Giovanni Verga

Giovanni Verga, Italian writer, born in 1840 in Aci Castello near Catania, died in Catania in 1922. He was one of the main representatives of Verism, an important Italian literary movement in the 19th century. The writer first became known for his novellas. One of which served as a model for the opera Cavalleria rusticana by Pietro Mascagni. Verga’s most famous novel I Malavoglia is devoted to the hardscrabble life of fishermen on the east coast of Sicily. In 1948, Italian director Luchino Visconti filmed it under the title La terra trema (The Earth Quakes), using only amateur actors. The house where the author was born is now a literary museum: a visit to the Casa Museo Giovanni Verga in Catania is worthwhile because the museum houses the poet’s extensive private library and copies of his manuscripts. The originals are in the University Library of Catania.