenc" and The Battle of Benevento, it can be said that the historical Risorgimento novel was born with him.

"In his exuberant and violent fantasy", explains Cappuccio, "in his taste for the grim, the macabre, the horrendous, in the same ways as the convulsive and emphatic expression, more perhaps than in any of the other Italian writers of the 'Nineteenth century, are reflected certain extreme aspects of European romanticism, from Byron to Victor Hugo ".

But his novels really sold despite the very high price. They passed from hand to hand. People enjoyed them for their ideals but also for sensationalism, despite what Sapegno calls "turgid tribunal oratory". Carducci was also an admirer of Guerrazzi, who defended the Italian linguistic tradition, was of classicist orientation and did not even disdain humorous traits. Success faded in the second half of the nineteenth century, with the emergence of positivism.

Guerrazzi lived his last years at the "Cinquantina", a farm near Cecina, where he took care of his grandchildren until his death in 1873.