This week’s half-price eBook of the Week offer is the B1/B2-level (intermediate/upper-intermediate) ‘I promessi sposi‘, a title which inelegantly translates as ‘The Engagaged-to-be-Marrieds’.
We have a couple of love birds, a local bad guy, henchmen wielding swords, and – ironically, since we did this one as a mini-book-club in July 2020 – a looming pandemic…
The series of Mini-Book-Clubs that year happened in part because I was promoting our then-new Italian Literature series of ‘easy reader’ ebooks and in equal part because with our Italian school closed, I had little else to do.
Of the five or six full length texts I/we attempted, ‘I promessi sposi’ was the longest by far, and the only one I didn’t finish. I would have liked to, but the world started returning to normal and there were other priorities. Poi, at eight-hundred-plus pages long, well, while all Italians are supposed to read this classic novel at school, I’d bet that very few of them got much further than I did, which is a shame.
So rarely has the need for a SHORT, SIMPLIFIED, EBOOK version been greater (you can easily find the full-length original for free online, if you’re of a masochistic bent…) Better still, this week it’s HALF-PRICE!
N.b. If you’ve nothing better to do, it’s fun to read the commments I and my co-adventurers left in the mini-book-club. Scroll down to the bottom of that page to read them, in date order from oldest to newest.
And as regards our simplified version, the reviews give a good idea of what to expect (as does the free sample chapter linked to below…)
Said to be the most famous and widely-read Italian novel, Alessandro Manzoni’s romantic blockbuster, first published in 1827, is set in the early seventeenth century during the oppressive years of Spanish rule.
Renzo and Lucia are engaged to be wed, but the comely maiden has caught the eye of the local Spanish overlord, who sends a pair of heavies to intimidate the village priest into not performing the marriage. The couple have no choice but to flee their homes in the hope of finding safety…
- .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
- .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request at no extra charge – just add a note to the order form or email us
- 8 chapters to read and listen to
- Comprehension questions to check your understanding
- Italian/English glossary of ‘difficult’ terms for the level
- Suitable for students at intermediate level or above
- Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)
Remember, this week ‘I promessi sposi‘ is 50% discounted, so just £4.99 rather than the usual ‘easy reader’ ebook price of £9.99!
Buy ‘I promessi sposi‘ just £4.99! | Free Sample Chapter (.pdf) | Italian literature | World Literature | Catalog
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P.S.
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