F. Marion Crawford (1854–1909)

Ouida considered this Crawford's best book as of 1900, when she wrote of it. Marzio's conflicted, ornery character is presented well, the others adequately, except the two women who are empty stereotypes. There are several effective conversations among different people which explore the relationship between the Church and the ordinary man, the Church representing wealth and arrogance in Marzio's mind, and the source of his general aggrievement regarding his social position in Rome. He is a respected silversmith, an acknowledged master, yet he feels unappreciated. Commissions for silver chalices and ewers and other religious paraphernalia are the primary source of his income, and he is not a poor man. Yet he chafes and grumbles at the power of the priests, which include his own brother, and in private is given to bombastic explosions of resentment and envy.
Crawford develops this well. A conversation between a bishop and Paolo, Marzio's priest brother, is rendered with subtlety and nuance, and presents Crawford's own opinion that wealth and ecclesiastical authority justify the inequality in society, which would necessarily fall to chaos (i.e. socialism) without the Church's strong hand. The common man, he says, is not competent to conduct his own affairs. His treatment of Marzio's work, of his sensual and reverential relationship with the beautiful objects he creates, with the tools, the smells of wax and metal and dust, is sympathetic and accurate; accurate at least according to my own experience of 30 years in a cabinet shop. Crawford is clearly respectful of the skill and artistry involved in trade work, yet the worker's mentality will not be found up to the mark in general practice, and it is the Church and its guardrails of discipline and devotion that successfully guide men's behavior.… (lisätietoja)

Sant' Ilario is the second installment of a tetralogy written by F. Marion Crawford, an American writer who lived in 19th century Italy and who was a convert to Catholicism. His tales of the noble Roman family, the Saricinesca, take place during the era of the Risorgimento and in this second volume our protagonists are participants in or witnesses to an insurrection launched by Garibaldi's redshirted revolutionists aimed at overthrowing the temporal power of the Pope and uniting the Papal States with the kingdom of Victor Emmanuel.

Our hero, Giovanni Saricinesca, having married his great love, Corona d'Astradente in the first book of the series has been elevated to the title of Sant' Ilario by his father the Prince Saracinesca and his marriage has been blessed by a healthy baby boy, Orsino. Their prospects for lasting happiness seem excellent, but troubles lie ahead.

Giovanni's cousin of the same name has turned up in Rome as a wealthy entrepreneur having invested a large sum of money won in a lottery in various enterprises. He has shed his previous occupation as the proprietor of a country inn, and along the way his wife, the mother of his two sons, has fallen ill and passed away. He relocates to Rome and calls upon the Prince to claim the recognition due him by birth and he is awarded the title Marchese di San Giacinto.

We are introduced to another aristocratic family, the Montevarchi. The Prince of this ancient house is distinguished mainly for his avarice and his miserliness. He has an English wife, Guendolina, and two grown daughters, Flavia and Faustina. Flavia is high spirited and not terribly respectful of her parents; Faustina is a younger, more virtuous and beautiful younger daughter who has been befriended by Corona. As a result of a "traffic" accident Faustina is introduced to the painter Gouache, a Frenchman, who has decided to enlist in the papal cause and who has enlisted in the Zouaves. Gouache and Faustina fall head over heels in love with each other. Meanwhile San Giacinto has determined to marry into one of the ancient noble families of Rome and has fallen in love with the elder daughter, Flavia.

These romances form the point of departure for multiple planned and accidental events that threaten to bring about the downfall of the Prince Saracinesca, his son and grandson as well as the collapse of the marriage of Giovanni and Corona due to a chain of events that indicate a betrayal of their love for each other.

Crawford is a first-rate storyteller and a master of the psychology at work behind the virtues of love, fidelity and greatness of soul on the one hand and ambition, greed, jealousy and overweening pride on the other. Sant' Ilario is a wonderful read, worthy of its predecessor and a promising incentive to take up the third volume in the series.… (lisätietoja)

F. Marion Crawford was an American writer born in Italy in 1854, who converted to Roman Catholicism in 1880. He was a prolific novelist and is said to have outsold, in his prime, his friend Henry James. And if that isn't enough to recommend Crawford, the introduction to this edition by Stephen Schmalhofer reports that undergraduates at Notre Dame in the 1920s "devoured his novels, ranking them alongside the works of two other Catholic converts, John Henry Newman and Robert Hugh Benson.

Saracinesca is the first book in a tetralogy that is succeeded by Sant' Ilario, Don Orsino and Corleone, yes Godfather, Corleone. Saracinesca is an Italian noun that in the 19th century was defined according to Schmalhofer as a "grand portcullis, a latticed metal grille, lowered over the opening of a gate. In Crawford's novel Saracinesca is the surname of our eponymous protagonist, Giovanni Saracinesca. The main thread of the plot consists of his love for the lovely and virtuous Corona d'Astrardante, the most beautiful woman in Rome. Unfortunately for the two leads in the story, Corona was married off as a teenager by her impecunious father to an elderly roue, the wealthy Duc d'Astradante.

In the meantime, Giovanni's father is urging a marriage between his son and the recently widowed and wealthy Donna Tullia Mayer. Donna Tullia has a yen for Giovanni that is not reciprocated by the younger Saracinesca. However, the antagonist in our passion play, one Ugo del Ferice lusts after her beauty and fortune, though, he lacks both a fortune in his own right and a noble lineage to recommend his suit. Ugo is an opportunist, a schemer, a liberal who earns an income on the side by spying on his friends and acquaintances. He also harbors a hatred for Giovanni, his superior in every way.

Given the above you would be forgiven if you concluded that this was a 19th century Gothic romance and not much more. However, there is a sub-plot involving the contest between the liberalism of the Italian unification movement and the Papacy of Pius IX and his closest advisor Cardinal Antonelli who are determined to preserve the temporal power of the church over the area that constituted the Papal States whose capital was of course Rome.

The Saracinescas, whose family has historically been on the side of the secular power in their centuries' long rivalry with the Church, do not hesitate to leverage Antonelli's power in their struggle against the snares and plots unleashed against them by del Ferice.

Without giving away any more of the story than outlined above, I can say that I was fully engaged in this beautifully written novel and will continue to follow the fortunes of the contestants through the rest of the four-volume tale.… (lisätietoja)

A doll is broken when her young owner falls down the stairs holding her. Taken to a doll hospital, she is lovingly repaired by a man who sees her as almost a living creature. He finally asks his young daughter to return her to her rightful owner, but then his daughter doesn’t return home. He is in great despair and anguish, and then, he sees the ghostly figure of the doll. It’s quite a chilling tale, gripping and intriguing, and the end may surprise and sadden you a bit. Masterfully written, it holds up quite well even by today’s standards.… (lisätietoja)