La Madre: The Woman and the Priest

Grazia Deledda

Jun 2021 · SCB Distributors

About this ebook

Grazia Deledda is one of the most important women writers of the twentieth century. Her depiction of the primitive and isolated communities of northern Sardinia in a perceptive, intense and individual style gained her the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1927. 'The interest in La Madre lies in the presentation of sheer instinctive life. The love of the priest for the woman is sheer instinctive passion, pure and undefiled by sentiment. The instinct of direct sex is so strong and so vivid, that only the bling instinct of mother obedience, the child instinct, can overcome it.' D. H. Lawrence ‘ Deledda’s talent for capturing the internal torment of her characters, and the inspired use of the dual perspective of Paul and his titular mother, saw her win the 1927 Nobel Literature Prize, and ensures the novella remains a compelling and refreshing read today.' Alex Payne in Buzz Magazine

About the author

Grazia Deledda was born in 1871 in Nuoro, Sardinia. The street has been renamed after her, via Grazia Deledda. She finished her formal education at 11. She published her first short story when she was 16 and her first novel, Stella D'Oriente in 1890 in a Sardinian newspaper when she was 19. Leaves Nuoro for the first time in 1899 and settles in Cagliari, the principal city of Sardinia where she meets the civil servant Palmiro Madesani who she marries in 1900 and they move to Rome. Grazia Deledda writes her best work between 1903-1920 and establishes an international reputation as a novelist.