Ashes
Jan 2004 · Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press
eBook
222
Pages
reportRatings and reviews aren’t verified Learn more
About this eBook
Jan Kozma's English translation of Grazia Deledda's Ashes (Cenere, 1904) represents a rendering of the novel that embodies the Nobel Prize-winning author's mature style. Ashes is the story of Oli, a Sardinian unwed mother who is forced by poverty to abandon her only child. Raised by his genetic father, Ananias eventually attains social acceptability in the legal prefession yet cannot give up his obsessive search for his mother. When Oli realizes that public knowledge of her life in prostitution will jeopardize her son's impending marriage and professional success, she makes the ultimate maternal sacrifice to ensure his future. Deledda's novel explores the themes of filial duty, hypocritical societal expectations, the ravages of poverty, and maternal devotion. The author interweaves into the novel leitmotivs of Sardinian folklore, health issues, banditry, illegitimacy, prostitution, and the social mores of the late nineteenth century with all the attendant public opprobrium. When Henrik Schuck introduced Grazia Deledda to the Stockholm audience at the Nobel Prize ceremonies in 1926, he made a special point of mentioning that she had brought to the attention of the world certain rive
About the author
Among the most honored women writers of modern Italy, Deledda wrote naturalistic or realistic novels, drawing upon her Sardinian background for material. Some critics hold, however, that in Deledda's formula often only the names of places and people serve to evoke a Sardinian atmosphere of strangeness. Her best works especially Elias Portolu (1903), Cenere (1904), and The Mother (1920) contain excellent portrayals of women. While her characters are complex, often dominated by an overwhelming sense of destiny and by nature's mythic powers, her narrative structures remain simple and classic. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926.
Rate this eBook
Tell us what you think.
Reading information
Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Centre instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.
