Ashes, Cenere: A Sardinian Story (1908)

Ashes, Cenere: A Sardinian Story is a novel written by Grazia Deledda and published in 1908. The story is set in a small village in Sardinia, Italy, and follows the life of a young woman named Marianna Sirca. Marianna is a beautiful and intelligent woman who is forced to marry an older man, Don Zame, in order to save her family from financial ruin. As Marianna struggles to adjust to her new life, she becomes increasingly unhappy and begins to long for the freedom she once had. She finds solace in her friendship with a young shepherd named Nanni, who shares her love of nature and poetry. However, their relationship is forbidden by the strict social norms of the village, and Marianna must choose between her duty to her husband and her own desires.The novel explores themes of love, duty, tradition, and the struggle for personal freedom. Through Marianna's story, Deledda paints a vivid picture of life in a rural Sardinian village at the turn of the 20th century. The book is considered a masterpiece of Italian literature and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1926, making Deledda the first Italian woman to receive the award.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.