Life under an Italian Despotism!
LORENZO BENONI,
OR
PASSAGES IN THE LIFE OF AN ITALIAN.
One Vol., 12mo, Cloth—Price $1.00.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
"The author of `Lorenzo Benoni' is Giovanni Ruffini, a native of Genoa, who effected
his escape from his native country after the attempt at revolution in 1833. His book is,
in substance, an authentic account of real persons and incidents, though the writer has
chosen to adopt fictitious and fantastic designations for himself and his associates. Since
1833, Ruffini has resided chiefly (if not wholly) in England and France where his qualities,
we understand, have secured him respect and regard. In 1848, he was selected by
Charles Albert to fill the responsible situation of embassador to Paris, in which city he
had long been domesticated as a refugee. He ere long, however, relinquished that office,
and again withdrew into private life. He appears to have employed the time of his exile
in this country to such advantage as to have acquired a most uncommon mastery over
the English language. The present volume (we are informed on good authority) is exclusively
his own—and, if so, on the score of style alone it is a remarkable curiosity.
But its matter also is curious."
—
London Quarterly Review for July.
"A tale of sorrow that has lain long in a rich mind, like a ruin in a fertile country, and
is not the less gravely impressive for the grace and beauty of its coverings at the
same time the most determined novel-reader could desire no work more fascinating over
which to forget the flight of time. No sketch of foreign oppression has ever, we believe,
been submitted to the English public by a foreigner, equal or nearly equal to this
volume in literary merit. It is not unworthy to be ranked among contemporary works
whose season is the century in which their authors live."
—
London Examiner.
"The book should be as extensively read as `Uncle Tom's Cabin,' inasmuch as it
develops the existence of a state of slavery and degradation, worse even than that which
Mrs. Beecher Stowe has elucidated with so much pathos and feeling."
—
Bell's Weekly
Messenger.
"Few works of the season will be read with greater pleasure than this; there is a
great charm in the quiet, natural way in which the story is told."
—
London Atlas.
"The author's great forte is character-painting. This portraiture is accomplished
with remarkable skill, the traits both individual and national being marked with great
nicety without obtrusiveness."
—
London Spectator.
"Under the modest guise of the biography of an imaginary `Lorenzo Benoni,' we have
here, in fact, the memoir of a man whose name could not be pronounced in certain parts
of northern Italy without calling up tragic yet noble historical recollections . . . Its
merits, simply as a work of literary art, are of a very high order. The style is really
beautiful—easy, sprightly, graceful, and full of the happiest and most ingenious turns of
phrase and fancy."
—
North British Review.
"This has been not unjustly compared to `Gil Blas,' to which it is scarcely inferior in
spirited delineations of human character, and in the variety of events which it relates.
But as a description of actual occurrences illustrating the domestic and political condition
of Italy, at a period fraught with interest to all classes of readers, it far transcends
in importance any work of mere fiction."
—
Dublin Evening Mail.
